Review: Carry-On

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Stars: Taron Edgerton, Danielle Deadwyler, Sofia Carson

Before a contingent of (older, likely British) readers start getting misty-eyed over names like Sid James or Barbara Windsor, it’s probably best we nip in the bud any cinematic confusion. This new yuletide Netflix thriller has no connection whatsoever to the bawdy series of comedies proffered by Peter Rogers Productions throughout the ’50s thru ’70s. We’re in the arena of hand luggage here, folks, and as the countdown to Christmas reaches peak stress levels, veteran action filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra returns to old stomping grounds, turning up the heat under our collective turkeys.

Ethan Kopek (Taron Edgerton) is a TSA agent at LAX, whose career is in a rut. He’s been going through the motions since taking the job, having been rejected from the police force – his dream occupation. But now that his partner Nora (Sofia Carson) has a baby on the way, he’s feeling the pressure to make a move, a change… anything to increase his stake in the world. Christmas Eve seems like a terrible day to strong-arm your boss (Dean Norris) into taking a more substantive role in airport security, but that’s Ethan’s decision. Little does he know that his last minute rota swap has put a spanner in the works of Jason Bateman’s subcontracting terrorist, who’s looking to get a special something through baggage check.

Collet-Serra’s been slightly off boil of late (to put it mildly) circumnavigating the CG soup of Hollywood dreck like Jungle Cruise and Black Adam. Carry-On marks a return to the tense genre exercises he rinsed through with Liam Neeson a decade ago, and is his best effort since the nippy eccentricities of The Commuter. Edgerton makes a sturdy, youthful enough foil for him, portraying Ethan as endearingly earnest, noticeably harangued by Bateman who takes control of him via a serrupticious earpiece.

This dynamic is pleasingly evocative of a number of high-concept thrillers of yore (Phone Booth for instance), and screenwriter T.J. Fixman leans into a throwback vibe throughout, peppering the surroundings with memorable wisecracking supporting players for us to alternately boo or cheer for.

Best among these is Danielle Deadwyler doing stalwart – nay classical – work as hardened LAPD detective Elena Cole, following a breadcrumb trail of evidence from a separate crime scene that puts her on a collision course with Ethan. While some elements of her arc evidence an ambitious reach that punishes the running time (I’m thinking particularly an in-car scrap on a freeway around the midway point), Cole represents a genre staple exercised with aplomb. A knowing familiar that helps Carry-On spark with it’s ’80s and ’90s forefathers.

Speaking of, it’s time to address the elephant in the room. With it’s lone man against an organised criminal enterprise, terrorism trappings and Christmas setting, the shadow of Die Hard hangs heavy over Carry-On. Like Die Hard and its sequels, many of the twists and turns here require a certain suspension of disbelief. Collet-Serra’s offering sits comfortably within this legacy and, if it were shoehorned into that franchise, would stand as the best entry since With a Vengeance. Where it falls down – and this is nit-picky – is that it’s festive trappings don’t particularly tessellate thematically with Ethan’s personal quest for fulfilment and autonomy.

Bateman’s nameless Traveller applies direct psychological pressure along these lines, and there’s something of a nod to the thankless nature of our gig economy in his method of ‘sub-contracting’ the thornier aspects of his plan to hapless members of the public who have been twisted to do his bidding. But none of this is remotely festive other than the urgency of the holiday applying demand on the terminals to keep people moving through the gates.

The first half of the movie isn’t all that action-y, instead relying on Hitchcockian suspense as we bed down with the mental chess moves happening between Ethan and his elusive controller. This is handled extremely well and probably amounts to the strongest section. Once Ethan starts sprinting around the terminal like a dead ringer for Robert Patrick’s T-1000, Carry-On enters more comfortably generic ground.

There’s an inevitable lack of substance here that means this airport melodrama doesn’t linger long in the mind after it’s taxied down the runway but, in terms of Netflix offerings, it’s a resounding success, way beyond the dismal expectations one associates with the streamer. Between this and Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge from earlier this year, there’s even a sense of FOMO that these suspenseful action outings have bypassed cinemas, where they might’ve really rallied the crowds.

If you’re torn between this and the truly terrible Red One, rest assured it’s no contest. Your 2024 Christmas actioner is this one.