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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Movies with Tarek: ‘Violent Night’

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It’s the Christmas season, a time when movies at the theater are popular and fun for holiday cheer. It’s also a time when thriller and action films gain a lot of attention. I would define Violent Night as a comedy thriller with Santa Claus fun thrown in. It’s basically Bad Santa meets Die Hard, topped off with Home Alone.

In Violent Night, David Harbour plays Santa Claus. A wealthy family is together for Christmas and they are being held hostage by mercenaries, including a man, played by John Leguizamo, who refers to himself as Scrooge. In addition to delivering all the Christmas gifts, Santa has the additional task of trying to save the family, despite being drunk most of the time. So does Santa have what it takes to be a savior with also getting all the Christmas presents dropped off? The Christmas spirit is powerful, but is it enough for Santa Claus to save the family and Christmas?

There are lots of twists in this bonkers Christmas Eve adventure. As the tension and violence between Santa Claus and Scrooge increases, Santa needs his naughty and nice list to decide who to take down. It makes for a wild ride with Christmas magic, loaded machine guns, and lots of explosions.

Violent Night may focus on action and violence, but Harbour’s performance does bring holiday cheer in a fun, yet explosive way. The many twists and excitement of Violent Night will have audiences laughing out loud.

I have not had this much fun with a Christmas adventure in a long time. Harbour makes one heck of a Santa Clause. Violent Night is a grown-up Christmas comedy for adults. Be prepared for some Christmas fatalities that happen in magical and amusing ways. This is a film where the fun never ends. I found it to be creative and clever, with more twists than expected.

Three stars for Violent Night

Violent Night is now in theaters.

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Tarek Fayoumi
Tarek Fayoumihttp://movieswithtarek.com
Tarek Fayoumi is the creator and lead critic of movieswithtarek.com. He also contributes to Medium.com, is an approved critic of Bananameter, and a member of the Chicago Indie Critics (CIC) and Independent Film Critics of America.

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