Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone.
I know it’s been a little while (once again), but I had to get a Christmas review out before too long.
Regardless, this marks another first, as it’ll be my first time covering a Netflix movie (or streaming release in general).
Though they don’t always have the best quality product (particularly in terms of their original films), there have been exceptions, and this is one of them.
I was interested in this not just because of the plot or setting, but because of the talent involved.
Without further ado, let’s get to it, as I present my review of Carry-On.
The story follows Ethan Kopek, a TSA officer working at LAX who is aspiring to become a cop. Since failing the academy, however, he has been disillusioned.
On Christmas Eve, his girlfriend Nora encourages him to keep going. Despite that, Ethan gets his supervisor to assign him to baggage scanning, in the hopes that he can prove himself for a promotion.
All seems normal enough, until at one point during his shift, he is given an earpiece, and then contacted by a ruthless mercenary who merely calls himself the Traveler.
The Traveler then gives him an ultimatum: allow a case containing a deadly nerve agent to go through the scanner, or people start dying.
What Worked: As simplistic as the plot is, it works for action thrillers like this. It’s really effective here, in fact.
For a movie that’s just under 2 hours, it goes by at a very fast pace, like some of the best action thrillers, set at Christmas or otherwise.
Some of them even come from the same director as this film, the underrated Jaume Collet-Serra*.
For example, when this wasn’t reminding me of movies like Die Hard or Speed (the parallels are there, which I’ll get to later), this did remind me of Non-Stop a couple times.
Now, I’m not knocking it for that, because it does feel almost like a throwback to 90s action movies, like the aforementioned Speed.
Plus, with someone like him onboard (no pun intended), you can expect the sense of fun you’d get from watching those movies. If there’s one consistency with him, it’s that.
He has one of the most varied filmographies you can see today. A lot of his work I’ve at least liked, but some of which I’ve loved, like The Shallows.
I even really liked Jungle Cruise and enjoyed Black Adam.
He’s one of those directors today where whenever I hear what their next project is, I’m at least interested to see it, even if I’m not instantly hyped for it.
Therefore, the plot had me intrigued, but his involvement is where it had my attention.
Then when some of the cast was announced, my interest piqued even further.
Our hero is played by Taron Egerton, who you may recognize from the Kingsman films or from his fantastic portrayal of Elton John in Rocketman.
He’s one of those characters where he gets in over his head while just doing his job, and Egerton makes him so likable to where you root for him due to the sense of urgency on display.
The most surprising aspect of the cast is the one credited last, so I’ll save him for last.
Next up, we have Sofia Carson, who’s mostly known for family friendly projects from earlier on in her career, as Nora, and for her first big thriller**, she did a really good job here.
Then we have Danielle Deadwyler (who had just recently garnered critical acclaim for her role in another Netflix film, The Piano Lesson) as Elena Cole, the detective investigating the weapon.
Similarly to Carson, she’s mostly known for one genre, that being dramas in this case, but I still found her very convincing as a figure of higher authority, especially considering this is her first big action movie. However, aside from dramas, she has done thrillers and horror to a degree, and her next movie (where she’ll be working with Collet-Serra again) you could say is a bit of both.
Speaking of actors who are convincing at playing figures of higher authority, we then get to someone who has a thing for doing it, as we have Dean Norris (who a lot of people recognize from Breaking Bad) as Ethan’s supervisor.
When I say he has a thing for doing it, I’m not exaggerating. Most of his filmography consists of either cop or military roles. For evidence of that, he’s led a SWAT Team at least twice, technically three times if you count The One.
It goes without saying that he’s good at it, and this is no exception, difference in authority type notwithstanding.
The last two cast members that are most noteworthy are the ones that I had no idea were in this until I saw it, and didn’t even recognize them as I was watching it.
The first is Theo Rossi (who was most recently seen on The Penguin), as the Watcher***, the Traveler’s partner who tracks Ethan’s every move to make sure he doesn’t make even a single wrong one.
He’s definitely good at playing henchmen for the main villain, as evidenced by his role on Luke Cage. He’s one of those actors that when he has that role, he’s so unsettling doing it.
The one that caught me off guard the most of the two was actually Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus, Spider-Man: Homecoming) as a Homeland Security agent who’s also part of the investigation.
There were ultimately three reasons I knew I had to mention him, and I’ve already established the first two, the second being that he was in two movies I’ve previously covered.
The third reason was that he happens to be in one movie that I’ve been eager to cover since it came out, but just haven’t yet****.
Now for perhaps the biggest surprise of them all. He’s mainly known for playing it straight, with either a know-it-all or constantly stressed demeanor, but with a deadpan way of going about it.
He doesn’t just play it straight here, it’s completely serious.
For the Traveler himself, we get Jason Bateman going against type. His performance and the character are actually all the better for it.
This is a cold and calculated villain who will not let anyone get in his way. When they do, he doesn’t hesitate to have them taken out, even when he has to do it himself.
He’s almost always one step ahead, and you’re tense the whole way to see how Ethan’s going to figure a way out of his situation.
There are times where you do see him, and he’s great in those scenes, yet I thought the most effective parts of his performance were when you were just hearing him.
He and Taron Egerton both had the best performances to me.
Now for the technical aspects.
