Carry-On

Simple. Direct. 90s action thriller. These are what you’ll get watching Carry On. The plot is very straightforward and simple. The title IS the main subject of the film. A carry-on baggage with a Russian nerve gas called Novichok (which by the way is a real thing), and the TSA officer in charge needs to clear it through the baggage x-ray machine (via blackmail of course). Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, director of Jungle Cruise (2021), Black Adam (2022), The Shallows (2016), and House of Wax (2005).

This movie is proof that 90s action-thriller is slowly crawling its way back to the big screen, just needs a bit more edge, and less vanilla topping, if you know what I mean. We just need a bit more oomph to carry it then we’re back on track.

While I could see that its trying a bit hard to replace Die Hard as the best action Christmas film, its commendable. I’d say we give it a title of Die Hard Jr. The stunts were great, not one was out of place or unnecessary, and there was no comedic relief created, which was great. Usually Netflix films has that one comedic relief character and it just takes away the thrill of the film.

• I’m honestly not a fan of Taron Egerton, but his look here fits him better, more mature, and a bit more gritty looking. He gave a stellar performance here and added some edge to the film’s tone. Even though his character has a lighter feel at first, when that call started, his demeanor instantly changed and everything went from light to a darker tone real quick. The fact that he did most of his stunts in this one was applaudable.
• In my opinion, Jason Bateman was a miscast here. While Bateman isn’t a stranger from playing a villain (The Gift 2015), he was too good to be here. Having said that, he executed his role perfectly and was able to carry his character with finesse, a professional who gets things done. His tone and emotion never changed, never flinched, even when something didn’t go as planned. You’d just see him sighing over something, but not getting furious over it.

It was a good choice of isolating all the action in one location, it lets the viewers get familiarized with the place. Even when someone is running off going somewhere, somehow we already have a imaginary map in our mind after seeing a few scenes. The drone shot of the airport was necessary in a way, but it was too much in my opinion.

The simple, straightforward plot was great. I honestly hate when a film try to stack one problem over the other. Like here’s the main problem, let’s add some personal problems here, and then some mother nature dilemma, so much going on that you’d get lost and not see what they really have to deal with anymore. This was one problem and everyone was focused on that.

This is probably a good example of “curiosity killed the cat”, no movie would’ve been made if Egerton’s character was not nosy. Even if he got that text from Bateman to wear the ear piece, he could’ve ignored the text, turned off his phone and put the ear piece somewhere else and carry on with his day.

The main thing that annoyed me was how Egerton resolved the problem in the end. So he disabled the nerve gas and took out the canister, which houses the nerve gas solution. He learned how to disable the machine when Bateman walked him through it while inside a room without any CCTV camera, so he was safe from Bateman’s eyes. Right then and there he could’ve taken off the canister and the movie goes into credits rolling. It was just obvious, an orange liquid, anyone would’ve guessed that that was the nerve gas solution.

The action scenes in Carry-On were great as well, very compact and everything was done with a purpose. The car scene was great, so as the one where Egerton was in conflict with the other victim with a red cap.

It was a bit too bland, the feel of the film didn’t pick up until that last scene where Egerton shoved Bateman into an airtight refrigeration unit. It felt flat, even when someone died, it didn’t feel like they did. The movie failed in that aspect of bringing everyone in. There was a lack of emotional connection between the audience and the characters involved.

Carry-on is a good one-time watch, weeknight action thriller film to end a stressful day. Considering that this is a Netflix made film, and let’s be honest, films made by Netflix are mostly good, not great though, but good enough to keep viewers entertained. Much like Back in Action (2025). This is a good watch but a bit tad long in my opinion.