Click here to copy URL

Silent Night

2023

John Woo

Joel Kinnaman, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Kid Cudi, Harold Torres ...

4.9

2,155

Action. Thriller It is Christmas Eve and a father witnesses the death of his son when he is caught in a crossfire between gangs. Broken with grief and voiceless, due to a deep wound affecting his vocal cords, he decides to undergo strict training to avenge his death.

	Media	Author	Review
		Siddhant Adlakha IGN	"It’s an action movie that never fully takes off, with an ugly, borderline racist core that seldom justifies itself by enhancing the gaudy spectacle for which Woo is generally known"
		Peter Debruge Variety	"The tone of 'Silent Night' is deadly serious, but one can feel Woo having fun behind the camera, and his amusement translates back to the audience in a big way"
		Kristy Puchko Mashable	"'Silent Night takes' its preposterous premise deadly seriously. And not even the carnage Woo offers can combat the tedium of this film's cliches. "
		Alex Harrison Screen Rant	"The lack of depth in supporting characters and the film's simplistic view on revenge may be off-putting, but it ultimately doesn't take away from the fun and entertainment of the film."
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"A movie whose only upside is the vulgar thrill of watching something that feels utterly anonymous and wildly idiosyncratic at the same time."
		Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter	"Making a striking Hollywood comeback 20 years after the release of his last American film, 2003’s mediocre 'Paycheck', the veteran action director fully delivers the goods with 'Silent Night.'"
		Odie Henderson Boston Globe	"Woo relies on the faces of his actors to tell the story, a fatal flaw as Kinnaman cannot portray anything but dourness (...) Rating: ★ (out of 4)"
		Chris Evangelista SlashFilm	"Even at 77 years old, Woo continues to have a firm grasp on creating stunning action beats. But 'Silent Night' feels like one of the filmmaker's slighter efforts (...) Rating: ★★★★★★ (out of 10)"
		Kyle Smith The Wall Street Journal	"The movie may sound ingenious, but the gimmick goes stale quickly"
		Paul Attard Slant	"John Woo Serves revenge with delirium and savagery (...) the action is as artful as anything that Woo has whipped up throughout his storied career (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"Joel Kinnaman is no talk, all action in brutal, dialogue-free thriller (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Matt Zoller Seitz rogerebert.com	"It's also one of Woo's best, and one of the most deliriously cinematic movies of the year. If ever there were a movie that demonstrated the idea that the telling matters more than the tale, it's this one (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"A solid, almost entirely dialogue-free revenge thriller that fails to bring us anything new (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Adam Graham Detroit News	"'Silent Night' takes itself deadly seriously, and is all the more brutal to sit through as a result. The holidays are already exhausting enough without having this as added punishment"
		Joshua Rothkopf Los Angeles Times	"It must be said that Woo remains a visionary (...) Still, no doves take flight, literally or in our hearts. Woo is capable of bigger and better"
		Nadine Whitney The Curb	"No matter which way you slice it, and it can go either way, Woo is a seminal action director who in his seventies can still pull out a banger even if it's not entirely coherent"
		Lisa Laman Collider	"What a shame even a master filmmaker like John Woo couldn't at least partially liven up a derivative piece of action cinema like 'Silent Night'"
		Soren Andersen Seattle Times	"Again and again it's the image of Kinnaman's terribly agonized face that rivets the viewer (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"
		Tim Grierson Screendaily	"This tale of bloody vengeance is not the most satisfying delivery device for Woo's unique brand of melodramatic, slow-mo carnage"
		Chris Bumbray JoBlo	"While the gimmick wears thin the action is triumphant"
		Glenn Kenny The New York Times	"There's a lot of sound and fury and it works: This is suspenseful and cathartic, and even the schmaltzy stuff is so distinctly John Woo that it's welcome"
		Jake Kring-Schreifels The Film Stage	"It sacrifices exhilaration and settles for emptiness"
		John Nugent Empire	"John Woo’s first American film in 20 years is not the filmmaker at his peak — but it has its moments, with energetically filmed action enough to distract from a melodramatic tone and sometimes silly concept (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Bob Strauss San Francisco Chronicle	"The faithful Woo fans should find them worth the wait triumphant (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.