Ethan Kubiak, the kind of everyday hero who might have been played by Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis in the 1980s, always wanted to be a cop. Instead, he works in airport security — not even the basic task of checking passengers’ luggage for bombs. For the past three years, a stranded TSA agent has been stuck somewhere in the depths of Los Angeles International Airport, doing what he doesn’t know how, and dreaming of a promotion that will never come.
Netflix’s stupidly fun ‘Carry-On’ takes place on Christmas Eve, one of the busiest travel times of the year, and Ethan (Taron Egerton) chooses this moment to prove himself, begging his boss (a grouchy Dean Morris) to “Put me on the machine ” His supervisor agrees, and he feels generous, but this is not Ethan’s lucky day. Within minutes of sitting down in front of a CT scanner, Ethan finds himself in the middle of a low-stakes game of “Die Hard”: someone is trying to smuggle a suitcase full of the nerve agent Novichok onto a crowded passenger flight, and they’ve chosen Ethan as the weak link they can manipulate past the point of Inspection.
Sometimes you see a high-concept Hollywood thriller whose basic idea is so fresh and original, you marvel at the mind that came up with it. “Carry-On” is not that movie. Conversely, TJ Fixman (a writer on the “Ratchet & Clank” video game series, penning his first non-“R&C” film here) and director Jaume Collet-Serra (are on familiar ground, after Liam Neeson’s thrillers “Unknown” and “Non “-Stop”) Start with a very hackneyed premise that you may have imagined yourself when going through airport security: How could a terrorist outmaneuver this system?
The film’s answer is to have evil men (including a ruthless killer played by Jason Bateman) bully and threaten Ethan into following their orders. The excitement begins the moment he inserts the “lost” earpiece and hears Bateman’s voice giving orders. In theory, it would be much easier to squeeze in one of the many other airport employees, who come and go through less secure entrances every day. But the trick here is to convince a dedicated agent to go beyond his duty, while giving the bad guys “Mission: Impossible”-level access to all of LAX’s surveillance cameras.
With more plot holes than passengers at this crowded airport, Fixman’s script needs us to believe just one thing: that Ethan is so committed to his pregnant girlfriend Sofia Carson (Nora Parisi) that he will risk his job and the lives of everyone at LAX in order to prevent the arrival of… No harm to her. Without spoiling the surprise, the film eventually reveals that another character is under the control of the terrorists as well – this one because the bad guys took their husband hostage. Screenwriters love using this device (like the first time Jack Bauer’s daughter is kidnapped in “24” and he’s ordered to assassinate the president), because it makes weapons for everyday people, inviting the audience to ask: What would you do in their situation? ?
In the case of “Carry-On,” Ethan is an ordinary guy given the opportunity to be a hero and An ordinary man is blackmailed into endangering everyone at Los Angeles International Airport — a tense internal tug-of-war shown in uneasy close-ups of Edgerton’s strategically clenched jaw (have you ever noticed how the actor’s geometric face, when positioned this way, suggests an octagon?). It’s shot here in this over-lit, broadcast-optimized way where you can count almost every pore. As “Kingsman” proved, Egerton is a charismatic action star, and this film gives him multiple opportunities to do Tom Cruise-style speedruns through an airport.
For Spanish director Colette Serra, the project is a stylish and relatively realistic reset after the bombastic hype of Black Adam, while still delivering a range of stunning scenes – and none more stunning than a single shot of a highway. A scene in which FBI agent Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler) fights her way out of a speeding car. Elena and the driver wrestle over a gun as the car crashes into obstacles on both sides, all while traveling at 70 miles per hour.
Although Collet-Serra offers creative solutions for each of the action sequences, the project is actually most effective when the audience’s attention is sharpened to the primary characters. And because it’s Netflix, there’s nothing stopping you from shouting instructions at the screen any time Ethan seems slow to make the right decision. Early on, Bateman’s character kills one of Ethan’s colleagues, effectively suggesting that there are consequences anytime Ethan disobeys.
Not an obvious casting choice, Batman may be the movie’s MVP, as he brings an unexpectedly likable dimension to the nameless psycho barking orders into Ethan’s ear — and he’s much nicer than the superficially similar control freak voiced by Kiefer Sutherland in “Phone Booth.” “. Batman plays the game so assertively, yet friendly, that we believe he can immediately develop a relationship with the man he’s controlling remotely, while Ethan’s strategy is to distract and stall while he tries to identify and eventually defeat the criminal.
When watching “Carry-On” on Netflix, you might actually take some pleasure in its inconsistency, which leaves ample space — in the form of long stretches devoid of dialogue, where Lorne Balfe’s overall score gives the whole thing a made-for-TV feel — provided a sarcastic commentary from Family sofa. If you’re traveling this Christmas, pity those TSA agents. And if you’re staying at home, feel comfortable knowing Carry-On puts you on standby.