By Geno McGahee
The action standard has been DIE HARD since it came out. It was the perfect action film and it has earned its way onto many best holiday film lists. When I start hearing that “the next DIE HARD” was released, I need to see it, and that’s what I heard about the 2024 Netflix film “CARRY-ON.”
I figured this would be a good film because of the inclusion of Jason Bateman, especially in a villain role. He can really play anything, but when he’s a prick, he just owns it as he did in CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE. In CARRY-ON, he plays “traveler”, a terrorist that was hired to release some nerve gas and pin it on the Russians.
TSA employee and lifetime underachiever, Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton), has a child on the way with his girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson), and they are very excited about creating a family together. They both work at the airport, but Nora wants more for him, hoping that he’ll try to get on the police force again. He’s not sure what he wants to do, but he understands that he is spinning his wheels.
Kopek’s boss at the TSA is Sarkowski, played by Dean Norris, and I immediately said “where the fuck do I know him from?” Then it hit me. He was Officer Bald (AKA – Scott) from THE NEGOTIATOR and he was also the bike cop in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. He’s always good and if you’re going to have a boss, his name should be Sarkwoski or at least end with “ski”. It just sounds right, doesn’t it?
With a child on the way and Nora pressuring him to do better, he approaches his boss for a promotion, which is quickly shot down. Jason (Sinqua Walls), a supervisor for the TSA, gives Ethan a shot and he is now scanning bags and that is when he finds an earpiece and Traveler starts talking to him. He insists that he lets a bag slide or Nora is dead. So, we have a good formula for an action film.
There is DIE HARD influence here with a smidge of DIE HARD 2 and DIE HARD 3 in there. Ethan has to do some tasks to meet the goal of getting the package approved for the plane, but he is resisting and doing what he can to save the passengers. When Traveler finds out that he is disobeying, people around him start dying, much like the plane-crashing lesson in DIE HARD 2.
A lot of the film takes place at the bag checking area but considering that the budget was far less than DIE HARD 2 and that was in 1990, you cannot expect the constant action sequences. So, this film works more as a suspense film with eventual action sequences.
Jason Bateman is outstanding in this role and plays it well. He is very unlikable and believable, but he is so strong that Egerton pales in comparison and the battle is not equal. Egerton isn’t terrible, but he was just overshadowed by Bateman in this.
The last 30 minutes of CARRY-ON is when it kicks into high gear and where the action is. The battle between Traveler and Ethan gets more intense and the dastardly plan is revealed. Despite this film being good, it was missing something. I was hoping that everything would work out because Traveler had to die in amazing fashion. Considering the finale was on a plane in the air, there was a lot of opportunity to make it really count. I came up with all these scenarios in my head of how they were going to do it and all were better than what we got.
CARRY-ON is a good action/suspense and definitely worth a watch. It is getting a lot of hype right now and maybe it deserves it. Outside of THE BEEKEEPER, action films have been shit recently. CARRY-ON is a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction, but it’s no DIE HARD, but what is?
