On December 13, the new action thriller ‘Carry-On’ premiered on Netflix. It instantly draws comparisons to ‘Die Hard 2’ and skyrockets to the top of the charts on the streaming service. MeinMMO author Schuhmann watched the film and says: Netflix is really doing it.
What does Carry-On have to do with Die Hard 2? Both films take place at a large airport during Christmas time. However, Carry-On is set in Los Angeles, which makes it not look like Christmas at all. There’s no snow.
The protagonists of both films are failed cops. Although the hero of Carry-On is noticeably younger than Bruce Willis back then. We meet Ethan Kopek, whose personal life is going splendidly, but whose career as an airport security officer is in a dead end and who has no interest in the job. His boss tells him: ‘You don’t want to be here at all.’
In both films, the hero’s wife is tough and competent, yet in danger. In Carry-On, the girlfriend is actually out of the hero’s league and also pregnant.
Both films feature a cunning villain with highly competent henchmen and a well-devised plan that seems to have no escape. In Carry-On, Jason Bateman and his excellent German voice actor (Tobias Klickert) play the villain.
You can hear the excellent German voice of Jason Bateman in the trailer:
Carry-On is an hour of thrilling suspense, because there seems to be no way out
This is what makes Carry-On appealing: About the first hour of the film is brilliantly written and directed: You get to know the characters and immediately understand in just a few scenes how they tick: The couple loves each other, but the pregnancy comes a bit too early. Things are not going smoothly for Kopek, who carries a lot of baggage with him, seems to just be going with the flow, and doesn’t take control of his life.
Then the film sets about entangling the hero in a hopeless situation that only worsens the more he struggles.
In this part of the film, you only hear the voice of Jason Bateman, who explains in a friendly tone what a failure our hero is and that he must just resign himself to his fate, just like he has done for the last few years, otherwise it will all end terribly for him.
Every action of our hero leads to a further deterioration of his situation, the villain has considered everything, has seemingly unlimited resources, knows and sees everything.
The villain, who remains nameless throughout the film, gives Kopek no way out: The security officer is doomed to fail and bring misfortune and misery to everyone.
As a viewer, you are fully engaged and must nod in appreciation at how diabolical everything is crafted and planned. Every action of the hero has an unyielding reaction. The situation seems hopeless. The tension rises minute by minute.
Meanwhile, the film thrives on the performances of the two main actors:
- Taron Eggerton, known from Kingsman, plays a bit of a loser who has been taking it easy in his life for a long time. Right now, he has decided to wake up and change something, but his rival forces him to act immorally and wrongly.
- Bateman plays a hyper-competent cynic who gives the impression of having understood the world. He keeps shaking his head at the much younger opponent and laments: ‘Your generation.’
Is the film perfect then? Like its predecessor Die Hard 2, Carry-On also falls apart in the last third of the film. Because the brilliant plan of the villains was only 70% thought out and only lasted until the departure of the crucial plane and no further.
From the moment when the villain is on the plane, the plan probably only stated ‘Let’s improvise a bit, it will be fine,’ while the hero is rising to form and succeeding in everything.
In Carry-On, you can wonderfully see how a once-fierce tiger suddenly becomes a house cat: A henchman of the villain is built up as a hyper-competent sniper with a super weapon, who can precisely take out any target from miles away. In the last third of the film, he turns out to be an average street thug, running aimlessly through a parking garage with a pistol. But somehow, the good guys have to win in the end and have a chance, otherwise Christmas is ruined.
“Carry-On is a better Die Hard at an airport than actual Die Hard”
And is that better than ‘Die Hard 2?’ That is at least the impression many users on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ have – there the film has an audience rating of 86%. The now 34-year-old ‘Die Hard 2’ only has 69% there.
On X, journalists share their impressions, stating that “Carry-On” does “Die Hard at an airport” better than actual Die Hard at an airport (via x). Another user says: Carry-On is the film that Die Hard 2 would have liked to be back then (via x).
Probably in 2024, one is simply grateful that Netflix delivers a solid, entertaining, and really good thriller that one hardly expected. And that at Christmas time. And just Jason Bateman is truly worth the time here. This reaches back to the great criminals of 90s cinema. A similarly strong thriller like Carry-On we recommend here: In the new film on Netflix, Brad Pitt gets on a train full of professional killers
