‘Silent Night’ is John Woo’s Best Film in 25 Years

No, the headline is not hyperbole. John Woo is back. With a vengeance. The review embargo for Woo’s “Silent Night” has lifted and I can now tell you that it’s his most entertaining film since 1997’s “Face Off.”

First off, let’s just tackle the reviews that have dropped. So far, 14 have been counted and it has an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I’ll fully review “Silent Night” on Thursday. It’s set to be released on December 1st. What I will say is that Woo’s film tries to take a different approach to the action genre. This is a film with no dialogue. Rather, its story is told visually with just music accompanying the drama. Marco Beltrami composed the score, and it almost plays like an action musical.

The film stars Joel Kinnaman as a father on a mission to avenge his young son who was tragically caught in the crossfire of gang violence on Christmas Eve. Shot and nearly killed while in pursuit of the murderers, he vows to avenge his son by any means necessary.

The images tell the story here. The good news is that it doesn’t at all play like a gimmick. Yes, the plot is rather silly, and we’ve seen countless “street avenger” movies over the years, but this is a deliciously absorbing blood-soaked Christmas tale. I kind of love how it plays like a holiday movie.

The way Woo stages the action is also wonderful — he’s always had a real knack for framing and his wonderful, ballet-like sense of movement pays off here. Again, I’ll go a little more in depth with this one later in the week.

Woo’s last American film was 2003’s terrible Ben Affleck action flick “Paycheck.” He swore off Hollywood after that one. Woo was one of the best and most successful action directors out there, he made a name for himself with such Hong Kong classics as “The Killer,” “Hard Boiled” and “A Better Tomorrow.”

Then Hollywood came calling in the early ‘90s and the results were very mixed, his best one was 1997’s “Face/Off,” but he’s also had plenty of duds including “Mission: Impossible II,” “Hard Target,” “Windtalkers,” and “Paycheck.”