Title – Carry-On (2024) 

Director – Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) 

Cast – Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, Dean Norris, Sofia Carson

Plot – On Christmas eve LAX TSA agent Ethan Kopek (Egerton) becomes an unwilling part of a plan spearheaded by a mysterious criminal known as Traveler (Bateman), setting in forth a cat and mouse game for Ethan to protect those he loves and a thousands of strangers. 

“All you have to do… is nothing”

Review by Eddie on 18/12/2024

Netflix’s latest end of year original offering, one that’s been compared without much merit to “Xmas” classic Die Hard, Jaume Collet-Serra’s latest pulse-pounding thriller that he has become known for over the last decade, Carry-On is a gentle but unmemorable distraction becoming yet another Netflix product that will boost viewership numbers and appease those that are seeking quickfire entertainment in a busy time of the year. 

Operating off a genuinely great if far from original set-up that throws us headfirst into the bedlam that is LAX on Xmas eve as we join Taron Egerton’s under pressure TSA agent Ethan Kopek who gets unwillingly thrown into a life and death situation involving Jason Bateman’s mysterious and ruthless big bad known simply as “Traveler”, Carry-On starts out with a lot of verve and promise that does peter out into a less interesting and far-fetched thriller that is nonetheless competently made and performed. 

Far better than some of Collet-Serra’s other genre entries such as The Shallows, The Commuter and Non-Stop, Carry On’s first 30 – 40 minutes is a relentlessly good time as the cat and mouse games between Ethan and Traveler begin to take shape and there’s rarely a pause for breath from the moment Ethan first puts in an earpiece and starts his danger fraught back and forwards with a potentially dangerous terrorist but the early joys do begin to give way to less and less interesting developments that require more parts of your brain to be switched entirely off. 

Surrounded by able-bodied supports such as Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris, Sons of Anarachy’s Theo Rossi and Till’s Danielle Deadwyler, Carry-On is very much the Egerton and Bateman show with the two well-liked performers doing fine work in the lead roles here with Bateman in particular once more showcasing that as much as he excels in the everyman likable roles he built his career around, he is scarily good as the “bad” guy and while for much of Carry-On he only is a voice in our ears, it’s enough for him to steal the show. 

It’s a shame all the elements and movements of Carry-On don’t tie up and eventuate into the all-round whole they might have been as while Collet-Serra’s latest well-financed offering provides some simple dumb fun and a nice distraction from time/commitments, there’s too much that doesn’t work to get within striking distance of calling this effort a new festive season set classic like Die Hard. 

Final Say – 

Starting out in a barnstorming fashion that sets it on a path to B-movie greatness, Carry-On quickly falls back into more middle ground averageness that is mostly upheld by two likeable lead turns and a novelty value setting. 

2 1/2 quickly by-passed heart attacks out of 5