By Marc S. Sanders
Action movies have been done to death, haven’t they? Yet, don’t we still get a kick out of them?
Sure, I need my TCM classics like It Happened One Night or my updated biographies like Angelina Jolie’s Maria, but action movies are like the best junk food without any of the calories. Still, an action picture has to have that special attraction if it is to stand apart from the others. I got bloated by the time I got to the fourth Lethal Weapon. The first is a perfect wham bang shoot ‘em up set during Christmas time. Now Netflix grants us a long-lasting candy cane with its airport run around chaser flick known as Carry-On.
What makes this mad bomber fest a smash is that the hero, TSA agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton), actually cries out of fear and pain as the bad guy beats up on him and frightens him into direct obedience. He begs with tears coming down his cheeks for the bad guy to just stop with his mission. He screams “WHY ME?” The Rock, Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Ford, Gibson – those guys don’t cry. Yet, little Ethan Kopek does, and once he gets his wits about him does he truly become a super hero. I recall the moment happens in the last twenty minutes of the picture. Ethan throws off his pansy TSA uniform shirt and makes a go at saving the day in his black undershirt. Now he’s earned John McClane’s respect.
On the busiest travel day of the year, December 24th, Ethan is assigned to scan the carry on luggage ensuring travelers have not packed contraband items. He and his colleagues have to put up with all the typical TSA complaints that come with the job. My hat’s off to screenwriter T.J. Fixman for allowing some time to show the challenges of this occupation. It adds some truth, comedy and depth to a thankless job that’s hardly celebrated or acknowledged like cops, doctors, athletes, and attorneys.
Ethan is handed an earpiece and a mysterious voice, provided by Jason Bateman, gives him direct instructions to allow one black suitcase with a red ribbon to pass through inspection. If Ethan deviates in any way at all, the voice promises that Nora (Sophia Carson) will be killed. She is Ethan’s pregnant girlfriend and also runs airport security at LAX.
Movies like this function like a game or sport. The villain sets up boundaries. How is Ethan going to save the day or get around the unexpected while trying to avoid harm to Nora or the airport as a whole? As far as he knows, he is always being watched by the guy talking in his ear. There’s rules and obstacles he must observe. Granted, Carry-On allows a lot of unlikely and hard to buy conveniences to let our hero obtain the advantage, but he’s also not Superman, and at times when you believe Ethan is coming out ahead, Bateman’s antagonist changes up the game.
Heck! A bomb is activated not at the end of the movie, but dead center right in the middle of the story. Normally, the end all be all explosive serves as the final exclamation point with the expected digital clock countdown. However, in Carry-On if it can get deactivated, there will still be more story to go. Bateman’s villain really has everything thought out and Egerton’s character has no choice but to man up to the plate once again.
A side story with Danielle Deadwyler as an investigative cop named Elena will eventually intersect with the main narrative. It’s nothing special until a car ride on the way to the airport plays Wham’s Last Christmas on the radio and the scene explodes into a mind-blowing thrill reminiscent of what I saw in Children Of Men twenty years ago. The construction of this scene alone is absolute fun.
Deadwyler’s character is written with a lot of carte blanche to allow Ethan to save the day. No, none of this is ever likely to be how things go. Yet, I recall Arnold Schwarzenegger being thrown out of an airplane and surviving a crash landing in a garbage heap thirty thousand feet below (Eraser).
If you watch Carry-On, I will not be surprised if you protest its merits based on a collection of plot holes. The most glaring one to me is that LAX does not look nearly as crowded as the script insists, nor what I’d expect on Christmas Eve day. Also, traffic is really easy to get around on the way to the airport. (New Orleans fills in for Los Angeles.). However, just because Dreamworks and Netflix cut corners on spending for more extras and scenic inconveniences, it does not mean my enjoyment with the film is suspended.
To make up for where the film’s budget might have come in the way, there are storyline surprises that enter from nowhere. Logic is applied to what’s inserted at these opportune times. Ethan and Elena experience a set back and now new forms of game play must take hold. You accept what’s thrown at you because of the cast and set ups.
Taron Egerton is a deliberately wimpy, but also an attractive, unlikely hero. Jason Bateman ranks with other impressive Die Hard type movie villains like Alan Rickman, Tommy Lee Jones and Dennis Hopper.
Carry-On’s director, Jaume Collet-Serra, is well aware of the near miss escapes that allow his movie to…well…carry on. He really doesn’t try to hide or distract from the plot holes or questions that audiences may argue. Yet, I say who cares? This cast of mostly unknowns step up to embrace the dialogue and circumstances of the script while trying to win the game.
Look, anything you see in Carry-On can theoretically happen.
Would it happen?
Let’s just change the subject please. You have a plane to catch.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 