What if Jolly Saint Nick didn’t feel so perky all the time – and could kick butt with the best of them? This becomes the concept behind 2022’s Violent Night.

Disenchanted with his belief that today’s kids lack the Christmas spirit, Santa Claus (David Harbour) gets drunk at an English pub. Nonetheless, he still embarks on his rounds, and these eventually lead him to the lavish estate owned by mega-wealthy Gertrude Lightstone (Beverly D’Angelo).

Gertrude’s extended – and fractured – family amasses for the holiday, but they find themselves forced to contend with armed robbers led by “Mr. Scrooge” (John Leguizamo). It turns out Santa used to embrace war over peace, and he ends up forced to resort to his old ways to save the Lightstones.

“Butt-kicking Santa” doesn’t offer a novel concept, as 2020’s Fatman provided a similar theme. However, Night follows its own path – albeit one heavily influenced by other properties.

At its core, Night strongly reflects two other noted holiday classics: 1988’s Die Hard and 1990’s Home Alone. Other references to fellow Christmas affairs abound – heck, Leguizamo appeared in Die Hard 2! – but the original Die Hard and Home Alone flicks remain the most obvious inspirations.

Does Night overtly rip off those films? Perhaps not, though it comes awfully close.

Especially as it relates to Die Hard. Night doesn’t literally duplicate that movie’s story, but it borrows liberally.

The filmmakers do this in a knowing manner – maybe a little too knowing, in fact. The characters of Night actually refer to Die Hard and Home Alone along the way, and those moments feel awfully on the nose.

Self-conscious as Night may become, it manages a moderately engaging affair, though like a lot of movies, it expects its premise to do much of the heavy lifting. Those involved seem to figure “violent Santa” offers such a stimulating concept that they don’t need to do the hard work involved with the creation of a genuinely good movie.

A significant problem comes from the messiness of the story. Night flits all over the place, nearly at random, and this creates a disjointed narrative.

We find ourselves separated from characters too often, especially in terms of Santa. While he never goes MIA for a tremendous span of time, he does disappear more than he should.

This impacts the other roles as well. As a result, we lose touch with the participants on too many occasions, and the story fails to flow as well as it should.

These flaws aside, Night manages enough action to keep us engaged, and a good cast helps. None of the actors stretch their talents, but they add spark to the proceedings.

I can’t help but view Night as a minor disappointment, simply because it borrows too obviously from other movies and it doesn’t gel on a consistent basis. Nonetheless, it provides a moderately lively affair that never takes itself too seriously.

Footnote: a minor tag scene appears early in the end credits.

Violent Night appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a pretty strong presentation.

Sharpness looked good. Next to no softness impacted the film, so it felt accurate and concise.

No concerns with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge enhancement remained minor. Source flaws also failed to create problems.

In terms of colors, Night went with “action-standard” orange and teal, though it leaned toward the amber side to reflect the Christmas setting. The disc replicated the hues in an appropriate manner, and HDR gave the tones a decent boost.

Blacks were deep and firm, while shadows showed good delineation. HDR added range to whites and contrast. Overall, this was a pleasing presentation.

Similar thoughts greeted the good Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Night. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, I felt the soundscape delivered an involving experience in which the action scenes offered a nice sense of impact.

The film packed plenty of these elements, so we got many instances of gunfire, explosions, and other lively tidbits. Overall, the mix filled out the room in a satisfying manner.

Audio quality was positive. Speech came across as natural and concise, without edginess or other issues.

Music showed good range, and effects offered a nice sense of impact. These were the kind of loud, impressive elements one would anticipate, as they showed solid clarity. This was a good soundtrack.

How did the 4K compare to the Blu-ray version? The Atmos audio expanded matters somewhat.

I couldn’t discover if it came from a true 4K source, but the UHD offered a moderate improvement over the Blu-ray. It didn’t blow away the Blu-ray, but it showed somewhat superior delineation, colors and blacks.

The 4K duplicates the BD’s extras, and we open with an audio commentary from director Tommy Wirkola, producer Guy Danella, and writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller. All four sit together for this running, screen-specific view of story and characters, cut scenes and alterations, cast and performances, sets and locations, stunts and action, music, effects, and connected domains.

Expect a pretty peppy and brisk chat here. Despite a bit too much self-praise, the participants keep things light and lively as they offer a fairly informative look at the movie.

Nine Deleted/Extended Scenes span a total of 19 minutes, two seconds. Most of these offer minor expansions of characters, so don’t expect a lot from them.

A few worthwhile bits emerge, though, such as one in which a newly-empowered Santa threatens a “bad dad” to clean up his act. The package also finishes with six minutes, 42 seconds of “Extended Scenes”, which really means it comes as a grab-bag of trims.

A few featurettes follow, and Quarrelin’ Kringle goes for three minutes, 45 seconds. It offers notes from Wirkola, producers Kelly McCormick and David Leitch, 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio, and actors David Harbour, John Leguizamo and Alex Hassell.

“Kringle” looks at the lead character and Harbour’s performance. A few useful notes emerge but much of this remains fluffy.

Santa’s Helpers spans five minutes, 56 seconds and involves Wirkola, Harbour, Leitch, Leguizamo, Hassell, Eusebio, scenic artist/on set painter Deborah Elizabeth, head greens person Corey Ticknor, costume designer Laura DeLuca, and actor Alexis Louder.

With “Helper’s”, we cover cast and performances, stunts and action, set design, and costumes. Expect another mix of minor insights and happy talk.

Finally, Deck the Halls with Brawls lasts six minutes, four seconds and provides comments from Wirkola, McCormick, Eusebio, Harbour, Leguizamo and actor/fight coordinator Phong Giang.

Here we learn a little more about stunts and action. It offers a rudimentary overview.

The package also includes a Blu-ray copy of Night. It features the same extras as the 4K.

The Blu-ray opens with ads for Halloween Ends and The Estate. No trailer for Night appears here.

With Violent Night, we essentially get “Die Hard with a Santa. The movie fails to quite live up to the high concept premise, but it still brings enough thrills to mostly work. The 4K UHD boasts solid picture and audio along with a reasonable array of bonus materials. Though not a Christmas classic, the film entertains.

To rate this film visit the prior review of VIOLENT NIGHT