Get ready for an exciting and humorous deep dive into the action film, Silent Night! We've brought in our dear friend, Taj, for this one - and believe us, he's got some incredible insights to share! We had a rather interesting time with this film, drawn in by the high-stakes action, but left scratching our heads at the glaring lack of Christmas vibes. Was it a silent night indeed? Or should we just say it was a silent fight?
We also couldn't help but draw comparisons with another action film, Death Sentence. And let's not even get started on the lead actor, who managed to steal the show without uttering a word. Join us as we rate, debate, and yes, even celebrate this unique cinematic experience. Ready to embark on this action-packed journey with us? Don't say we didn't warn you about the lack of jingle bells!
Get ready for an exciting and humorous deep dive into the action film, Silent Night! We've brought in our dear friend, Taj, for this one - and believe us, he's got some incredible insights to share! We had a rather interesting time with this film, drawn in by the high-stakes action, but left scratching our heads at the glaring lack of Christmas vibes. Was it a silent night indeed? Or should we just say it was a silent fight?
We also couldn't help but draw comparisons with another action film, Death Sentence. And let's not even get started on the lead actor, who managed to steal the show without uttering a word. Join us as we rate, debate, and yes, even celebrate this unique cinematic experience. Ready to embark on this action-packed journey with us? Don't say we didn't warn you about the lack of jingle bells!
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough Together. Fun will be had by all. This is Nady and Katie at the Movies.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Nathan aka Nady. I have my very good friend. He's back. Taji, hey Taji, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm good, I actually don't have a problem with you at the movie.
Speaker 2:If you don't understand why we're making these silent jokes. The movie we're going to be reviewing today is Silent Night, the new holiday classic action film that just came out into theaters. Taji and I went to go see it because this was not a movie that Katie would want to go see and so let's just get right into our synopsis before we talk about the movie.
Speaker 2:A grieving father enacts his long-awaited revenge against a ruthless gang on Christmas Eve If you don't have Christmas Eve in there, this is basically the exact same plot as another movie called Death Sentence starring the amazing Kevin Bacon. I'm just going to go ahead and say I think Death Sentence is the far superior version of this kind of film, but I won't get too much into that. Silent Night stars Joel Cananamon I don't know how to say his name Kalina Sandino-Marino and Kid Cuddy. That's just a few of the stars in this movie. Let's get right into our likes and dislikes for Silent Night.
Speaker 2:I think and I think you and I will probably agree on this and you can tell me if I'm wrong but I think one of my biggest likes is the action in this movie. There's a lot of good action scenes. That's what this movie was all about anyway. It wasn't about the acting, it wasn't about anything else. John Woo is known for action-packed films. He did the second Mission Impossible movie, which I think is probably the worst one, but he also did a lot of other action films as well. I think the action is probably the strongest and probably my only like in this film, taj. What did you think of the action and do you have any other likes about this movie?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I definitely like the action, because John Woo I've not seen a bunch of his stuff, but he just from Mission Impossible 2, which I actually kind of like.
Speaker 3:I think I like it because it's different. I do think it's a little when you watch everything together which I just recently, for the first time, watched all the Mission Impossible this summer in order to watch the most recent one, and so like watching them very closely, it's like wow, that's really jarring compared to the other one, even though the other ones also have different directors. Because he's very stylized, I'd say, and I do think that I enjoy some of his stuff and I feel like like certain things like fit and just are, you know, just like different, like certain shots, because like there was a shot, an Interesting close-up that happened randomly with like his wife or something like that, I don't remember, I don't remember, but yeah, it was like a really random close-up and like I didn't mind it, it was jarred because it just Didn't, I guess, need to happen but, I, did like the action, though, and I Didn't mind the.
Speaker 3:I anticipated it being relatively silent, so, like I liked the idea of the only talking being from, like people that weren't on screen, if you will. I think that that's neat, cuz, like I, I know I've seen another movie like that. I haven't seen the Kevin Bacon one that you mentioned, but there's another movie that I've seen, or, to be sure, something like that, that I've seen something similar, where the people are talking stuff. So there was parts of that that I did like.
Speaker 2:So I think that open the being full my problems and like this yeah, the only other movie I remember seeing where hardly anybody talked was the artist. I don't know if you saw that it's about. It was like about a silent film star back in the silent film age and majority of the movie was a Silent film and then there was one Brief moment where I guess he has like a nightmare and Everyone else is around him talking and he can't talk, and if that that was very creative. That was very well done. This movie. I remember seeing the trailer and I was intrigued by it because I Seriously just thought that the main character was gonna be the only one who doesn't talk the entire time and that's not how this movie went. I will say they did very creative things, like with Communicating through text messages and seeing those on the screen, and there were like little moments of like very, very, very soft whispers of Some of the main characters his wife and being one of them. And, like you said, it was creative that the only real talking heard was through like radio calls From police officers and stuff like that. So I will say, you know the it was creative. But if this movie had didn't have a lot of action in it, it would be very hard to invest in this movie because it's called Silent Night for a reason and not for the reason that I thought it was being called silent night.
