Red One, Amazon’s ‘four-quadrant’ Christmas action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, is opening tomorrow in the United States, so that means The Rock is hyping the hell out of it and dropping some perplexing takes.
Sure, Johnson has always been one of Hollywood’s finest PR specialists on top of being a very active actor-producer, but after a streak of high-profile flops, he’s doubling down on Amazon’s incredibly generic-looking blockbuster, which cost north of $250 million and has been directed by Jumanji (the new ones) helmer Jake Kasdan, which certainly explains why it looks so soulless and sanitized.
Via Twitter, we’ve come across this clip (watch below) from an IMAX promo for the movie, in which Johnson tells potential viewers with an absolutely straight face that he had a moment of epiphany while watching Christopher Nolan’s latest hit, Oppenheimer, in the filmmaker’s favorite IMAX theater. His immediate thought (which may or may not have happened)? Red One on this screen, with this technology, can be game over.” Perhaps he meant game over for his acting career should it crash and burn.
Right now, Red One is targeting a weak (given the price tag) $35 million debut at the domestic box office and is sitting at 37% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Okay, I’m just taking the p**s here… sort of. With Moana 2, a live-action remake of the first one, and plenty of other projects lined up, Johnson is seemingly set for the rest of the decade. That said, there’s been a clear decline of interest in both the big projects he’s chosen to spearhead and his public figure, so maybe his ‘big star credit’ will be running out sooner rather than later if he continues to turn in stinkers as a producer.
Even more worrying is Chris Evans’ situation, whose only remarkable acting credit in the post-Avengers: Endgame era was 2019’s Knives Out. Sure, he’s making cash left and right, but either he or his agent aren’t landing many juicy roles; the exact opposite of what Robert Downey Jr. has been doing, winning an Oscar earlier this year. The former Captain America has teased in the past he was interested in transitioning into directing, but those plans aren’t panning out yet. Long story short: Evans is currently the least interesting Chris to follow, with even Pratt making more intriguing moves than him at the moment, somehow.
Anyway, Dwayne Johnson continues to be a fascinating pop culture icon with lots of fans, that’s for sure, but one of the (arguably) coolest dudes around is gradually turning into yet another snake oil salesman that’s turning far too much money into big piles of overdeveloped shite. I mean, he came crawling back to the Fast & Furious franchise last year after beef with Vin Diesel, so things aren’t fine and dandy for sure. Here’s hoping he can somehow get back to his Pain & Gain era.
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