Violent Night

“Violent Night” is a 2022 Christmas dark comedy/ action film starring David Harbour (Stranger Things), John Leguizamo (The Menu), Alex Hassell (The Boys), Beverly D’ Angelo (National Lampoons Christmas Vacation), and Leah Brady (The Umbrella Academy).

Santa is down on his Christmas spirit, and he gets stuck at a house that’s being robbed by a team of mercenaries. One of the house’s occupants is a little girl who still believes in Santa and needs some Christmas spirit herself. Santa now must kill the mercenaries and save the little girl and her family while trying to find the spirit of Christmas.

As I stated in my last review, it’s the season for Christmas movies, and majority are cheesy and bad. This one looked like it could go that way, Santa in a John Wick style movie killing mercenaries. It is original, so the question is, how is it? Simple, amazing. They made it work. It’s a fast-paced violent ride while still maintaining a way to capture it as a Christmas movie. Where else are you going to watch Santa Clause killing bad guys in creative ways such as with a sharpened candy cane, sledgehammer, and woodchipper while Christmas Carols play. This one is going to go down as a Christmas Classic. Even with all the violence and bloodshed, you leave feeling the Christmas spirit. David Harbour plays an excellent Santa and embodies this role. I give it a 10/10.

The Menu

“The Menu” is a 2022 horror/thriller starring Ralph Fiennes (Skyfall), Anya Taylor-Joy (Last Night in Soho), Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies), John Leguizamo (Romeo + Juliet), and Hong Chau (Big Little Lies).

A young couple goes to an island for very exclusive dinner that is over 1200 a head created by a world-renowned chef. Little do they know, everyone is there for a certain reason, and the chef plans on making this his final menu. Every little detail is meticulously planned out, every deadly detail.

I’m a big fan of Anya Taylor-Joy she always plays a great role in her movies, and her starring in another horror, I knew this was a must-see movie. Ralph Fiennes also plays the perfect role of a detail-oriented perfectionist chef who has slowly gone mad by society and has finally reached his limit. This movie was different than I was expecting, it was still a great movie, just different. Not quite as fast paced as I was thinking it would be. It was a little more artsy than I was expecting. It reminded me of an artsier version of a M. Night Shyamalan movie. I also enjoyed how everything was targeted at the rich vs. the working class in society. I give this one a 7.5/10.

The Night Clerk

‘The Night Clerk’ is a 2020 thriller starring Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), Ana De Armas (Knock Knock), John Leguizamo (To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar), Helen Hunt (Girls Just Want to Have Fun), and Jonathon Schaech (That Thing you Do!) ‘The Night Clerk’ is about a young man (Sheridan) who works at a hotel as the night clerk. He suffers from Asperger’s syndrome and has several hidden cameras in the rooms in order for him to study and mimic people which helps him with his social awkwardness. He ends up witnessing a murder on one of his live feeds.

‘The Night Clerk’ has a great cast, Tye Sheridan really nails his role as a man with Asperger’s Syndrome, and the story is there. However, after that, that’s it. It falls flat, and I mean it falls hard. This story has so much potential, but nothing happens. Sheridan witnesses the murder in the beginning of the film, and that’s it, that’s the most action the movie has. It’s a disappointment with the caliber cast and story line. I would pass this one up, but if you do want to watch it, you can find it on Netflix. It falls into what I’ve said before, if it’s not a Netflix original it’s probably not worth watching on Netflix. I give it a 5/10.