John Woo returns to Western cinema for the first time in 20 years with … a Christmas movie? According to the trailer, yes – but this is a lie. The full extent of any Christmas connection is the title, the fact that Joel Kinnaman is wearing a Christmas jumper at the beginning, and his decision to “kill them all” on Christmas Eve. Presumably they thought of the “movie with almost no spoken dialogue” concept first, then realised “Silent Night” would be a good title, and then shoehorned in a Christmas connection. So what is it? It’s a generic revenge thriller, with the gimmick that it has almost no spoken dialogue at all. It’s just OK as an action film: some of the action is pretty good, but it’s as subtle as a sledgehammer, the inciting events are traumatic and genuinely horrible to watch, and the movie plays everything as seriously and pretentiously as it possibly can when the inherently silly concept was crying out for some levity. You should be clear going in that this movie is not fun at all: you will be spending new As an action movie? Interesting even if it is ultimately a failure. As a Christmas movie? Fails completely.