Movie Review Violent Night

 

Violent Night in many respects is a film in which the overall concept offers more value than the final product. It's a brutal action/comedy film where we see jolly old Saint Nick himself put on hold his Christmas duties for a brief period to help a young girl and her family from a organised group of home invaders. I understand the idea of Santa having a more brutal interpretation isn't a new one as there's been films in the past which have rolled with this deviation of the beloved character to less than stellar results. Violent Night manages to tow the line in this regard I feel, offering a more flawed rendition played by David Harbour who has to delve into his more brutal history in order to stop these invaders. 

Directed by Tommy Wirkola and produced by 87North Productions the film features a cast of limited notable names with David Hsrbour and John Leguizamo being the main two bigger names within the film. The premise of the film follows Santa Clause on the eve of hanging up his duty of delivering presents for good. He's come to realise the world doesn't value the pure concept of Christmas anymore and he feels his efforts are wasted on a generation of constant consumerism. As he's delivering presents to a rich family he soon finds himself caught in the middle of a hostile home invasion in which he hast to take on a group of armed mercenaries in a less than jolly fashion before they kill him and the family before the nights end. 

As I said prior, the concept behind this films holds far more value compared to the end result. The films narrative is simple in it's concept and I can appreciate that as you don't typically need a complex drama for such a bizarre concept. My main issue with the story of this film is it doesn't really know how to deliver itself in a way that doesn't come off as cliché and poorly written. Character dialogue constantly comes off as generic and corny a lot of the time. Another issue I found with the film is it's central focus on the young girl Trudy who pairs off with Harbours Santa constantly throughout the movie. The writing for her is exceptionally poor and I cringed a lot of the time with just how uninspired her dialogue was. The comedy seems to be very hit or miss in this film too, with only a small number of jokes really capturing my attention enough to make me chuckle. The remaining 80% of the film however lacks much in the way of compelling gags or writing to make it worth the investment on that alone.

Depending on your range though, you may find more value out of the movies action sequences. My interest piqued when I saw 87North were the ones producing this film. This studio is quickly building a reputation for some excellent stand work and choreography in their action orientated movies. In Violent Night you see that reputation come to the forefront very easily within it's own action sequences. The premise of a graphically violent Santa beating the crap out of people who deserve it is well realised here. There's enough distinction and variety in these scenes to keep you well engrossed and the rapid flow to all of them really stands out as the films best aspect. It's just a shame that these action sequences are sprinkled out too far and wide within the films running time.

I don't hate Violent Night. There is some value here with David Harbour and John Leguizamo doing their very best to keep the film going on their performances alone. The fight scenes can give you a lot to appreciate too. I just feel for the price of movie ticket the cons far outweigh the pros here and this film doesn't justify you spending any actual money on it in the end. I'd definitely suggest to anyone wanting to go see it to at least hold off till it inevitably heads to streaming as it will feel far more at home on those type of movie platforms.