Deadly night.

Silent Night is a 2023 action film not to be confused with 2021’s comedy horror film Silent Night, 2020’s crime drama Silent Night, 2012’s reboot horror film Silent Night, 2002’s WW2 TV movie Silent Night, I’ve run this joke into the ground. It doesn’t take a genius or a film critic to realize that Silent Night is a John Woo film, given it is a John Woo-ass John Woo film. For many of you this is probably all you near to hear to boot it up.

Written by Robert Archer Lynn and produced by who cares, Silent Night is John Woo’s first film since 2003’s Paycheck and damnit the guy hasn’t lost it. The movie stars Joel Kinneman as Brian Godlock, a man who my brain keeps trying to write as Godluck. Unfortunately Brian doesn’t have Godluck, because his son is killed in a drive-by shooting and he himself is shot in the throat and rendered unable to talk. As is usual with films where kids die, Brian goes into a drunken depression that ruins his marriage with his wife Saya (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and ultimately decides to get revenge on the gangs. All of the gangs, especially the ones that killed his son.

Incidentally the bad guy is Harold Torres, generic cholo gangbanger who is actually a talented actor. Torres you may recall from How About Notflix awarded “Best Liam Neeson Counterfeit Movie To Still Star Liam Neeson” film Memory. Unfortunately unlike Neeson’s character I don’t have dementia and do remember that his characters are basically the same person. Moving on. Also on the tail of the bad guys is Kid Cudi as Detective Dennis Vassell.

Since Brian can’t talk, the film plays on that idea by leaving the grand majority of the film without any dialogue. There’s a few radio broadcasts at the start and a couple characters say a small handful of lines mostly through muffled mouths, but the film is almost entirely without spoken dialogue. It’s pretty great. It shows the acting range of Joel Kinneman because he is required to put everything into his body motions and facial expressions. And he does a great job at that.

Of course this is a John Woo film so Silent Night has a lot of over the top action sequences. The violence in this movie and character movement almost remind me of how people acted in Beau Is Afraid. People move at weirdly sped up paces at times, making the whole thing feel like Grand Theft Auto from the Vice City/San Andreas era. The action sequences are pretty well made and the choreography is exactly what I want out of a John Woo movie. It’s not a positive film, in fact it’s completely miserable throughout 90% of the sequences from Brian’s grief to just every other character being miserable in a miserable world of pain and suffering.

It’s all a contrast to the bright, shiny, colorful, cheerful mood of the world itself. Silent Night is a fantastic movie and a great John Woo flick that deserves your viewing eyes. Check it out, I watched it on Starz.

Rating: A