High-Octane
Summary
Carry-On is the kind of movie we used to get back in the 90’s and I’ve missed them. Jason Bateman makes for a great villain and I really liked Egerton as the appealing lead. There isn’t much action for the first 30-40 minutes but it’s setting everything up and we get several fight scenes throughout making this well worth adding to your Christmas list.
Plot: A young airline security guard is blackmailed by a mysterious passenger who threatens to smuggle a dangerous package onto a plane on Christmas Eve.
Review: It probably wasn’t the best idea to watch Carry-On two days before flying home for Christmas, so here’s hoping my in-flight movie isn’t Die Hard 2 otherwise I’m never getting a plane again.
Carry-On stars Taryn Egerton as a failed cop turned TSA Officer called Kopek who has a baby on the way; his girlfriend Nora wants him to reapply to the police as he has never been the same since getting rejected. On Christmas Eve a mysterious stranger known as The Traveler (Jason Bateman) tells him that he has to allow a package through the TSA system or Nora will be killed.
The film sets everything up nicely with Egerton proving an appealing everyman who just wants to do right by his lady. Is he willing to allow hundreds of people to die in her place? That’s the basic premise of the film and it manages to be tense from the very opening.
The revelation here is Jason Bateman who is an incredibly effective villain and always seems one step ahead; he also gives Ethan some advice about his life where it’s almost like Die Hard 2 meets Collateral, meets Phonebooth. The fact it’s set at Christmas means I’ll likely check this out again in future holiday seasons as this was a hugely entertaining action thriller.
I’m sure I’ve said this before but before the Death Wish remake came out with Bruce Willis, I always wanted Jason Bateman to play Paul Kersey; watching him turn from family man to killer would have been more interesting that seeing Bruce Willis do it as we’ve had that many times before.
Anyway, Carry-On is a little light on action in the first half, but as things ramp up we get several fight scenes and a hilarious fight in a car to the tune of Last Christmas.
This feels like the kind of movie we got in the 90’s and like several other Netflix pictures I would have happily seen this on the big screen.
Overall, Carry-On may feel familiar but that’s not always a bad thing as I thought Bateman and Egerton were fantastic in their respective roles. The first half isn’t packed with action, but as it goes on we get some awesome fight scenes and it’s a fun throwback to 90’s action thrillers.