Warners' new Christmas movie miss and old musical masterpiece hit hit 4K disc

By Jim Bray
March 4, 2025

Just in time for Easter, we get Red One, Warner Brothers' new Santa Claus-themed movie. And it could have been a really good Christmas flick, too. It has an interesting concept, a good cast, and excellent production values.

Alas, this movie about the search for a kidnapped Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons, who's mostly wasted here), never really decides if it's a Christmas movie or yet another comic book-like action-adventure special effects film. And that really works against it.

On the other hand, while the story of a long dead classical music composer may not sound like the stuff of which cinematic dreams are made, in the right hands it can be a compelling and highly enjoyable film. And that's what happened with Milos Forman's adaptation of the Peter Shaffer play Amadeus, which has also just been released on 4K disc.

It's kind of ironic that the better of the two films – Amadeus, by far – doesn't look as good in 4K as Red One.

Anyway, I didn't expect much from Red One, but I was quite surprised – at least initially, before the movie went big, bloated and derivative. The Santa/Christmas stuff was really quite good and I looked forward to the story unfolding, but it devolved fairly quickly and repeatedly into a kind of Marvel/Ray Harryhausen action film that wasn't necessary and which took away from the joy of the Christmas stuff.

It also features some cussing, though it's fairly mild, but it's really out of place. It also means this movie isn't for the kids, whereas it should have been and could easily have been for the kids. Heck, why else would you make a Santa Claus movie?

Red One is Santa's code name (like Air Force One) and he has his own infrastructure at the north pole featuring his Secret Service agent Callum Drift (Johnson), who's planning to retire after the pending Christmas because the coarsening of society has ruined the holiday for him. Then, proving just how competent the Service is, Santa is grabbed by a team led by a mysterious woman in white (Kiernan Shipka).

Fortunately, there's a covert agency called MORA (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), headed by Zoe Harlow (Lucy Liu), and they get on the case, enlisting hacker Jack O'Malley (Chris Evans).

It never becomes particularly compelling, let alone interesting, and there are some scenes with "Satanic-like" critters that will probably not appeal to the kids – let alone be appropriate for in a Christmas movie. I'd love to recommend this one, but Red One is really a zero.

On the other hand, Milos Forman's version of Peter Shaffer's screenplay (from of his own stage play), is an absolute masterpiece, directed by Forman's sure hand and with a cast that brings to life the glory days of eighteenth-century Austria and all that went with it.

This isn't so much the tale of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from whose name the title is derived, as it is the story of Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) - court composer to Austria's Emperor Joseph.

Salieri was master of his domain until the young genius Mozart (Tom Hulce, who really shines in the portrayal) showed up and pushed him into the footnotes of history. Mozart was everything Salieri wasn't, and the latter must have ended up feeling the way whoever Wayne Gretzky replaced on his way up the hockey ladder felt.

Salieri was a bit of a hack but, as much as he learned to despise the rough-edged composer and hate everything for which he stood, he couldn't help but be in complete awe of his masterful abilities, talents that made it seem to Salieri as if God himself were speaking through Mozart's music.

As I opined in the original Blu-ray release, "It was, to Salieri, as if God - to Whom he had committed his entire life and ability - were throwing his entire life back into his face, showing him his mediocrity in the face of Mozart's genius. So, he turned his back on his God, determined to destroy the animal Mozart who made him feel so totally inadequate."

It's a glorious piece and an excellent introduction to the music of Mozart. Shot in Prague during the communist control of the place, it also looks and sound gorgeous.

The 4K release is of the original theatrical cut rather than the approximately 20 minutes-longer director's cut of the Blu-ray, and I'm okay with that. While I often prefer the extended edition, in this case I don't think it really made for a better movie.

Alas, while the picture can't really be faulted for color and detail, it does look a bit soft, not "pop off the screen" like some other movies - including, unfortunately, Red One (which looks fantastic!). It's definitely watchable, though!

There's no Atmos audio track, but the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio one we get, which I read is supposedly the film's original 5.0 mix with a "point one" channel added, is just fine. After all, this is a forty year old movie and the audio we get is more than adequate; in fact, I loved the audio track.

Extras include an hour-long documentary "Amadeus: the making of a masterpiece" as well as "The Making of Amadeus" both of which are very interesting. One is from the original Blu-ray release and the other is new.

The extras are contained on the 4K disc, and I wonder if this storage space issue contributed to the less-than-magnificent video of the feature. There's no Blu-ray in the package, though you do get a digital code.

Red One's 4K picture, as mentioned above, is very good. The native 4K/HDR presentation features fine detail, lovely colour and great black levels. Its audio, which is Dolby Atmos, fills the room with sound (and noise) using all channels very well.

Warner Bros. has chosen not to put any extras in the package. Probably just as well…

There's no Blu-ray in this package, either. Instead, you merely get a digital code you can pass on to someone you don't like.

Well, there you have it. Two very different films, two very different 4K presentations, and two very different reactions to them from me. Amadeus is a lovely piece of filmmaking, that garnered Oscars (back when that meant anything…) for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay adaptation. And more.

Red One couldn't even earn its own budget back. According to IMDB, it cost in the neighbourhood of $350,000,000 to make (and promote, I assume) yet it could only manage $185,900,759 in receipts world wide. And, having seen it, I can see why. In fact, I'm surprised it did that well!

Just goes to show that throwing money at a project doesn't really mean you'll improve its fortunes.

To conclude: embrace Amadeus, run from Red One. It's a shame. I hoped for a lot more from Red One. I had hoped it would make a nice entry into the panoply of Christmas classics. But Noooooooooo!