Carry-On (2024)

Action movie, set in Christmas, an atypical and peculiar hero who has to face a situation that is too big for him, with very few resources and a catchy name, Ethan Kopek, a villainous bastard, but charismatic, all in a single location: an airport at Christmas.

And on top of that we have two very charismatic actors playing the hero and the villain: the British Taron Egerton is the airport agent who gets into trouble and the American Jason Bateman surprises a lot, used to making comedies and playing nice guys, giving us a sinister and evil villain.

And it is because of both that this film works so well, for that and because it is well curious and entertaining and has some set pieces of action very curradas, very elaborate.

A lot of attention to the fight inside a car in the middle of a highway (with Wham! sounding in the background, the best) or in a luggage sorting room.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from Barcelona, experienced in many American action films, 4 of them starring Liam Neeson.

The cinematography is the responsibility of Lyle Vincent, a rather crafty guy, who delivers a very good image quality, very sharp and pleasing to the eye.

The soundtrack is composed by Lorne Balfe, composer of several soundtracks of the “Mission: Impossible” saga, you can notice some influence of the music composed by Balfe for the franchise starring Tom Cruise in the score composed for this “Carry-On”. Gabe Hilfer collaborates with Balfe in the composition of the score.

The rest of the cast includes: Sofia Carson as the girlfriend of the character played by Egerton, the poor girl always in the crosshairs of the bad guys;

Danielle Deadwyler as a long-suffering cop who tries to pull Ethan Kopek's chestnuts out of the fire; a badass Theo Rossi playing one of the hitmen of the villain played by Jason Bateman; Logan Marshall-Green also plays another of Bateman's henchmen; and bringing maturity Dean Norris as Ethan Kopek's superior.

As much as I like firearms, I found the plastic gun used by the bad guy in the film very curious, it caught my attention and I found it very curious and clever that it is made of plastic so that it is not detected by the airport's arc detectors.

Could the Ethan Kopek played by Taron Egerton be the new John McClane? Who knows, the film has a very franchisable style and the protagonist has potential and charisma, the truth, maybe in a couple of years we will see a second adventure of good Kopek.