Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, Logan Marshall-Green, Jason Bateman
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 119 mins

Carry-On is an action thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, returning to the genre he’s most comfortable in. After directing a spate of Liam Neeson-fronted actioners on various modes of transport, Collet-Serra progressed to bigger budget fare and made Jungle Cruise and Black Adam. Set on Christmas Eve, Carry-On follows Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) who lives with his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson). They both work at Los Angeles International Airport, and Ethan feels pretty unfulfilled at his TSA job, after he failed to get into the police force after concealing his father’s criminal history. He manages to talk his supervisor into manning the baggage scanning machine. Well, he couldn’t have picked a more testing day to demonstrate his merits because he comes into contact with a group of terrorists who threaten him, as they try to get a bag filled with Novichok nerve agent through and onto a plane. 

Unfortunately, Carry-On is content to just go through the motions with its workmanlike direction and an ear-scraping script. It also requires one to seriously suspend disbelief with plot holes you could drive a truck through. The usually charismatic Egerton fails to make much of an impression and the rest of the cast also struggle to register. The biggest disappointment is undoubtedly Jason Bateman, who I had high expectations for, given he’s impressed in the past whenever he’s diverted from comedic fare with excellent performances in The Gift and Air. Unfortunately, his villain is overly talky and lacks nuance, resulting in a real lack of tension. 

The far-fetched action sequences are shot with an annoyingly glossy sheen, and Los Angeles airport is portrayed as being almost clinically clean. A thankless and implausible sub-plot featuring Danielle Deadwyler as a detective further presses on the brakes of this inert affair and Lorne Balfe’s score isn’t memorable in the slightest. 

Christmas Eve turmoil at an airport has been done to great success in the past, with films such as Die Hard 2. But Carry-On never manages to reach the heights of the films it’s inspired by and while it’s just about watchable if you suspend disbelief, that’s not good enough amongst the competition.