CARRY-ON /// 2024 ACTION THRILLER (A REVIEW)

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“He did it before, he’ll do it again!” ~ Nora

When I heard this line, it was standing ovation from me, I tell you. For a firm believer holding firmly to trust, faith and hope, this statement hits different, I kid you not.

Netflix’s 2024 “Carry-On” may very well be tagged the modern day version of “Die Hard” of the ‘90s.

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SYNOPSES....Spoiler Alert

Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) is a struggling, unstable and inconsistent TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agent who hitherto equally was unsuccessful at securing a place in the Police Academy.

Now, with his girlfriend Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson) pregnant, he starts to rethink and reevaluate his life in an attempt to wanting to become a better father than his dad ever was.

Trying to prove himself worthy at getting a promotion, Ethan just had to pick the best day; Christmas Eve. A day he’ll never forget in a hurry as a mysterious earpiece from a mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) lands at his checkpoint with a blackmail to allow a certain suitcase through the scanners which failure to comply, his girlfriend Nora dïes.

Ethan has got to do what he has to do to save his pregnant girlfriend but what happens if the suitcase makes it to the flight containing over 200 passengers?

Besides, what is contained in the suitcase that would warrant such threats from the mysterious guy? Are there explôsives in it or are there chemical wėapons in this suitcase?

I'll leave that to you to go watch the movie and follow as events unfold in this fast paced action thriller with a runtime of 1hour 59minutes.

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MY REVIEW

At some point, I had to distract myself to catch my breath. The tension, the adrenaline, my goodness! This was an absolutely worthwhile experience. Set in one location for the most parts on the busiest day of year, Christmas Eve, this movie delivered brilliantly.

I must commend all the actors as they interpreted their roles believably well. My three best acts are Taron Egerton(who I loved from the film 'Kingsman -the golden circle') who seemed to be re-living a personal experience in the way he embodied the role. Next is Daniel Deadwyler who played Detective Elena with the LAPD…girl ate her role and left no crumbs.

I loved seeing Jason Bateman known for films like Ozark, Zootopia, Identity Thief and lots more as he played the villain here in a deceptively calm evïl demeanour. Dude was cool in an annoying way.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by T.J. Fixman “Carry-On” has a good storyline, an incredible plot, great cinematography, lightings, graphics, amazing sound score to set the pace, exciting Christmas background music, etc. The style of storytelling was impressive as any viewer can easily follow up the story without a heads-up.

Be that as it may, there were plotholes as with many projects of this genre and others in the film industry which leaves room for some eye rolling moments.

Firstly, for how tight the security in an Airport these days tend to be, one would expect that extreme measures would be put in place to curb terrorïst attacks and put a wedge in their scheme, stopping them from gaining smooth entrance into the vicinity in the first place.

Now, just how did that van with the sniper guy make it past the initial gate checkpoints to gain access into the Airport parking lot having an abductee in the back of the van?

Secondly, with all the security cameras in an Airport, no one noticed strange movements? I mean, severally, Ethan ran like a headless chicken in the hallway of the airport, yet none of the officials was on the alert?

Thirdly, your girlfriend has been threatened, yet the first thing you do at the first chance you get is make her stand in an open view. How about you take her to a sealed spot!

Fourthly, the toilet scene was highly flawed. When Ethan finally was able to gain an upper hand with the mystery guy, that fight was far from real. I guess they needed to have added some extra martial art stunts for more believability.

Overall, for a Christmas holiday film, this is actually a breath of fresh air. You can take your mind off the flaws and just enjoy the flow of premium entertainment. This was engaging, captivating, suspenseful, intriguing, and enthralling.
I'll give this a 7.5/10

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I hope that this was interesting to read. You should see the film. Thanks for coming around.