Red One—Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Chris Evans’ action movie about rescuing a missing Santa Claus to save Christmas—is being bombarded with negative reviews.

Directed by Jumanji helmer Jake Kasdan, Red One opens in theaters on Friday, November 15. The Red One review embargo lifted Wednesday, however, and movie critics aren’t too impressed by the film in early reviews.

The official logline for Red One reads, “After Santa Claus—Code Name: RED ONE—is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security (Johnson) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Evans) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.”

ForbesTom Hanks Rips Movie Critics With Disparaging C-WordBy Tim Lammers

Red One also stars J.K. Simmons as Santa Claus, Bonnie Hunt as Mrs. Claus and Kristofer Hivju as Krampus. The cast of Red One also includes Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka and Mary Elizabeth Ellis.

As of Wednesday, Rotten Tomatoes critics have collectively given Red One a 35% “rotten” rating based on 20 reviews.

The rating, of course, could change for the better or worse once more critics see the film and post their reviews before the film opens on November 15.

What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Red One’?

Owen Gleiberman of Variety is among the top Rotten Tomatoes critics who panned Red One, writing “Red One could almost be the movie version of Vampire Assassin 4. It’s that busy and bumptious, that overstuffed with cheesy digital effects, that generically derivative a piece of violent kitsch.”

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter also gave Red One a “rotten” review, writing, This is a high-concept, CG-saturated bore that lacks heart and infectious humor, even if it huffs and puffs its way to a little poignancy in the end.”

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Additionally, New York Magazine/Vulture’s Alison Wilmore’s “rotten” review of the film notes, “If Red One were a disaster, it’d be more interesting. Instead, it’s a technically passable action-comedy transparently stitched together from parts scavenged from other movies.”

Despite the smattering of negative reviews, Red One did manage to impress some of RT’s top critics, if only slightly.

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As such, William Bibbiani of The Wrap writes, “It all averages out to slightly above average. For a film like Red One that’s about as good as anyone could hope for.”

Screen International’s Tim Grierson also gave Red One a “fresh” review with some caveats, writing, The mixture of laughs, sentiment and action should satisfy undemanding families, and the story’s world-building offers enough novelty to what can otherwise be a predictable package.”

Rated PG-13, Red One opens in theaters nationwide on November 15.

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Tom Hanks launched into a playful tirade on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast in which he took listeners through the long and winding road that is a movie’s reception. At one point, the two-time Oscar winner humorously referred to movie critics as “cocksuckers” as it’s ultimately time that is the decider of a movie’s value and not the reviewers. Case in point: Hanks’ 1996 directorial effort “That Thing You Do!,” which was dismissed by critics upon release before time turned into a beloved cult classic.

“All of this stuff lives. Now what has happened is that time has become one of the metrics for how these things matter, right?” Hanks said about a movie’s reputation. “Back in the day it was just a fistfight. It was every movie you had coming out, are you going to make the playoffs or not? Guess what? No, kid, you ain’t going nowhere. Or, you got a shot.”

“It used to be you had these Rubicons that you crossed,” the actor explained. “First of all, do you love it or not? That’s the first thing. I read this [script] and I love it. The next Rubicon you cross is when the movie is completely done a year and a half later and you see it for the first time, and you might like it. It doesn’t matter if it works or not. You look at it and say, ‘Hey, I think we acquitted ourselves pretty good.’ That’s Rubicon No. 2.”

“Then the critics weigh in, that’s Rubicon No. 3, and that’s always up or down: ‘We hate it, we like it. This is the worst thing. … Oh hey, Tom, I saw you in a movie. It was cute.’ That’s when you ask the wife, ‘Hey, honey, could you take the revolver out of the glove box and hide it somewhere, because I think…”

After the critics comes the box office, and “then a ton of time goes by when none of that stuff matters anymore,” Hanks said. Time ultimately trumps whatever critics had to say about the film.

“The movie just exists exactly as it is outside of loser or winner status or thumbs up, thumbs down,” Hanks continued. “And that’s when this stuff comes around, where it’s like that this thing that didn’t work back then kind of does work now, or just the opposite, a thing that was huge back then is a museum piece and doesn’t really speak to anything.”