Speaker 2:So let's get right into my dislikes. One of my biggest dislikes is that they had this big Synopsis of it taking place during Christmas, christmas Eve. All this stuff, and not maybe the beginning of the movie, was the only time that they used any sort of Christmas music. I and it's a firm. Some people they might think this is nitpicky, but to me, if you're gonna say this movie takes place during Christmas and there's hardly anything Christmas related, it's kind of like why? This is just a nut, it's just a death sentence movie. It's another Kevin Bacon revenge film, but you're trying to make it connect to Christmas and it really doesn't. So did you? Were you disappointed by that? Did you really care about that? I know we talked about it briefly after the movie, but what? What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure, I think. For me, yeah, one of my biggest takeaways was, or like something that I thought afterwards was where's the Christmas? Because it opens up with him in a chase scene and he's wearing An ugly Christmas sweater and it's like, oh, okay, that's fitting because it's Christmas. And so it's like, okay, I anticipated or assumed that that was gonna set the tone, because, I don't know, I didn't obviously to Christmas time Moving on Okay, so he's written a Christmas order now and this chase scene. So I thought there was gonna be a lot more of things like that. So like things, christmasy themed things that were out of place with like Big action set pieces and all that whatnot. And there was definitely a lack of an, especially, like you said, the music. I anticipated at the very least, if not a bunch of ugly Christmas sweaters or Christmas lights everywhere or people being beat up with Christmas decorations, at minimum Christmas music.
Speaker 3:I anticipated more than anything, and there was a significant lack of Christmas music and like and I know that, like at the end, might have been cheesy for them to play Silent Night, but I just feel like this is the movie that you can get away with, something like that.
Speaker 2:Well, and even in the theater at the end where, like the big bad boss fight at the end, there's, like this, techno music playing and I even jokingly made up remixes of classic Christmas songs that they could have used, and at that point I wouldn't have cared how cheesy it was. The whole premise is cheesy. I mean it was already over the top. Why not just go full force with it and use the thing that you were trying to sell it as a Christmas action film? This was not a Christmas action film. He wore a root off the red nose reindeer sweater at the beginning of the movie. His son tragically dies during Christmas, which was really depressing and we'll dive into why I felt even that storyline even hit me even harder than usual. But I mean those were the only moments of hey, just reminding you it's around Christmas time. And going back to the fact that no one's talking in this movie, a lot of people were joking that this movie basically became one long montage. And because he's training to do all this stuff, he's trained to learn how to use guns, he's training how to do all this Like almost every five seconds. It felt like it was like one of those montage moments in movies, but we'll get past that.
Speaker 2:But my biggest dislike and I mentioned this at the beginning and I'm gonna mention it again I don't know. I told Taj to watch Death Sentence before this episode. I don't know if he was able to. I don't know if it's streaming anywhere. I think you have to actually buy it to watch it. But my biggest dislike is the whole time I was thinking, especially during the stair scene, when he has the shotgun and the stairwell. I'm like this is Death Sentence. That's what this movie is, especially during that stairwell scene. There's a legitimate, exact same kind of thing in the Kevin Bacon, far superior movie Death Sentence. So I'm just gonna go ahead, before I even write this thing, I'm gonna go ahead and say forget watching this, go watch Death Sentence. It's very violent. It was directed by James Wan. I think that's one of the reasons why I liked it, because I liked the Saul movies and he did a really great job with that movie. So I would say go watch Death Sentence. If you wanna watch a father taking revenge on the death of their child, go watch Death Sentence.
Speaker 2:But speaking of that, one thing that actually surprised me about Silent Night was how serious of moments they had in this movie Really like heart-wrenching moments. That, because I personally haven't experienced this, but I know some friends of mine who have experienced the loss of the child, and so those moments where they showed those scenes really got me Like. I turned to Taj and I'm like, and I'm getting kind of emotional with these scenes because it just reminded me of what my friends are going through. And so I will say John Woo did a good job at having emotional scenes without any talking, and I guess that goes to the star of the film too.
Speaker 2:Just the fact that he's not able to talk the entire time. He has to show emotion through his face, through just we have to be able to read what he's thinking just by his facial expressions. And so I'll say that the star of this film did a really good job having to carry this whole film without saying one single word. He doesn't say a word the entire movie. And so I was very impressed with that. I know he has been in the Suicide Squad, which we won't talk about that, but I think he did a really good job.
Speaker 3:Hey, I like Suicide Squad.
Speaker 2:Which one? Which one?
Speaker 3:I like both of them and I very much liked the 2016 one.
Speaker 2:I stand by that. I think personally it's one of the best.
Speaker 3:DC films that they've done in the last decade.
