Disclosure: I worked on this film as an Office Production Assistant. You can even see my name in the credits! Yay!
It’s the holiday season, and it’s just not the holidays in the entertainment world unless someone is getting stabbed, threatened, or shot at on Christmas. Luckily, the first film in a new partnership between Netflix, Amblin Entertainment, and DreamWorks Pictures is here and it's primed to deliver a good dose of Christmas thrills and tension, set in everyone’s favorite place to be during the holidays: an airport.
“Carry On” follows Ethan Kopek, played by Taron Egerton (“Rocketman (2019),” “Kingsman: The Secret Service”), a TSA agent with a flagging career and a newly pregnant girlfriend Nora, played by Sofia Carson (“Descendants,” “Purple Hearts”), who also works at the airport. After getting to work on a busy Christmas Eve, Ethan finds himself being targeted by a mysterious man known only as the Traveler, played by Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development,” “Ozark”), who wants him to allow one bag through his TSA gate in exchange for Nora’s life. Meanwhile, Elena, an LAPD detective played by Danielle Deadwyler (“The Harder They Fall,” “Till”), finds herself on the trail of the Traveler and Ethan.
This is a well-oiled machine kind of a movie, plain and simple. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Orphan (2009),” “Black Adam”) and writer T.J. Fixman (“Ratchet and Clank (2016)”) craft a thriller with just enough flair to keep things from feeling too routine. None of the characters expand outside of their archetypes, but each actor performs their roles well and they fit into the story smoothly. Where Fixman spices things up within the formula is by injecting both Traveler and Kopek with a healthy amount of distrust and Jersey details. Some of the film’s best moments come from the pair of them simply bantering back and forth, with Bateman dishing out sassy remarks while Egerton holds his own and attempts to dish it back. The pair also prove to be a fair match when it comes to the film’s numerous action sequences as well. While what’s here is light work for Egerton given his experience with the “Kingsman” franchise, Bateman’s menacing vocal work and threatening persona end up turning him into a remarkably effective villain.
The rest of the characters stand out far less, and just like the film as a whole, they find themselves slipping into very neat and tidy cliches that have been seen countless times before in this genre. Deadwyler stands out a bit as the non-nonsense, determined LAPD detective, but there isn’t much beyond that. Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad,” “Claws”) does get some fairly good moments as Ethan’s snarky and sympathetic boss Phil, but there still isn’t much to the role we haven’t seen before.
As a technical work, Serra’s film is exceptionally well crafted. The camera work from cinematographer Lyle Vincent (“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” “Thoroughbreds”) emphasizes long sweeping movements, and there’s clearly an emphasis on smaller scale drone work. It also makes effective and interesting use of phone and tablets screens, representing them on screen in a fun way. Each moment ticks by with just enough flair and solid technical merits to keep things light-hearted and engaging. As light-hearted as a movie about a terrorist smuggling something into an airport can be, at least.
What’s possibly the most impressive aspect of the film is its pacing. Even for as many cliches and silly moments as “Carry On” has, it never drags. Things pick up and keep going, layering complications and small developments throughout, eventually building to a conclusion that legitimately keeps you guessing. It’s all just an extremely well-crafted thriller that feels straight out of the 90s or early 2000s. If it was a meal, it would be a standard ham & cheese sandwich, but a really good one at that.
“Carry On” fills the void of Christmas-tinted action thriller and fills it well. It also fills out plenty of the checklist for this kind of film. It never breaks out of the mold it places itself in, but it's there willingly and manages to be a fantastic example of exactly the kind of genre it's chasing, with excellent technical merits to boot. When you have a film this cliched that manages to have great pacing, a pair of great leads, and peppered with just enough tiny details and diversions to keep the main character and the viewer on their toes, you have a recipe for something that’s just a silly thrilling good time. 4/5
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