Silent Night

 

         Spent a whole week getting sick with the flu and I was so, awful that I literally didn't feel like wanting to watch anything considering I was literally wanting to rush and get better before Christmas, and I don't know how you all try and get better but locking yourself as well as turning your space heater up to max is a nightmare. Anyway, I got my bearings back just in the nick of time to celebrate Christmas and I figured what better way to celebrate Christmas than watching an entertaining action film by John Woo, infamous for movies like Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2 as well as Paycheck. 

         On Christmas Eve, a man (Joel Kinnaman) witnesses the death of his young son when the boy gets caught in crossfire between waring gangs. Recovering from a wound that cost him his voice, he soon embarks on a bloody and grueling quest to punish those responsible.

         Around October of 2021, Silent Night was going to be directed by John Woo and staring Joel Kinnaman in the starring role. And if you don't know who Joel Kinnaman is, basically starred in the PG-13 version of Robocop where Michael Keaton wanted to give Robocop a black shade of armor, furthermore, starred in the lesser Suicide Squad as Colonel Flagg, as well as reprising his role in James Gunn's version. Now at the time I remember seeing a trailer to this movie, I'll admit I was intrigued with the concept of the idea basically making a silent movie but without the typical silent movie cliches from the Charlie Chaplin years. And even John Woo explained in his own words how the entire film is relying on no dialogue, for which gave the opportunity to rely on the visuals to tell the story as well. And the way he's able to accomplish that with the very limited budget, it was fun to watch moreover I thought this film from beginning to the very end was both great and I didn't need anything to understand the story when the actors were showing it for me. Now if you haven't seen a John Woo film, I truly believe you have no worries, you can enjoy this movie all the way through. That being said, if you've seen a John Woo film, you'll probably see many duster's whooshing and many dudes with guns and holding two guns at the same time, I mean this movie is all there and at first watching the first, like twenty or thirty minutes I figured "oh this is a new kind of Woo film" but then when you get to like act three, then you obviously see the many trademarks Woo does when making action movies, though on the plus side I didn't mind it at all because I was drawn into the story and the rampage Colonel Flagg goes on. In most Christmas films, there is a point where, at times I get mildly annoyed with popular Christmas movies that everyone loves, and I'll be sure to give you the many reasons why I hate Christmas Vacation and Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas". But when it comes to movies like Silent Night it's like a breath of fresh air where I can have a great time to watch something from beginning to end, and more importantly it doesn't over stay it's welcome in terms of the studios being money hungry and wanting to make a sequel to this movie and that's always a great plus to these, underappreciative action films. I would highly recommend watching this great film on Christmas break or Christmas Day, especially if you’re all by yourself and all alone. Moreover, if you find this at your local Walmart, I promise you this film will be worth your money.  Either way, if your tired watching the same Christmas movies or just had a bad Christmas dinner with your family, Silent Night would definitely give you the Christmas spirit of entertainment.