The derivative, but easily watchable yuletide thriller Carry-On is the definition of a stupid movie done exceedingly well. The plot is the kind of thing that has been done to death, the dialogue comes straight out of the action hero playbook, and not a single thing that transpires carries a lick of real world credibility. And yet, it’s directed and acted with such giddy energy and infectious charm that it’s hard not to get caught up in the chaos. Given the film’s airport at Christmas setting, Carry-On pleasingly captures the thrill of speeding one’s way through a paperback in the same amount of time it takes to fly from point A to point B.
LAX TSA agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Edgerton) is starting off Christmas Eve on a high note, despite having to work on one of the busiest travel days of the year. He has just learned that his airline manager partner, Nora (Sofia Carson), is expecting a baby. She really wants him to reapply for the job on the police force that he covets, but he doesn’t want to face rejection again. Instead, he asks his superior (Dean Norris) for a chance at a promotion. Taking a chance on the young man, Ethan gets promoted to running the x-ray baggage check, which comes with added responsibility. But little does Ethan know that this switch in jobs has thrown the plans of a devious terrorist (Jason Bateman) and his crew into disarray. Ethan is blackmailed into letting a suspicious, deadly package slip through security, or else everyone close to him will suffer the consequences.
The script from T.J. Fixman (best known for working on the Ratchet and Clank video games) packs every paranoia thriller cliche into Carry-On, so much so that it becomes charmingly dunderheaded instead of numbingly dumb. There are quick thinking and heroic misdirections aplenty, near misses by the truckload, constantly watching villains, betrayals, ticking clocks, people communicating with earpieces, a hero that has to furiously run between places. If you can think of it, Carry-On is giving it like they found a Black Friday special at the action movie clearance store. If you’ve seen Nick of Time, Red Eye, Enemy of the State, Cellular, North by Northwest, or anything of that ilk, you know precisely the tone and tenor Carry-On is going for, albeit with a dash of Michael Bay’s The Rock thrown in for good measure. If you haven’t seen or heard of any of those, then congratulations. You are in for a treat. (Although, in an odd twist, Carry-On doesn’t pull a ton of inspiration from the most famous Christmas action movie to ever be set at an airport, Die Hard 2. That is, at least until closer to the climax.)
But even if you’ve seen some/all of the films Carry-On is gleefully riffing on, you’re in good hands with director Jaume Collet-Serra at the helm. Serra (Jungle Cruise, The Commuter, Non-Stop, the House of Wax remake) is a master at elevating mid-tier genre fodder into something slick, propulsive, witty, and engaging. Despite being almost a full thirty minutes longer than it needs to be, Carry-On moves at a consistently quickened pace, and the action beats – particularly a brawl in and around the baggage sorting machinery of the airport and a masterfully filmed, ingeniously choreographed bit of vehicular mayhem – rarely if ever disappoint. Serra makes this kind of goofiness seem effortless in the best possible way.
The addition of a somewhat overqualified cast also helps to elevate Carry-On further skyward. Egerton is a likeable, physically capable everyman hero, and he looks like he’s having a blast rushing around the terminal like a madman. As the actual madman, Bateman strikes the right balance of menace to go along with his deadpan comedic chops, used to outstandingly dark effect here. Danielle Deadwyler gets a great showing here as an LAPD officer whose investigation into the murder of some Russian gangsters leads her head on into Ethan’s troubles at the airport. Even the character actors tasked with playing other cogs in the plot’s machinations each get their chance to shine for a few scenes. Carry-On has a cast that fully understands all of this is in good fun, and they’re taking it just seriously enough for the whole thing to hold together.
Don’t go looking for any degree of logic or plausibility in Carry-On and you should be fine. If that’s the kind of thing that bothers you, steer as far away from this one as possible. But if you want something that makes perfect background noise while wrapping presents on an eggnog bender, you could do a lot worse than this.
Carry-On streams on Netflix starting Friday, December 13, 2024.
