TARON Egerton as airport security officer Ethan Kopek has his Bruce Willis moment as a watered-down Detective John McClane in lacklustre thriller Carry-On.
Now streaming on Netflix, the film sees the Rocket Man star try to save a plane from Novichok poisoning at LAX on Christmas Eve. Think Die Hard 2 but with less swearing, less action and not a white vest in site.
Egerton is no Willis, but that’s only half the problem. This action-less action movie has an even bigger one.
Carry-On’s mysterious and rather placid terrorist is no Hans Gruber either. Jason Bateman comes off like an Aldi Alan Rickman. His heart doesn’t really seem in it when it comes to wiping out hundreds of holiday travellers looking to get home for the Christmas, and as for dry wit? He clearly forgot to pack it.
But then again, this ain’t Nakatomi Plaza!
There’s worse films with both Egerton and Bateman to stream out there, and despite its uninspiring lack of spills and thrills, it passes the time. Still, it’s hard not to watch it without thinking of Willis in the mother of all action movies.
Egerton’s latest comes with a similar premise to Die Hard 2, it’s all just a lot more sedate and a lot less fun. Rather than gun battles and explosions we get softly spoken wisecracks which don’t land, and a half-baked plot that is as old as Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal.
And instead of a sarcastic, badass cop, who plays by his own rules, Egerton plays a character who is the complete opposite. Since his teenage years, Ethan, a former track and field star, has played it safe and is now a man drifting through life “asleep”. Stuck in a rut, this terrorist threat offers him the opportunity to dig deep, be bold and save the day.
Sadly, he does it all in the shadow of a certain New York cop whose sweaty ‘wife-beater’ tank top he could never fill.
(3/5)
