From the spectacular nothingness of the characters to the simplistic plot that still manages to produce holes bigger than any bullet in the movie itself, from tired movie tropes like generic flashbacks and toy box sadness to a gimmick that does more damage than good - SILENT NIGHT is truly something to behold.
The writing is as naive and incompetent as the direction, and unbelievably, I also have to include the action, especially because it's a John Woo film which has to be held to his own, once fantastic standards. CGI cars, bad CGI blood, a lot of "invisible" cuts. From people not being able to hit anything with automatic weapons just metres away from each other to people not being able to see a huge forklift standing in their way - it's all hilarious if you can see this as a comedy. But the sheer pretentiousness of the no dialogue gimmick and the overall overly heavy tonality sadly spoil the fun, leaving you clueless whatever happened to one of action cinema's greatest directors.
No character has any backstory, personality, meaning. It's all nothing. As a consequence, you will probably fail to have any empathy and enthusiasm for the protagonist's progress. The only thing that made me feel anything was seeing Kid Cudi's incredibly gross fingernails.
Man, I'm afraid John Woo lost it for good. Where there was once delightfully absurd, visionary, fast-paced, over-the-top action and mastery of bending time and space, now only absurdity remains.
The writing is as naive and incompetent as the direction, and unbelievably, I also have to include the action, especially because it's a John Woo film which has to be held to his own, once fantastic standards. CGI cars, bad CGI blood, a lot of "invisible" cuts. From people not being able to hit anything with automatic weapons just metres away from each other to people not being able to see a huge forklift standing in their way - it's all hilarious if you can see this as a comedy. But the sheer pretentiousness of the no dialogue gimmick and the overall overly heavy tonality sadly spoil the fun, leaving you clueless whatever happened to one of action cinema's greatest directors.
No character has any backstory, personality, meaning. It's all nothing. As a consequence, you will probably fail to have any empathy and enthusiasm for the protagonist's progress. The only thing that made me feel anything was seeing Kid Cudi's incredibly gross fingernails.
Man, I'm afraid John Woo lost it for good. Where there was once delightfully absurd, visionary, fast-paced, over-the-top action and mastery of bending time and space, now only absurdity remains.