The script, while not perfect, is decent enough on its own, as you can tell effort was put into it to combine the advice he was given on TSA guidelines with creative liberties taken for the sake of the narrative.
I will say this regarding it: It does have characters making largely smart and sometimes even clever decisions.
Lorne Balfe’s score, while not one of his best, is still pretty good. Even the song choices work for the most part.
The action, though, is where it really delivers, particularly in the third act.
For a PG-13 rating, there are some moments where it does get relatively graphic, but not to where it’s pushing the rating to its absolute limit (like to where it’s about to push over into an R). It’s just enough to show that there are consequences for every decision you do or don’t make.
What Didn’t Work: Going back to the script, its faults are not just the parallels to movies like Die Hard or Speed, which I’ll get to momentarily.
For example, there are small amounts of humor. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t.
The same can be said for the song choices to an extent. As previously stated, they work for the most part.
There is one where it felt like it was meant to be played for laughs (“Last Christmas” by George Michael), and yet it feels so out of place in that scene.
It’s played during a scene with two characters in a car. It starts with something that I won’t spoil, it leads to a fight in the car, and then the car crashes, and the song is playing throughout that whole moment.
Not only is it not subtle at all, it feels unintentionally hilarious. I’m not exaggerating here, either, when I say this has one of the fakest looking car crashes I’ve ever seen in a movie. I thought the one from In Time was bad, and I’m still going back and forth on whether this is close to that. In regards to topping it, though, I’d say not quite.
Aside from that, what effects they do have are at least decent.
Now for my two biggest issues (besides the obvious).
The first is there are some plot holes in here. There are a couple of examples I can give without giving too much away.
1: Whenever the villains take people out, not once do they get caught or found out. There would be security cameras everywhere.
And 2: Not once do they consider the option of tracing the Traveler’s own calls. It is true that Ethan would disobey his orders by contacting them himself, which he does try to do a couple times, but it’s also possible for the authorities to trace his calls and Ethan still would not need to do anything.
My point is this: The villains were good enough with the material provided, but the material itself could’ve been stronger.
Then again, we probably wouldn’t have a movie if they considered everything. Plus, even the movies this is meant to be a throwback to have those aspects to them.
My other issue is that there are some points that are very predictable, including the Traveler’s motivation, ultimately.
Now we get to the elephant in the room… the parallels.
Though this is trying to be its own thing, and it largely is, there’s no way around noticing parallels to those other movies, particularly Speed and of course Die Hard.
With Die Hard, the Christmas setting is a given. Ethan is a bit like John McClane, and Nora is his wife Holly. Elena Cole is basically Sergeant Al Powell to where both come in halfway into the movie. In a way, it has some parallels to Die Hard 2 as well, mainly with being set at an airport on Christmas Eve.
With Speed, Ethan’s more like Jack Traven than John McClane in that he’s younger. The villain directly talks to the hero with specific instructions. He has a weapon at his disposal that can cause significant damage.
With both, they’re good men who are both good at their jobs and just want to help, but they’re caught in a situation they have to figure a way out of without getting themselves or others killed.
I could go on, but we’d be here all day if not longer. Plus, I’m trying to keep spoilers to a minimum.
I will finish with this one, though: They all conclude in satisfying ways.
Overall: With a solid cast, particularly Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman being a surprisingly good villain, Carry-On, while not the least bit original, does have enough going for it throughout its runtime that it’s still very entertaining for a Netflix movie, especially for those looking for something to watch for Christmas or even New Year’s.
It has engaging yet occasionally elaborate sequences, and a constant sense of tension, thanks to an equally solid director and a decent enough script to still make it all work.
Even with the amount of problems I had with it, especially the parallels to other movies, as blatantly obvious as they were, they weren’t distracting me from enjoying the movie on its own.
In fact, I had a fun enough time watching it to where after I finished it, I was thinking that if it weren’t for the competition that would’ve come its way (particularly with the likes of Mufasa and Sonic), it might’ve had a chance of doing well had it been released in theaters. With a $47 million budget, which is very modest even today, a theatrical release could’ve drawn more attention to it.
Even without that, though, how it performed seemed to have done that enough for being released on streaming, earning more views in the week of its debut on Netflix than any of their other movies released this year. I would say it justified that, because of just how fun it is.
I considered having my next review be the one I would’ve done after Van Helsing, but I’ll more than likely have to hold off on that, so we’ll have to wait and see what it’ll actually be.
For now, though:
We had a better year
Where entertainment could thrive
So I hope to see you here
In 2025.
*I believe it’s pronounced “Jah-muh” (I’d heard different ones for years, but it wasn’t until when Black Adam was coming out that I had heard what seemed to be the official one). As soon as I had an opportunity to start covering his movies, I knew I had to address that.
**The last movie she was in that I was even aware of was 2020’s Songbird, which, despite having a bigger cast, was slammed by critics for not taking advantage of the established premise.
Spoiler Alert: It came out during (and was based on) the most recent time where the world went to Hell. Those who have been following the site long enough will immediately know where I’m going with this, so I don’t need to say anything else.
***Insert What If…? jokes here.
****Its director also happens to have a movie about to come out. I’ll put it this way: He saved one of Universal’s most iconic properties from itself by putting his own spin on it. Hopefully, he’ll end up pulling that off twice. Basically, that’s two or three shameless plugs in one review.