Carry-On

Jaume Collet-Serra, known for Liam Neeson action thrillers like Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night, and The Commuter, trades him for a younger model, Taron Egerton, in this goofy Die-Hard-in-a-security-line Netflix original. Egerton plays an underachiever TSA officer who must outsmart a mysterious team of seriously organized villains who force him to allow a suitcase fulla bad stuff onto a flight. It's a good premise for an intentionally dumb movie, but there is absolutely no reason the script by T.J. Fixman has to be this stupid, sloppy, and riddled with logic issues. And why does a $50M Netflix movie set at LAX on Christmas Eve look like it was shot with about a hundred extras at Hawthorne Municipal Airport? Fortunately, Jason Bateman is a good villain, and it's fun to see Danielle Deadwyler in an action picture like this. Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Rocketman, Tetris) makes a good everyman hero, and there's enough zippy action to keep us entertained, but it almost feels like this film was made by people who honestly believe that cheapjack writing with laughably dumb characters the only way to make a fun popcorn movie.