Had I believed the internet, I would have avoided Netflix’s Christmas Thriller Carry-On and Amazon Prime’s Action Comedy Red One because the internet tells me these movies are terrible.
Morbidly curious I sat down on Saturday and Sunday night, to watch both films and you know what, I think we all need to just stop expecting every single movie to be a game changing new trend setter, especially original content from streaming platforms. Both of these movies are just fine.
The trouble is that these days there is a sense that every film and series being released must break some new boundary in film making. Because of this, if a movie isn’t ground breaking or delivering Oscar-worthy performance, it’s deemed horrible and a waste of time.
Well I’m here to stomp my foot and convince you that no, sometimes a movie can just be an hour and a half to two hours of entertainment before you get an early night because if every movie is great, no movie can be truly great.
Carry-On baggage
Carry-On is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Taron Egerton as a TSA agent who is blackmailed by a man called “Traveler” played by Jason Bateman into allowing a dangerous package to go through security without being stopped.
Carry-On is just fine. Bateman’s performance is great and Egerton’s portrayal of a man that has realised he needs to grow up before being forced to do so is rather great. The movie does ask you to suspend your disbelief a lot. For instance, Egerton’s character is constantly having the most incriminating conversations with Bateman’s character not a few metres from a colleague. Seriously the guy is within earshot of his colleague talking about bombs and terrorism, it’s wild that the colleague doesn’t hear him at all.
But there is some fun to be found here. The conversation between Egerton and Bateman is enthralling, especially as Egerton searches for his blackmailer using audio cues. There is a great chase scene through the baggage area and the ending is entirely unexpected, even if a cliche follows soon after.
The movie is well directed, well shot and incredibly well produced. It may not be breaking boundaries in the cinema space but it doesn’t have to, it’s a good action thriller for Christmas. It’s not Die Hard but do you really want to rewatch Die Hard again?
Red One is pretty enjoyable
A Christmas movie that tries to make Santa Claus real is as common as beach sand but Red One takes a different route with the theme. J.K Simmons is Nick of Saint Nick/Santa Claus/Father Christmas fame with Dwayne Johnson playing is bodyguard Callum Drift. As it turns out, in Red One Nick is really a magical being able to travel at lightspeed with a pack of reindeer turning air into ice that they can trot along. The North Pole is a bustling city filled with magical creatures aplenty and of course Santa’s Workshop where workers prepare all year for Christmas Eve when Nick has to deliver presents.
Nick is then kidnapped thanks to help from Jack O’Malley played by Chris Evans. Evans’ character is nicknamed The Wolf and he has the ability to find just about anyone. Fooled into finding the location of Nick, a secret that has been kept for hundreds of years, Evans falls head first into an operation to find and rescue Nick, something he’s incredibly reluctant to do.
What follows is a great romp through mythology and some really fantastic fight sequences. The CGI leaves much to be desired – I’m convinced they used Johnson’s Fortnite character in this movie – but the dialogue, acting and story is just fine. The big bad is Gryla played brilliantly by Kiernan Shipka and Kristofer Hivju’s Krampus is by far the best part of this entire movie.
I found myself laughing throughout the entire run time of Red One and even found myself saying “ahhh” when the film ended. Are there a lot of cliches? Of course, it’s a Christmas movie about Santa Claus, cliches are its bread and butter but Red One uses them cleverly because it’s well aware the audience here is adults.
Jake Kasden directs and I think that he knows how to squeeze a decent performance from Johnson. Sure, he isn’t going to win any awards for his performance but he’s not the dumb smiling muscle head you know him as here.
Overall, Red One is a decent movie with some great set pieces and enjoyable performances from the entire cast.
Both of these movies are just fine and I promise they aren’t as “bland” as some critics will have you believe. What’s more is that these are films from streaming platforms made for those audiences. They are made to be consumed and considered for a moment before moving on to the next.
Does that make them Oscar worthy? No, and I wouldn’t suggest that they are but they are enjoyable movies and that’s all they really need to be at this time of year.
Stop expecting your R99 subscription to buy you access to the best of the best every month, lower your standards and just enjoy a movie because it’s well made. It’s Christmas after all.
