I love action movies with a Christmas theme. There aren’t many, but we’re adding one to the list this year: The Man with the Bag. Prime has finally dropped the first trailer, and we get to see the magic between the two stars, Alan Ritchson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie will be available with a Prime subscription on December 2nd, and I’m already getting in a holiday mood.
The Trailer Looks So Fun!
A couple of years ago, Amazon MGM produced Red One as a Christmas action movie with Dwayne Johnson, and, well, it bombed. I actually secretly loved it, though. I even watched it again last Christmas. This one feels very much in the same vein, which may turn people off, but surely people are excited to see Schwarzenegger pass the torch of the biggest action star in the world (literally and figuratively) to Ritchson in this upcoming Christmas movie? Ritchson is a natural inheritor of action roles Schwarzenegger took on at the peak of his career. Everyone wants to see Ritchson play the Terminator! I sure do.
The Man with the Bag, at least from the trailer, does feel like a handoff. Schwarzenegger plays Santa, and he’s looking for a traitorous elf played by Akwafina who’s stolen his bag of presents. He enlists a thief (Ritchson) to help him recover the bag and save Christmas. It’s not exactly the most complicated plot, but Christmas shouldn’t be complicated. It’s family-friendly and fun. That’s what makes for Christmas movies that you want to watch year after year. Jingle All the Way, also starring Schwarzenegger, is certainly one of those movies. This looks like it could be too.