Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Written by: T.J. Fixman
Starring: Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Jason Bateman
Rating: [3.5/5]
While they do plenty to keep us safe, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has such a negative reputation and association in the United States. For one, they can move very slowly and the agents that have to deal with people who cannot follow directions tend to let out their frustrations that makes the airport experience one many people hate. Painting them as the heroes in a film like Carry-On sets up this film with an uphill battle, but acknowledging its ridiculousness allows this to be a fun Christmas film.
Typically seen as an underachiever but wanting to do more given his girlfriend is now pregnant, Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) checks in for another day of work as a TSA agent at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). When tapped to look at the scanners of carry-ons, he receives an ear piece with a voice instructing him to let a specific piece of luggage through without further scrutiny or someone will kill his girlfriend.
A simple premise and yet one that has everything needed to establish an action thriller, Carry-On puts a TSA officer through an impossible situation that he must navigate carefully. So many varying elements coalesce to make this situation stressful for Ethan. Not only does this take place during busy holiday travel period in one of the busiest airports in the world, he desperately wants to impress his supervisor, but he also has no idea what he could potentially let through the scanner. One would imagine it’s not an extra shampoo bottle outside of the liquid restriction imposed by the TSA but rather something quite malicious. Failure to comply could lead to the tragic murder of his girlfriend but letting something dangerous through could lead to even more casualties.
I would certainly not like to be in that moral dilemma but it’s what makes the movie fun and as serious as things get, this film does not forget to entertain with this premise as it contains many silly moments to balance out the very serious ones. Some get ridiculous, for example, when Ethan’s girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson) begins to get chased by one of the henchmen she notices his presence and instead of staying in the highly secured airport she decides to run outside into an empty parking garage. Decisions that make no sense but we need to have our characters in peril here. Anyone who knows even the slightest thing about aviation will find issues with the reality of how things transpire in this film, but when has that stopped other action films from having 100% realism? This among other things allow for holes to be poked at the film but ultimately in the end as a whole we get something very entertaining.
As with any action film, part of what makes them successful not only comes from a hero we can connect with but also a villain worth fearing and we got just that with The Traveler (Jason Bateman). We never get his real name but Jason Bateman does a spectacular job as a villain. Mostly known for his protagonist roles throughout his career, the way he easily shifts into such a menacing presence deserves plenty of praise and he knocks it out the park. Much of his evil comes directly through his voice much like Kiefer Sutherland did in Phone Booth. That paired with his ruthless efficiency in the way he navigates makes him quite the foe. Egerton on the other side whips out an American accent that certainly took me aback given his Britishness but he successfully embodies this everyman persona to display that this guy may have some training but he certainly does not have a mastery of skill like the villains here.
A jolly good time and very much deserving to sit in the Christmas action film canon like Die Hard, Carry-On has its silliness but in the end it delivers a thrilling film centered on a high-stress circumstance that kept me on my toes from beginning to end. We can poke holes in some of its logic and it certainly has its flaws but ultimately the movie hammers home the entertainment and succeeds in how it sets up its premise and delivers what it sought to bring.
Films with Josh 
