Perhaps “Red One” would work a little better (i.e., at all) if Evans and Johnson had any chemistry — at least this film should make you excited for Johnson’s entrée into serious screen acting with Benny Safdie’s upcoming wrestling biopic “The Smashing Machine.” You don’t watch “Red One” so much as stare ahead at the screen. It is a movie that is playing in front of you, I can comfortably give it that much, and for one meant to summon up the Christmas spirit, there’s not a whiff of mirth from the screenplay to the production level.

“Red One” will make you not only bummed about the holidays ahead, but about cinema’s future as well. Yet if you’ve been paying attention (and wasting your money at multiplexes in the process), the latter’s a reality far less shattering than the dawning of Santa Claus’s own upon a hopeful child. Make it a Christmas miracle, and cross this “Red One” off your list.