REVIEW:
Carry On is a fine movie. It’s kind of a throwback thriller to terrorist films like Phonebooth and Panic Room, set primarily in one location. In this case, the location is the airport. Pretty much the entire movie takes place either there, or on a plane, making this a sort of cross between Die Hard 2 and Passenger 57.
Only, unlike those movies (not to mention Executive Decision,) this is not an action movie. It’s not a fight your way through a bunch of terrorists movie. instead, it’s more about the smarts and outmaneuvering, and in that respect probably the most closely related to the Liam Neeson movie Non-stop (set entirely on an airplane.) And so it should come as no surprise that this movie is by the same director of that film, Jaume Collet-Serra, (the man who specializes in Liam Neesin action thrillers… the Unknown, Run All Night, Non-Stop, and the Commuter.)
Serra is pretty good at making these kinds of movies. None of them are great, but they are all fun, in a B movie, entertaining kind of way. And we don’t get a lot of airport thrillers, where the entire movie is set in the airport or on the plane. When we do, it might not turn out to be anything amazing, but it’s always memorable and fun, for just the setting alone.
With Carry-on, the key takeaway as Jason Bateman as a villain. That’s the distinction that makes this movie different from list others. That and the fact that the protagonist is a TSA Agent, basically being held hostage by a terrorist through a blue tooth EarPod. And he has to spend the movie trying to outsmart the terrorist, who seems to have all of the angles figured out. There are definitely some cool moments here, like when our lead (played by Taran Edgerton from the Kingsmen movies,) has to use whatever method he can think of to make it do that he’s the agent working a specific machine, and resorts to some pretty dirty maneuvers. The only problem is that this movies feels pretty familiar. Yes, there aren’t many movies set in airports, but the beats are all right in line with most other terrorist – thriller movies. At the end of the day, this is one of Serra’s better movies, right in line with the Unknown and Non-Stop, and this time he finally did it without Neeson as his muse. So that’s definitely progress.