Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Carry-On,” an airport Christmas thriller starring Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, and Sofia Carson, was the most-watched debut on Netflix this year. The film just nabbed 42M views in its first five days of release, which easily makes it the biggest 2024 opening for a Netflix original.
Critics seem to like “Carry-On,” it’s a watchable and decent “Die Hard” rip-off, nothing more and nothing less. That 85% RT rating is certainly much better than most of the Netflix originals unleashed on a weekly basis. The timing of it holiday debut was kind of perfect.
The thriller, which slyly amps up tension, despite its implausible twists, is set at an airport and centers around a TSA agent (Egerton) as he is blackmailed by a mysterious passenger (Bateman) who threatens to smuggle a dangerous package onto a plane on Christmas Eve.
Collet-Serra is decent in my books, and I’m not surprised he’s found streaming success with this one — his style perfectly suits streaming sensibilities. Collet-Serra is responsible for directing some of Liam Neeson’s better actions movies, like “Non-Stop,” “Run All Night,” and “Unknown.”