Movie Review: VIOLENT NIGHT...

Earlier today, I watched the action crime comedy Violent Night at AMC theaters.

While it's not as memorable as other dark Christmas comedies like 2003's Bad Santa or the 2015 holiday horror fantasy Krampus, Violent Night was nevertheless a fine guilty pleasure to watch on the big screen.

David Harbour—who went from playing Hellboy in 2019 to the Red Guardian in Marvel's 2021 film Black Widow—was perfectly cast as the former Viking-turned-Jolly Old Saint Nick himself, Santa Claus. What I especially liked about Violent Night's depiction of Santa was his magical gift bag; if he did exist (little kids obviously won't stumble upon this movie review, heh), then it would make sense that Santa would employ some type of supernatural ability to give every child around the world the perfect present [and then quickly exit the room via chimney teleportation (you read that correctly) afterwards] on a single night!

Not to be outshone by Harbour's Saint Nick is John Leguizamo as Scrooge...who in this film is a cunning mercenary bent on stealing $300 million from a hilariously dyfunctional family. Leguizamo did such a great job conveying Scrooge's hatred of Christmas that I was actually rooting for him to beat the crud out of Santa in the movie's climax!

(But the way that Santa wins the fight against Scrooge at the end was equally awesome!)

The supporting cast was commendable...with Jason (Alex Hassell, who amusingly reminded me of Thor director Taika Waititi every time he showed up on screen), Linda (Alexis Louder) and Trudy (Leah Brady...who had a very memorable scene in Violent Night where she laid out bloodier versions of the house traps set by Macaulay Culkin's Kevin in 1990's Home Alone) being the other protagonists who helped Santa take on Scrooge's gang.

I will also compliment Beverly D'Angelo (Gertrude), Edi Patterson (Alva), Cam Gigandet (Morgan Steel), André Eriksen (Gingerbread), Brendan Fletcher (Krampus), Mike Dopud (Commander Thorp), Alexander Elliot (Bert), Mitra Suri (Candy Cane), Phong Giang (Tinsel) and Stephanie Sy (Sugarplum) on their performances in this action crime comedy as well.

Though I'll end this review with one question: What happened to Sugarplum at the end of the movie? (Spoilers ahead) After she was able to open the vault in Gertrude's mansion, Sugarplum appeared in the living room with Scrooge and the rest of his goons one last time before she randomly disappeared before the climax.

Apparently, Sugarplum survived. Does this pave the way for Violent Night 2? Probably not.