The new action thriller “Carry-On” launched on Netflix on December 13th. It immediately triggers comparisons with “Die Hard 2” and storms to the top of the charts on the streaming service. MeinMMO author Schuhmann has seen the film and says: Netflix can do it.
What does Carry-On have to do with Die Hard 2? Both films take place at a large airport at Christmas time. But Carry-On takes place in Los Angeles, which is why it doesn’t look like Christmas at all. But there is no snow.
The protagonists of both films are failed cops. Even if the hero of Carry-On is significantly younger than Bruce Willis back then. We meet Ethan Kopek, whose private life is going great, but whose career as an airport security guard is at a dead end and who has no desire for the job. His boss tells him: “You don’t want to be here.”
In both films, the hero’s wife is tough and capable, but in danger. In Carry-On, the girlfriend is actually way out of our hero’s league and pregnant to boot.
In both films there is a sophisticated villain with the most competent henchmen and a sophisticated plan from which there seems to be no escape. In Carry-On, Jason Bateman and his outstanding German dubbing voice (Tobias Klickert) play the villain.
You can already hear Jason Bateman’s excellent German voice in the trailer:
Carry-On – Trailer for the Christmas Netflix thriller with Taron Edgerton
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Carry-On is incredibly exciting for an hour because you can’t see a way out
This is what makes Carry-On so attractive: The first hour or so of the film is brilliantly written and directed: you get to know the characters and immediately understand in just a few scenes what makes them tick: the couple loves each other, but the pregnancy actually comes too early. Things aren’t really going well for Kopek; he’s carrying a lot of baggage with him and seems as if he’s just letting himself go and not directing his own life.
The film then sets out to entangle the hero in a hopeless situation that only gets worse the more he flounders.
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 just has to surrender to his fate, like he has been doing for the last few years, otherwise he will that everything ends terribly for him.
Every action our hero takes leads to a further deterioration of his situation, the villain has considered everything, has almost unlimited resources, knows and sees everything.
The villain, who remains nameless throughout the film, leaves Kopek no way out: the security guard is doomed to fail and bring misfortune and misery to everyone.
As a viewer, you are fully involved and have to nod in appreciation at how diabolically everything is arranged and planned. Every action the hero takes results in a relentless backlash. The situation seems hopeless. The tension increases from minute to minute.
The film lives from the acting of the two main actors:
So is the film perfect? Like its predecessor, Die Hard 2, Carry-On falls apart in the last third of the film. Because the villains’ brilliant plan was only 70% complete and only extended to the departure of the crucial plane and not a step further.
From the moment the villain sits on the plane, the plan was probably just “Let’s improvise a little, it’ll be fine,” while the hero is in top form and succeeds in everything.
In Carry-On you can wonderfully see how the snarling tiger suddenly becomes a house kitten: one of the villain’s henchmen is set up as a hyper-competent sniper with a super weapon who can precisely eliminate any target from miles away. In the last third of the film, however, he turns out to be a mediocre highwayman who wanders haphazardly 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 over.
“Carry-On is a better Die Hard in an airport than the actual Die Hard”
And that’s better than Die Hard 2?At least that’s the impression many Rotten Tomatoes users have – the film has an audience rating of 86%. The now 34-year-old “Die Hard 2” only has 69% there.
Journalists share their impressions on Die Hard 2 would have been nice back then (via x).
In 2024, you’ll probably just be grateful that Netflix is delivering a solid, entertaining and really good thriller that you hardly expected. And that at Christmas time. And Jason Bateman alone is really worth your time here. That’s right up there with the big criminals of 90s cinema. We recommend a similarly strong thriller like Carry-On here: In the new film on Netflix, Brad Pitt boards a train full of professional killers