I love Christmas. It's my favorite holiday. It's just a pleasant idea. I don't care about the religious part. I just enjoy the place it holds in pop culture. There's the general idea that people should be nice to each other. It's got snow before the part of the year when we're tired of the cold. The placement of Thanksgiving and New Year's around it makes it feel like the whole last month of the year is dedicated to Christmas. But, I'm not against a little railing against the idea of Christmas. Using the squeaky-clean image for some entertaining contrast.
That's what Violent Night is. Someone was sitting around one day thinking "I know Die Hard isn't really a Christmas movie*, so how can I make it undeniable? I know, I'll make Santa the hero!" That's how you get a story of a group of criminals taking a family hostage on Christmas night, just as Santa is delivering the presents there, and he gets stuck playing the hero. Of course, with an idea this silly, this is played mostly for laughs. That's the right move. This also makes David Harbour, patron saint of dad bods, a great choice to play old Saint Nick.
*Other people can define a Christmas movie how they want. My stance on what counts as a Christmas movie is if Christmas is why the movie exists. Die Hard was a summer release that only is set during Christmas since it was a good excuse to explain why the building would be empty. They do a fine job mixing the Christmas into the movie, but it just doesn't fit my personal - and likely not even bulletproof - definition.
It's best to think of this movie as sloppy with a few moments of genuine inspiration. That's all it's aspiring to be anyway. I don't know if the logic of how Santa works or of the plan to rob the matriarch (Beverly D'Angelo) of the wealthy Lightstone family really checks out. What I do know is that Santa kills a guy using a Christmas tree topper as a throwing star. It's a movie where Kris Kringle turns out to be a Viking who gives gifts to children to make up for all his bloodshed on the battlefield.
What can I say? I had fun. As long as you can laugh at some comic violence, Violent Night delivers. A few of the gags I've seen before - it's becoming a Christmas comedy staple to tie someone up with Christmas lights - but a few were new and clever.
Movie Theater LVP (Least Valuable Patron): It's been a while since I did one of these. I'm giving this award the family sitting further down my row who brought a baby and very young children to see this. I'll admit, the mother was impressively successful keeping the baby from crying. Normally it would be a single whine before she quieted it down. Still distracting though. I'm pretty sure this movie did spoil the idea of Santa for one of the small children though. At one point in the movie, a character explains that Santa is something parents made up, and I definitely heard a concerned gasp from the child. I know it's hard to get a babysitter, but no one needs to bring the whole family down for a 9:45 showing of Violent Night.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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