David Harbour and John Leguizamo on the set of ‘Violent Night.’ Photograph: © 2022 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Violent Night is an actual Christmas deal with in all of the “wrong” methods.
This one is as violent as it may get. It’s hammer-in-your-face humorous, however it additionally emotionally connects the viewer to the story.
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That, of us, is not any easy job. Too many have tried solely to fail miserably.
The magic behind Violent Night’s greatness is Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola’s consciousness of what’s been performed earlier than and what might be performed even higher.
Here’s what Wirkola does higher than most on this American manufacturing.
He employed David Harbour (Black Widow (2021), Suicide Squad (2016)) as Santa Claus. Harbour is an actor who likes to discover the characters he performs as deeply as potential. “I generally get excited about things that confuse me,” he mentioned in an interview. In this specific case, he was conscious of the totally different variations of Santa and the mythology that goes approach again. “We wanted to explore that,” he mentioned.
The motion sequences have been created by a stunt staff recognized for elevating hell in movies like John Wick (2014). “I trained for months with them doing jujitsu and Greco-Roman wrestling, trying to keep up the best I could,” Harbour mentioned. “But it was hard, and I was beat every day. Sometimes I was so sore and tired when I got home that I would just pass out fifteen minutes later.”
John Leguizamo performs the main unhealthy man, Scrooge, who hates Christmas. Leguizamo is a famend comic and actor who whereas taking part in Benny Blanco — a hothead drug supplier from the Bronx in Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way (1993) — “found himself” as an explosive actor and improviser, as he told in an interview. He has since then explored totally different characters from darkish to humorous in about 160 productions from movies to Broadway and TV reveals, and again once more.
It could also be no coincidence that the manufacturing staff has paid shut consideration to element whereas casting Leguizamo.
In his memoir Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends, Leguizamo remembers Christmases after they have been so poor that he was advised that “Santa wasn’t giving out any presents because he was depressed and suicidal.”
As Scrooge, he appears to channel unhealthy recollections into his character, and the viewer can be grateful for it.
If you’re a fan of watching Home Alone (1990) or Die Hard (1988) each or each different Christmas, then it might be a superb time to purchase the tickets, take the trip and benefit from the replace.
Violent Night is in cinemas now. Running time: 112 minutes.
