Carry-On

Starring: Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, Tonatiuh, Logan Marshall-Green, Dean Norris, Sinqua Walls, Gil Perez-Abraham
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
2024

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young TSA agent (Taron Egerton) is blackmailed by a mysterious agent (Jason Bateman) who forces him to pass a specific suitcase through security.

Review:

Tim: Netflix just kills me sometimes. The service was loudly proclaiming all the views for Carry-On and how it's one of the most viewed films on their platform. It never mentions quality, though. Eyeballs don't equal greatness. Now, to be fair, critics mostly praised this film. How that happened is beyond me. Carry-On is never a bad film, but Jaume Collet-Serra's action thriller is a deeply flawed movie. There were some great ideas here and some clear strengths, but so much of the plot is so nonsensical and illogical that it sinks the entire film. This is a movie I can't believe has garnered this much praise.

Setting an action thriller with TSA agents is actually a great idea. Anyone who travels is familiar with this group of agents, but they've been severely underutilized on screen, except as a joke for their ineptitude or lack of caring. There are thousands of brave women and men who keep our airplanes save and I love they got some positive exposure in this film. The premise of the film is brilliant for its simplicity- a TSA Agent is blackmailed- all he has to do is let one suitcase through the screener. If he stops it, they will kill his girlfriend. Such a cool, intense premise, right? Now, I'm not entirely sure how TSA works, but there are immediate flaws with this premise. Could this really happen? If one agent passed a suitcase that fired off dozens of alarms, there's no redundancy in the system? No supervisor gets a warning? Is our collective security really so weak? Maybe this movie is an accurate depiction, but I highly doubt it. Already, the film is playing fast and loose with reality.

This is my central issue with the film. Sure, the initial premise requires some suspension of disbelief- I get that and I accept it. However, as the film goes on, the movie asks more and more of us. We have to totally separate from any form of reality to believe anything in this movie is remotely possible. The entire film is beyond implausible and it becomes sillier and sillier the longer the film progresses. I started audibly groaning at some of the ridiculous things that happen in this film. It's just all so stupid. I won't hit everything, but I do want to call out one part that frustrated me to no extent. We're told there are several bad guys, hired to get a suitcase through security. They are professionals, cool, calm, experienced. At a certain point, they risk everything- capture, failure of the mission, to hunt down the protagonist's girlfriend. I don't think this was done to get him to do what they wanted. The film tells us they're just angry at his not following directions and they want to kill her. For no strategic value. Even if it means compromising their mission. It's so patently idiotic, done to ramp up the suspense of the film, even if the whole idea of these professionals abandoning their mission to get revenge on the girlfriend is moronic. There's dozens of examples of this kind of illogical behavior happening in this film. The script is garbage and I cannot believe so many critics liked this film.

Now, the movie isn't all bad. Taron Egerton is such a likeable lead and he puts in a worthwhile performance here. I have zero faults with what Egerton did- he works hard to sell the bad script and he makes for a terrific protagonist. I believed him in this role and I thoroughly enjoyed what he did. I just feel bad that he was saddled with such a poor script. Jason Bateman is a revelation in a surprisingly out of character role. He steps into this villainous role brilliantly. He's cold, stoic, chilling in his performance. It's a brilliant move- for such a funny guy, he shows us a wonderfully different side to him. Bateman is the best part of this film because his casting was so unexpected and yet he delivers such a terrific performance. Getting to see Egerton and Bateman face off was a genuine treat here.

I was less enthusiastic about Sofia Carson, which is disappointing. She's not bad, but was wholly unremarkable in her role. I never really believed anything she did on screen. Fortunately, we get a much better performance from Danielle Deadwyler. She doesn't get nearly enough to do, but she makes the most of her screen time. I thought she worked well in the role and the movie badly needed more contributions from the few actresses in the cast. Deadwyler absolutely makes the movie better. I loved seeing Theo Rossi here- I've always been a big fan and I really appreciated his role here. Same can be said for Dean Norris- love that he got this smaller supporting role. Logan Marshall-Green was solid in a small role, too. The supporting cast might not be tremendous, but they all work pretty well. They absolutely elevate the material (to some extent).

I do want to highlight one of the worst moments of the film. There's this big car crash scene that it one of the big cinematic moments of the film. The camera zooms in and around while a car flips over. I hated the scene. The CGI is so unbelievably bad. There's not a single moment that looks even remotely real. It totally brought me out of the film. I know they were never going to really flip a car with actors in it, but the film's budget was way too small for this. How could such a cool concept end up looking so godawful on screen? Even crazier, I was stunned when I saw on Twitter some person posting about what an amazing scene that was. I know it's just some dude, but it gave me such concerns about the future of cinema. That scene was being praised? The idea was brilliant, I agree- the execution was terrible.

The film itself has some intense moments, but they are always blunted by the sheer ridiculousness of the script. Yes, there are quite a few entertaining moments and I did enjoy some of the sequences. Some of the issue here is definitely with director Jaume Collet-Serra. I've railed against the script, but Collet-Serra's films all fall in this thin band- they are never bad, but never more than just good. This is the 8th film of his I've seen, and it's shocking how middle-of-the-road all of his movies are. The same thing happened with Carry-On. When you add it all up, there's some fun, intense moments. There's an above average cast. However, the movie is ludicrous and it makes so little sense. Good for Netflix that tons of people watched Carry-On. However, I'm much more concerned with quality and this film isn't good.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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