MOVIES: Red One, a big Christmas film worth avoiding, plus three non-seasonal choices

Part of the poster for Red One. 

Sometimes Christmas movies get just too large and overblown. Red One is so. It has a huge budget, a troubled history in getting to the screen and too much going on inside. It's hard to detect the Christmas spirit in there. 

You do have alternatives. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is doing very well in theaters and new films this week bring these non-Christmas subjects: more from the Dune saga, the law vs rape and memories of the Holocaust.   

Red One: 2 stars

Dune Prophecy: 3 ½ 

Black Box Diaries: 4

A Real Pain: 3

RED ONE: There's been huge anticipation for this Santa Claus film probably because of star power (Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, J.K. Simmons, Lucy Liu, Kristofer Hivju (“Game of Thrones”) and others. And who doesn't like that annual movie ritual: saving Christmas from some nefarious threat? But this one bungles the story by turning it into a high-tech thriller. Guys watch things on a wall of monitors and mercenaries do their worst. The North Pole compound looks like it was designed by space station builders. Plus the story is crowded. There are fighting snowmen and mythological characters from Germany (Krampus) and Iceland (the Christmas Witch) in what seems like an attempt gone wild to bring in anything the writers could think of. Their background, by the way, includes the Fast and Furious films and Jumanji, two of which the director, Jake Kasdan, helped produce. This film just doesn't feel very Christmassy.

Santa Claus, code name : Red One (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped. The head of security up there at the North Pole (Dwayne Johnson) springs into action. He leads the ELF division (Enforcement, Logistics and Fortification) and regularly accompanies him on his shopping-mall duties. He now has to ally with a criminal (Chris Evans) who goes by the name “Wolf” and claims to be the best at finding people who others can't find. Their search is international, like in a big action movie, and keys on Gryla the witch (Kiernan Shipka) while MORA (the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), headed by Lucy Liu, is watching. Meanwhile, “The Wolf” has secretly been taking kickbacks to hack into the Intercontinental Seismic Surveillance System. See how crowded the story is? And who knew Santa Claus has a brother from whom he is estranged? 

There's one good bit of Christmas sensibility here. Johnson's character laments that the naughty now outnumber the nice on Santa's list and people don't care. That feels timely and you can say similar things about this not very-good movie. (In theaters) 2 out of 5 

DUNE: PROPHECY: Here’s a worthy addition to the Dune saga that we’ve seen in two films by Denis Villeneuve (with a third to come). It’s a 6-part series from HBO, and separate from his work but in the same spirit. The two episodes that were sent to preview suggest it’s a top-drawer prequel, going back more than 10,000 years in fact, and based on a novel by Brian Herbert who wrote several to continue the work of his father Frank Herbert. In here he gave us the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the Sisterhood that has so much background influence in these stories. 

It was formed by two sisters (Valya played by Emily Watson and Tula played by Olivia Williams). They want it to be a force for good (“humility is the foundation of our virtues”) but differ in methodology. Valya wants power and even talks up lying as a “sophisticated” tactic. Tula is content as a teacher to young new members. Looming over all is a prophecy, some hidden secrets and a fear that a reckoning is imminent, about to be brought on by a tyrannical force. You have to stay alert to follow this complex storyline. 

Mark Strong plays the Emperor who Valya is trying to influence. Travis Fimmel plays a mysterious soldier who was thought lost in a war against the thinking machines.  Jodhi May plays the Empress and Sarah-Sofie Boussnina plays Princess Ynez who is married off to a very young boy as part of a power play to gain the sisterhood more power over the throne. The series is very good at depicting scheming and deception but, like I said, stay alert. (HBO streaming on CRAVE) 3 ½ out of 5   

BLACK BOX DIARIES: Here’s a display of courage you won’t soon forget. So powerful is it, and so needed. Rape is the subject and there’s a caution at the start that if anyone who has been a victim and finds the content too strong the best solution is just to close the eyes for a while and calm down. It’s not that necessary actually because the detailed recounting of the rape comes very late and isn’t all that graphic. What is strong are the official and legal events that follow and the perseverance this victim, Japanese journalist Shiori Itô, had to muster to get her case taken seriously. It was a five year ordeal, that produced a book, a court case and this documentary, which she herself wrote and directed.

But it started with stonewalling from the Tokyo police for lack of evidence. Or, as they call it, putting it into a black box. That’s even though there was DNA found, video footage of a hotel arrival and one man’s memory to back up parts of her allegation. The man she accused was a prominent TV journalist and a friend of Japan’s then prime minister. She had gone for a job interview and was assaulted. Her case exposed flaws in the legal system, became a cause in Parliament and among women’s groups who often referred to the MeToo movement in the US. Itô felt encouraged by them, but also in the film shows times of despair. Negative comments were coming in. She had to take a lot of meetings, many with her lawyers, filmed much on her cell phone and even recorded conversations secretly. That allows the story to play out like a fictional thriller, as well as a necessary social document. She talks about the severe psychological damage from rape and that women need to feel they can speak up. She's a very good role model. (In theaters) 4 out of 5 

A REAL PAIN: For Jesse Eisenberg, who wrote and directed it, this obviously has very deep meaning. I'm not sure he gets as much across to the rest of though partly because the advertising highlights it as a very funny film about a new odd-couple. We get a fair amount of that, not surprisingly because Jesse, at his usual fidgety best, is paired with Kieran Culkin, who we know as a strutting, wise-cracking type. We don't get as much comedy as we expect though; we do get a trip to Poland that takes us right into a former concentration camp (first time that filming was allowed there) and the painful history it recalls.

Jesse and Kieran are David and Benji, two Jews from New York, on a sentimental trip to honor their grandmother who was from Poland. They join a tour lead by a British guide with academic credentials and learn details about the Warsaw Uprising (a memorial in front of which they all take selfies) and are taken right inside the former gas chamber at a camp, now a historic site. Those scenes pretty well overpower the main theme of the film: family divisions. The two are cousins who used to see each other a lot and have drifted apart. David sells internet advertising. Benji doesn't have a job. Their contrast produces comedy; the camp does not. It does produce a debate about tourism at such a site. There's emotion but I expected more. We don't get enough impact felt by the two characters. The screenplay won an award at Sundance but the film is an easier watch than it should be. (In theaters) 3 out of 5