Silent Night (2023)

Silent Night

• This is the poor man’s ‘John Wick’. Not trying to knock John Woo or Joel Kinnaman, but this mostly felt like a random action movie just for kicks. Which I mean, that actually is the point, but still. It didn’t feel like anything special, just another revenge movie. I had somewhat high hopes for it, but it definitely fell a little short in a few departments. The biggest thing was how it doesn’t feel special, like I literally just said. It’s not fair to compare this to John Wick, because those movies are so high on a pedestal. However, this literally just felt like the first John Wick. Nothing new. The timeline of the movie is also funky. It kind of bounces around between different events in a confusing manner. It makes sense a little later in the movie, but the opening had me lost. It didn’t capture my attention immediately, which made me not care as much for the characters or story. However, when there was action, it was done right. All the fight scenes were very well choreographed. Joel Kinnaman did an excellent job, especially considering he had literally one line in the entire movie. All of his acting was done through his eyes and muscles, and it was great. But, besides him, nothing else really stood out. There were many useless scenes that should’ve been cut. I think it was about 15 minutes longer than it should’ve been. There are several little things I want to nitpick, but I won’t drag this down with negative thoughts. The action was really fun, and I really enjoyed the last 35ish minutes. Lots of guns and blood, so it was entertaining. Everything else in between was semi-boring. Overall, this movie isn’t the best made, though it has its shining moments. I’d probably recommend this to die-hard action fans.