Last night I decided to watch something new after getting my pending bucket list already low enough so everyone have been talking about Carry On (2024) by Netflix and I have to say it took me a little while to get into it. The first 30 minutes of the movie are so slow that I almost turned it off, not that the movie is bad but I wasn't getting any excitement out of it bu, things get interesting real quick, its when Jason Bateman shows up. Die Hard and Phone Booth elements are thrown into this Christmas themed airport action thriller, with some success and some failure until you get to the end and realize its an ok one time watch movie.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21382296/
- Platform: NETFLIX
Rottentomatoes Rating
The movie starts at LAX airport on Christmas Eve, as one of the worst days to be at an airport and develops around TSA officer Ethan Kopek played by Taron Egerton who I think did a good job, its my impression that the target was to develop a character who is afraid of challenges in life but the do or die situation starts to reveal what he is capable of. The setup of the movie is pretty basic, Ethan just failed to make it into the police academy and his girlfriend Nora played by Sofia Carson just told him she is pregnant, but their relationship feels off for the movie, neither one of them having the advantage or chemistry of any sort. Egerton is lost most of the time and Carson comes off a bit bossy, so their scenes together feel a little more awkward than romantic, she looks like this trophy doll girlfriend and he has this lucky guy "I don't deserve you" impression, really weird if I have to describe it.
Ethan gets his hands on a mysterious earpiece, ""left"" but someone on a bin but latter on we find out who she was, things start to pick up and that's when Jason Bateman shows up as the movie's villain, whose name is only the Traveler. From here on the movie becomes more exciting than a slow burning airport drama, Bateman brings his usual stone cold face and sarcastic tone to the role, and every threat and interaction with Ethan is more interesting having this kinda of web of lies and chess game at the same time to manipulate Ethan into doing what he wants.
There is nothing complicated to the story and after watching the movie I notice that some mention The Commuter (2018) where Liam Neeson goes through a similar situation. On the movie there are some logic defying moments , like how you get into a moving plane's cargo hold and some deaths that didn't seem so messy as they should have, like Phil's death scene, the kind of things that are sin in other genres like Racing Theme movies, going back to Fast and Furious, for example when Brian's Eclipse drops a bottom plate from the car for no reason, that type of nonsense.
As for the cast, Taron Egerton does the best he can with what he’s got but his American accent at times felt odd but that is just a minor detail, no biggie. As the movie progresses his performance gets stronger and when the action scenes start to kick in his performance really starts to shine, goes from the guy that will do anything to keep Nora safe, meaning doing what ever the Traveler says to the point of he is all in willing to take risks. Jason Bateman steals the show in here because he is the man in control and same as Taron starts slow just putting pressure on Ethan by just talking until the time to go full throttle comes in and show Ethan he is not joking around. While Sofia Carson’s Nora doesn't quite get the most out of her role, her character is somewhat under develop and their relationship just doesn't have that spark we need to fully get on board with their love story, she is the least important, sorry but its true, to the story she is just a pressure target to get Ethan do what the Traveler says, nothing else.
Carry On isn't perfect, but let’s face it, it's easy to see how unrealistic it is for the Traveler and his associates; hitman "Watcher" played by Theo Rossi, to move through the airport with weapons and poisons, so quickly on a busy Christmas Eve at LAX. From the get go having Ethan intimidated so easy when they were not even close to Nora, I think most people would actually call her no matter what or drop the ear piece and run to her, because if they kill her on the airport everything is going to shut down is its counterproductive for their plan. Lastly there is one more scene that got me to say WTF, that's when Ethan jumps into the cargo area of a moving plane, I bet those are locked once they start moving. This are just a few moments that got me to remember older movies like Die Hard with all the very unrealistic stunts.
While the movie’s finale is exciting, it gets absurd but if you are like me, a tolerable person when it comes to movies because at the end of the day its just entertainment and instead of getting mad at the absurd moments you actually laugh at it then I would say its worth watching.
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