Carry-On Parent Guide

Ethan (Taron Egerton) has been sleepwalking through life ever since he got rejected by the police academy. He followed his girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson), to LA for her job, and now he gets by as a TSA agent, a job he doesn’t care about. With the news that Nora is pregnant, Ethan decides that it’s time to start taking some initiative in his career. After asking for some more responsibility, Ethan is reassigned to the luggage scanner on Christmas Eve, one of the busiest flying days of the year.

Unbeknownst to him, Ethan has accidentally put a wrench in the well-laid plans of a mysterious group who have been hired to get a suspicious package through airport security. After being given an earpiece, Ethan is instructed to let the package through, or Nora will pay the consequences. Torn between his duty and his relationship, Ethan tries to uncover and prevent a devastating terrorist attack and save his girlfriend, all while his every move is being watched.

One of the greatest Christmas traditions in many households is the Dad Movie. Movies usually starring Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis that include terrorist plots, guns, and maybe a Christmas light or two, that get put on in the background to keep dad occupied while the rest of the family goes about their festive activities. They’re usually terrible, but a select few have become classics that remain in pop culture over the decades. Carry-On is very much a modern Dad Movie. I spent the entire runtime thinking about how much my dad would like it, and how much it has in common with films like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon.

Happily, Carry-On manages to land on the higher quality end of the terrorist action flick spectrum. With high production values, an interesting script, and good performances, I was mostly entertained. The cinematographer and director do some interesting things with shooting some of the action scenes, which help what could have been a completely forgettable film feel fresh. Sofia Carson sticks out like a sore thumb, unfortunately, as she simply lacks the acting ability to keep up with Taron Egerton or Jason Bateman, to the notable detriment of the film. The overall plot is interesting, with lots of twists and turns, but it’s too long to fill the two-hour runtime, which causes some pacing issues in the middle. Yes, the plot has some holes and requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, but that’s par for the course, so I can’t complain too much.

The level of violence equals other films in the genre, making it unsuitable for family viewing, but a great pick for genre fans, who will know what to expect. As far as action films go, Carry-On is overall well-made and enjoyable, though it could have used a tighter edit to really take it over the edge into greatness. I fully plan on turning this on over the holidays to keep my dad awake and I might even join him.