It’s been 20 years since John Woo last made an American film – the muddled sci-fi thriller Paycheck – and while he’s been absent as a director, his influence has been ever present. The directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, whose films Bullet Train and John Wick respectively owe a heavy debt to Woo’s sleek operatic style, even keep a picture of him in their joint office. So in what’s become a boom financial period for the action movie (the Wick movies have amassed over $1bn in total), it makes sense that Woo, commonly seen as one of the genre’s most integral forefathers, would return to reclaim his throne.
His to-the-point revenge thriller Silent Night isn’t good enough for us to erupt into the applause Woo has so often deserved, but it’s also not bad enough for us to mourn the film-maker that he once was, a mostly competent exercise that serves less as a victory lap and more as a warm-up. The plot itself is one long warm-up for the lead known as Godlock (Joel Kinnaman), whose son is killed in a drive-by in the opening scene. Driven mad by a swirl of grief and anger, he trains to transform himself from milquetoast family man to ruthless killer, giving himself a year to plan his revenge on the men who destroyed his family.
