Blog site from internationally selling poet and author Steven Helmer showcasing movie and product reviews, poems, short stories, nature photography and more.
Movie Review: Carry-On (2024)
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Synopsis: After failing to be accepted to the Los Angeles Police Academy, TSA agent Ethan Kopek's life has fallen into a rut, and he seems to lack ambition even after finding out he's going to be a father. After his pregnant girlfriend, Nora, points this out to him, he attempts to take some initiative and seek a promotion. He is shot down at first but then given a trial run at a baggage-scanning lane during the busy travel rush on Christmas Eve at Los Angeles International Airport. A short time into his shift, a terrorist makes contact with Ethan via an earbud and tells the agent he needs to allow a carry-on bag containing a chemical bomb through his lane or Nora will be killed.
Review: After scrolling through quite a few holiday movies last night, I decided to change things up a bit and go with the action/drama, Carry-on, which I found on Netflix. At first, I wasn't sure if it would prove to be a mistake but after seeing it, I do have to say I enjoyed watching it.
The thing that really stood out for me was the impossible situation the hero, Ethan (Egerton) was put into. Even though he hadn't been expected at the scanner, the Traveler (Bateman) and his team were organized well enough to overcome the last-second substitution and stay one step ahead of Ethan whenever he attempted to call the police, text a supervisor, etc. Plus, the Traveler wasn't making empty threats, he really did have a sniper watching Nora (Carson) at all times and demonstrated his ability to kill someone simply by bumping into them in a crowd.
In turn, since Ethan wasn't someone who was content with just letting things go as planned and killing more than 200 airplane passengers in the process, it was entertaining watching him as he tried to gain the upper hand only to find himself back in square one or needing to sacrifice a friend's career to ensure he remained at his spot and wasn't reassigned.
The fight scenes between Ethan, the Traveler and others were also entertaining, though maybe a bit over the top. This was especially true of the fight inside the baggage area, with Ethan trying to stay alive while also trying to keep track of the bomb.
The one negative from the movie is it did make me think twice about flying. I'm not a big fan of airplanes to begin with and seeing just how easy it was for the Traveler to get a bomb on a plane didn't help with that. Yes, I understand it's a movie and I'm sure they took some liberties with airport security to make the plot happen. Yet, a lot of it also seemed just plausible enough for this film to potentially give people ideas so, at minimum, I'll probably avoid crowded airports during holiday rushes.
Final Opinion: I want to believe the Los Angeles International Airport has slightly better security than demonstrated in this movie but that aside, I thought it was an entertaining action film/thriller and would recommend it.
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