Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 59 minutes, Director – Jaume Collet-Serra
TSA agent Ethan (Taron Egerton) is threatened to let a deadly package onto a Christmas Eve flight, or else the mysterious passenger (Jason Bateman) speaking to him via an earpiece will kill his partner (Sofia Carson).
Carry-On is less Die Hard on cruise control and more Die Hard 2 on cruise control. Not just because of the airport setting, much of which is confined to security where passengers carry-on items are being scanned, but also because of the idea of terrorists plotting to ruin Christmas.
The man behind the scheme, who refutes the terrorist label, credited as Traveler (Jason Bateman) is little-seen throughout the film. Largely confined to the background of moving crowds or shown from the back. For the most part we hear his voice speaking into the ear of Taron Egerton’s TSA agent Ethan. Being encouraged by his recently-pregnant partner (Sofia Carson), who also works at LAX, to go back to police training he’s looking for a promotion. However, his dismissive boss (Dean Norris) says he needs to put in the effort and show that he wants the job. When things don’t go to plan for Traveler, Ethan becomes his blackmail victim, claiming to have a sniper ready to kill his partner if he doesn’t allow a deadly case of novichok onto a Christmas Eve flight.
The relationship between uncertain, yet outwardly calm, Ethan and the antagonist in his ear is certainly no McClane and Gruber, and as a whole the beats of their interactions, and the film as a whole feel very familiar. We’ve seen Carry-On’s arc a number of times and as a whole it means that this iterations feels tired quickly. While throwing in a subplot about LAPD detective Elena Cole (a wasted Danielle Deadwyler) following a track which leads to the airport this strand never has the energy to properly lift off. Instead it quickly falters and feels like out of place padding, which contributes the worst scene of the film in a truly terrible and visually ugly car fight, to simply build-up a character relevant to the third act.
Back in the airport there are some likable moments, largely as we see Egerton properly confront the situation at hand in a more upfront way, taking things into his own hands instead of being lead by Bateman’s character, despite the threatened consequences. Yet, for the sake of keeping the villain in frame and giving control back to him, often things loop back round to the mystery flyer regaining the upper hand and using Ethan as a pawn in his deadly plan, and if he doesn’t play along the whole airport could go down.
The stakes are made clear throughout, although not always felt depending on the circumstance and how far through the film we are, but they do add to the increasing desperation and worry of Egerton’s character who feels consistently out of his depth. The build-up relating to his home life is clearly in place to simply push lightly referenced details on to him to give him something to fight for, the effect they have is similarly light and at times feels forced when the focus of interactions with Carson’s Nora during breaks, where Bateman is still talking to him via the earpiece. Scenes like these help with certain character dynamics but eventually dip back into making Carry-On fall under the weight of its familiarity, and lacking nature when it comes to the overall suspense. It means that the film falls and struggles to find its own footing, following that steadily paved by other films and feeling almost like a copy of those instead.
References to Die Hard and its sequel are impossible not to make as Carry-On borrows from their formula and leads to a tired and familiar festive thriller that never quite captures the action or suspense that it wants.
Just A Little Bit Random 