O’Brien then brought up “That Thing You Do!,” to which Hanks responded: “Let me tell you something about these cocksuckers who write about movies. Can I say that?”

Hanks remembered a critic who originally dissed “That Thing You Do!” by writing: “Tom Hanks has to stop hanging around with veterans of TV, because this is just like the shot on TV and it’s not much of anything.” As the decades passed and the film became a cult classic, the same critic weighed in and loved the movie. “They said, ‘All you need is 20 years between now and then, and it ends up speaking some words,’” the actor remembered.

“But that’s the thing we all signed up for,” Hanks concluded. “That’s the carnival, that’s the contest. I got faith in that. That’s okay.”

Hanks has been making the press rounds in support of his new movie “Here,” which reunites him with “Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Robin Wright. Listen to Hanks’ full interview on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast here.

Dr. Dre has secured a victory in his ongoing legal battle against a celebrity psychiatrist who last month filed a lawsuit accusing the rapper of harassment.

Dre previously was served a temporary restraining order after his former divorce therapist, Dr. Charles Sophy, filed a $10-million lawsuit alleging his ex-client subjected him to a “systematic and malicious campaign of harassment.”

That provisional order was dissolved Tuesday after a judge ruled that Sophy failed to prove that Dre, born Andre Young, poses a threat to his physical safety — denying the psychiatrist’s request for a permanent restraining order.

“The Court finds the party requesting the order of protection did not sustain the applicable burden of proof and accordingly the request is denied,” Los Angeles County Judge Melanie Ochoa said Tuesday afternoon, according to a minute order obtained by The Times.

Sophy’s professional relationship with Young dates back to 2018, the psychiatrist said in his Oct. 9 lawsuit, when he began offering marriage counseling to the “Still D.R.E.” artist and his now ex-wife, Nicole Young. After working “diligently, independently, and fairly to help Young and his ex-wife resolve their disputes,” Sophy ceased contact with the couple in 2021, when their divorce was finalized.

“Fourteen months later, and suddenly, without warning, Young launched a sustained campaign of abusive messages, late-night reminders that he would not ‘forget’ Dr. Sophy, and homophobic slurs,” Sophy’s lawsuit said, adding that Young took out his frustration at the outcome of the mediation on the psychiatrist.

The Oct. 9 filing also claimed that Young once sent people to Sophy’s address to intimidate him — an accusation Young denied at Tuesday’s hearing, which he attended via Zoom.

In a statement, Young called Sophy’s lawsuit and subsequent restraining order request elements of “a misguided attempt to undermine” his reputation after he filed a complaint against Sophy with California’s medical board last May, according to a Monday filing reviewed by The Times.

The rapper filed that complaint, he said, after allegedly discovering that Sophy “had attempted to poison my relationship with my son, including by urging him to disclose my financial records to the media as part of his attempts to pressure me into settling my divorce on unfair terms.”

While Young admitted sending some of the texts Sophy included in his Oct. 9 harassment lawsuit, he said they “were sent in the context of my discovery of his malpractice and my unsuccessful attempts to have Sophy explain to me why he was undertaking these inappropriate actions.”

In the Monday filing, Young’s attorney Howard E. King referenced a Sept. 30 police report wherein Sophy told law enforcement that he was “concerned for his safety ‘because of recent events involving P. Diddy because of the violent behavior of Young’s friends.’” King argued that Sophy’s proof of emotional distress “consists entirely of invoking the racist caricature that depicts Black men, like Young, as inherently violent.”

Sophy’s lawyer, Christopher Frost, said in a statement to Rolling Stone that Young’s filing “hurled ugly and unfair claims of racism at my client.”

“We have always been aware that we are up against a celebrity in this matter and, while it might be easy to make those charged and disingenuous claims and amplify them, it does not change the fact that Dr. Sophy has pursued legal action solely because of Mr. Young’s consistent pattern of behavior,” Frost said, adding that Sophy remains committed to his lawsuit despite Tuesday’s ruling.

An initial hearing in the harassment case is scheduled for April 4.