Carry-On

There is a tadition that keeps coming back every single year during the Christmas holiday online and that is the discussion:- Is the 1988 action classic Die Hard a Christmas movie or not? I swear i have seen this discusson go online for almost 20 years at least and this was before Facebook even existed where people discussed this on forum pages instead. In my personal opinion i would say it´s a Christmas classic even if you don´t get to see lots of snow or perhaps you don´t get to see lots of traditional Christmas food either. Die Hard may be one of the greatest action movies of all time honestly and there are so many things to appreciate about this film, no matter if you agree or disagree that this is a Christmas movie. First of all you have the character of John McClane played brilliant by action icon Bruce Willis who does a lot of really cool action scenes in this film, but i also love his sense of humour as he makes fun of the terrorists before killing as many as he can. You also have the brilliant performance from legendary actor Alan Rickman playing the terrorist leader Hans Gruber with his evil smile and sharp dialogue. There are also other fun side characters such as the sleaze bag Harrry Ellis ( played by actor Hart Bochhner ) who looks like Donald Trump Jr high on cocaine all the time. The action scenes from director John McTiernan are really fun and very effective as well. If you for some reason have not seen this film you simply have to, Die Hard is a true 80´s classic and should be bought on phsyical media. I do really enjoy both Die Hard 2 - Die Harder and Die Hard - With A Vengeance as well and i actually don´t mind Die Hard 4.0. But let´s not talk about the last Die Hard film from 2013 known as A Good Day To Die Hard, they never should have made it honestly. Speaking of similar films such as Die Hard a film called Carry-On was released on Netflix that seemed to be like Die Hard 2 with some differences of course. At least there were people online comparing this film to Die Hard 2 this definetely caught my attention. Also that this film stars Taron Egerton from the wonderful The Kingsman films, where i especially loved the first film. Knowing im a big fan of action films in general of course i had to check this film out. Is is possible that Carry-On is a future action classic or is this a Netflix film that no one will probably remember?

Ethan Kopek ( Aron Tegerton ), a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer at Los Angeles International Airport, has become cynical and unambitious after failing the police academy by concealing his father´s criminal history. On Christmas Eve, his pregnant girlfriend Nora Parisi ( Sofia Carson ), encourages him to reapply and pursue his dream. Instead, Ethan requests his supervisor, Phil Sarkowski ( Dean Norris ), assign him to manage the baggage-scanning lane, hoping to demonstrate his merit for a promotion. During the shift, Ethan receives an earbud, through which he is contacted by a ruthless mercenary, The Traveler ( Jason Bateman ), who orders him to let a specific carry-on case pass through the scanner, or Nora will be killed. At first Ethan think this is a joke until The Traveler proves his being serious. This is the beginning of a nightmare for Ethan, and if he makes one mistake his future family may be gone for good.

Even though i can understand why some people would be reminded of Die Hard 2 in certain scenes of Carry-On i can honestly say this film reminded me of a completely different film. How many of you remember the psychological thriller Phone Booth from 2002 by legendary director Joel Schumacher ( his best film after Falling Down in my opinion )? You could say that Carry-On follow a similar pattern as Phone Booth did, where one man were chosen to follow some rules or people would be killed if he leaves a phone booth. The difference in Carry-On is that the main character Ethan is told to let a bag through custody control and he is forced to make sure that happens. The psychological aspect of this story is actually the most interesting part of Carry-On, how far are you willing to go to make sure no innocent people will be killed for your mistake? Are you willing to take any chances at all just in case it could cause more damage? The performance from lead actor Taron Egerton is pretty solid and i do feel he handle his character Ethan well in this situation. I would also say he does a good job on his action scenes. The strongest acting performance is in my opinion Jason Bateman as the Traveler and i love his cocky attitude towards Ethan. I think this was the right approach for a villain who clearly is not stupid and knows how to play games with people. And Jason himself must have had fun playing this character since he seems to take his character seriously. It takes a little while before the action scenes themselves kicks in so don´t expect this to be a fast gripping action feast, but once Carry-On get onto the right track there are some fun moments to appreciate. In general i would say Carry-On manage to be entertaining enough for me to recommend this film, especially if you enjoy action thrillers in general. Director Jaume Collet-Serra ( who dircted the really fun shark action film The Shallows, worth checking out ) clearly know how to handle this genre well and use a whole airport effective to match the story and the characters. For a 2 hour action film i think Carry-On have enough power to please the Netflix audience. It may not be as good as The Kingsman but still deliver a good time, especially if you love Christmas related films. I don´t know about you but i definetely feel like spending a whole day at an airport thanks to Carry-On, that has to be a good sign right?

Rating: DDD