Speaker 2:Get off this episode right now. I'm just kidding. Are there any other likes or dislikes about Silent Night before we? I guess we could just wrap this up in a pretty little bow. So do you have anything?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think I would have once again, just with the. I just wish there was just so much more Christmas and, while I agreed, like you said, there's room for it to be cheesy, but with the moments that they have in there, like you said, with the plot of the child being killed because of the violence, and he dealt with divorce and alcoholism and all that whatnot, so there were some very heavy things and subject matter in there. So it's like I think, with those things, it's okay for it to, I guess, have been grounded in more realism. But I feel like, even with those things, there was moments where we weren't surrounded by those specific things that you could've allowed it to be a little bit more silly, a little bit more cheesy, as far as, like I said, you didn't necessarily have to go around meeting people with a fake Santa Claus thing, but even if there was Christmas lights on his car or you know, especially because the Wugus takes place in California and Christmas typically is synonymous with snow, but because it's California, that's not a thing there. And so, like I think for me I would have appreciated finding other ways to make it feel Christmas, because we don't have to, because if there's snow, obviously Christmas lights and all that whatnot decorations help, but like there's snow, so like I can connect that to Christmas more or less I'm not thinking it's February, you know and so like I think like that would have helped.
Speaker 3:And then this is a small nitty-nitty thing for me. This is just something that I get kind of irritated with, like all action movies, unless with this one, because he's not a professional, but like I always hate when the good guy gets into a fight and like the first fight that they get into they end up beat up pretty bad. It's just like, well, shoot, how am I supposed to believe that you're gonna go in and eradicate the gangs of your town? And you couldn't beat the first guy that you got, and that was and it was all based on your dumb mistakes, and so like that frustrated me because it's just like, my goodness, like I'd have been fine if, like, because he gets pretty messed up later on in the movie and it's like I could live with that had you not gotten messed up literally in the first fight that you had into, like that.
Speaker 2:And then single-handedly, like one by one in a freaking car, takes out all these gang members and doesn't miss a shot. Okay, and also I'm gonna add another dislike right now, right this very moment, that the fact that these gang members are the worst at aiming. I've, like I know I've seen movies like this before, so I know this isn't anything new. But calm on. There were so many times that I'm like he should have been shot so many times as I'm funny, so that was kind of annoying. But again, that's nitpicky. It's an action film. It's not supposed to be realistic. It's like fast and furious movies. You know, no, vin Diesel can't die, but everyone else can. So I get it.
Speaker 2:That's what this movie is, but it's still. I mean, if they're gonna ground it in, like you said, is they're gonna ground it in some serious themes they gotta pick? Is it gonna be over the top or is it gonna be grounded? I don't. This movie should have been one or the other and I think it was more grounded, but then, because it did that, it kind of took away from what was it being advertised as, which was a Christmas action film. It's kind of like Die Hard. Die Hard is a Christmas action film. This movie should have been a silent version of Die Hard. That's what this movie should have been. It should not have been a basic rip-off of the far superior death sentence, which you should go and see. Watch right now. After you listen to this episode, go watch Death Sentence. It's far superior. Kevin Bacon just does a brilliant job. So before we go ahead and rate this movie, I want to give our listeners just a little bit of a sneak peek of what Katie and I will be doing this next episode. Take a listen.
Speaker 1:Do you love Christmas movies? Do you love when people give their opinions about your favorite Christmas movies? Then you'll love Nate and Katie at the movies the Christmas special.
Speaker 2:That's right. We're bringing back our Christmas episode. Katie and I picked Christmas movies for each other to watch, and so we're going to watch them, get together for an episode and talk about why we hate each other for making us watch those movies. Last year, if you remember the Christmas episode, I had Katie watch a Christmas classic it's a wonderful life and she had me watch what she thought was a Christmas classic Bad Santa. Bad Santa Because she said, oh, that's what we watch every year. It's a Christmas classic, and it makes me question Katie's thoughts about movies ever since. So can't wait to talk about the movies that we chose for each other. I'm really excited. But before we can do that, we got to go ahead and rate Tonight. Taj, since you're my special guest on this episode, what would you give Silent Night? One to six stars?
Speaker 3:Let's say two and three quarters. Or if I've got to do full stars, I'd go three. I'm a nice guy, I'd go three.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go ahead and put you down for a 2.5 because we've never done two and three quarters before. So I'm going to go ahead and say you're giving in a two and a half, which I think is nice, it's fair. I'm going to go a bit lower because it didn't meet hardly any of my expectations going into this movie. Again, the star of the film does a really good job at carrying the movie without saying a word. I'll give him that.
Speaker 2:John Woo, from what I saw from trailers and all these people talking, he's known for action films. Yes, there was action in it, but I think he missed a real big opportunity to make this a fun die hard esque silent action film and I think he just missed the mark. And so for that I'm going to give Silent Night a 1.5 out of six stars. I'm telling you folks, don't go see it unless you want to. I mean, this is not a go see it or don't podcast. It's just a podcast, given our opinions, and my opinion is don't go see it. Go watch that. Nineteen, my darling, I love you, I love you, I love you.
Speaker 1:I love you too. Do you have presents in?
Speaker 2:your office? I do have presents in my office. Yes, it's almost Christmas time. So, taj, how would you like to end this episode of Silent Night?
Speaker 3:I think it's only fair if we end it in silence.
Speaker 1:Where's the Christmas music?