Carry-On: the other Die Hard of Christmas (review)

Fully assuming its affiliation with John McClane, this Christmas thriller is a real little action pleasure, where Jason Bateman does his Gruber against Taron Egerton in the wrong place, at the wrong time…

He could almost shout “Yippee Ki‐Yay” while lying on the tarmac after having lived a day in Hell!

Taron Egerton takes over from Bruce Willis In Carry-Ona very successful Christmas action thriller, set at the Los Angeles airport. On the eve of December 25, things are obviously in turmoil for the airport security team. While the crowd of vacationers floods past Ethan Kopek's X-ray scanner, with their cabin luggage and bottles of water that must be drunk on site and thrown away immediately, a terrorist makes contact with young TSA agent. Through an earpiece, he forces her to carry out his orders, threatening her loved ones and all the occupants of the terminal in the process. Its goal: to pass at all costs a simple suitcase, which will obviously put the scanner on alert… But what does it contain?

We quickly guess that there is something in the mysterious luggage other than a large bottle of perfume of more than 100 ml… Without wasting a minute, the film engages in a fool's game wonderfully staged by a specialist in gender. Jaume Collet-Serra – who already has 4 films with Liam Neeson under his belt – runs Taron Egerton all four corners of the airport, in a pure action movie which smells of the 1990s and often recalls the spirit of Die Hard (and more precisely that of Die Hard 2 which took place in an airport).

The charismatic kid from Kingsman – a time expected to be the new James Bond – has everything of the ideal young John McClane, this average guy with a strong moral compass, always in the wrong place at the wrong time. The kind of savior/loser who doesn't know how to let go! The well-crafted concept makes fun of airport security checks that we all know, and mischievously plays with our fears. The atmosphere is credible, exhilarating, and the timing perfectly mastered by Collet-Serra who goes beyond the gimmick (will he be able to fool the scanner?) to draw a breathtaking thriller, where the tension never drops at all Never.

Carry-On is a little gift in advance for fans of the genre. Special mention to magnetic Jason Bateman (fabulous anti-hero ofOzark), whose calm and penetrating voice bursts through the screen, to bring this terrifying, cold-blooded villain to life on the other end of the headset. A phlegm that would almost make us think that he is the hidden third brother of the Gruber family…

Carry-On, by Jaume Collet-Serra, to watch on Netflix from December 13, 2024.