Silent Night (2023) - Movie Review

John Woo, the action filmmaker that just about every other action film or even parodies of every other action film over the past forty years owes some artistic debt to, has returned to Hollywood. While his work State-side never really managed to reach the artistic heights of his heyday, as memetic as films like Face/Off and even Mission: Impossible 2 have become, I’m still calling this a moment of potential celebration because… well, it makes the most sense why 2023 would be the year that he would come back. In the same time frame that John Wick, a franchise that simply wouldn’t exist without John Woo’s iconic approach to action thrills, reached its creative apex with Chapter 4, getting more of that grandeur direct from the source is quite the offer.

Fear Street Parts One, Two & Three (2021) - Movie Trilogy Review

The line separating television productions and cinematic productions is thinner now than it has ever been. There are several reasons for this: Increased production values for television, streaming services making both equally accessible, cinematic universes that operate under the same shared continuity as a TV series; the list goes on. Hell, it’s gotten to a point where I’d likely have more relevant material to work with if I reviewed more series on here rather than just sticking to films, but honestly, I tend to watch recent films but only get around to TV shows until well after they’ve ended so I can binge-watch in peace without having to deal with the hype train while it’s still on the tracks.

But then there are productions that blur the lines even further, like the subject of today’s review. A Netflix trilogy of films, all made by the same film crew back-to-back, and released within a week of each other; this is more miniseries than three contained films. As such, this review is going to be a bit different from my usual one-at-a-time methodology, as I’m going to look at all three in one go, highlight what separates them and, more importantly, what links them together.