Every year there is a debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie (obviously). No matter which side you’re on, we can all agree that Hollywood is desperate to recreate the magic and success of this great action movie, in which Bruce Willis single-handedly saved the world after a terrorist attack on Christmas Eve. But despite all these attempts, no film has ever lived up to this classic. Including now.
|
continue ★1/2 (1.5/4 stars) |
Director Jaume Collet-Serra, who has directed films such as orphan and shoal and must-have Liam Neeson action movies like nonstop and commuterthis year I tried with continueA Netflix movie that should put everyone involved on the naughty list. It’s the kind of movie you watch with your family, over a few glasses of mulled wine, and maybe a few people fall asleep while watching it. That doesn’t matter even if the actors, especially Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman, do their best to imbue the film with a sense of momentum that barely rises.
Egerton is a disgruntled TSA agent named Ethan Kopek who only works at LAX because his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) is there too At work, he loved having lunch with her. She became pregnant and was disappointed with Ethan’s life choices, which included her failure to get into the police academy despite his dream of joining the Los Angeles Police Department. He was working on Christmas Day, a particularly busy time for travel, and decided to go the extra mile. He begs his boss Phil (Dean Norris) to give him a chance to run a security scanner, something you obviously have to do yourself. Phil agrees that this is a good thing for Ethan, but a bad thing for a group of terrorists who didn’t expect Ethan to be the one in charge of that particular safe passage.
You know how this is going to go: Ethan gets an earpiece – nothing suspicious at all – and Bateman’s mysterious rival threatens to kill Nora if Ethan doesn’t let a particular piece of luggage through. There’s a lot of talk, maybe too much, and Ethan is forced to decide if he should comply for the good of his family or try to stop the attack for the good of the public. Of course, he tries to sound the alarm, which soon results in the death of a co-worker. Again, not suspicious at all. Meanwhile, a police officer named Elena Cole (Danielle Deadweiler, who isn’t supposed to be there) notices something may be wrong at LAX and begins investigating from the outside.
Feel like there should be more action continuewhich is limited by its setting. A fight in an airport baggage sorting facility that apparently doesn’t have security cameras is a nice set piece, but Egerton spends much of the movie looking worried and, frankly, very shifty. Somehow, he encounters Bateman’s character multiple times at the airport, including when he’s vomiting in a toilet stall, and no one seems very concerned about Ethan’s constant exit from the security lanes he’s been so passionate about managing. In fact, the whole thing completely undermines the feeling that LAX has good security. On one occasion, a terrorist slipped into the ticketing area of Terminal 7 and stabbed a TSA agent without being stopped. The climax itself is ridiculous, it tries to heighten the action but feels too restricted. Also: Do so many people really fly on Christmas Day?
There are other horror movies set in airports, including the very good Die Hard 2succeeds in bringing thrilling tension to ordinary, mundane places. United Airlines, air force one, red eye and the recent Apple TV+ series hijack It turns out that airplanes can be an exciting place to pit ordinary heroes against those bent on destruction. continue Didn’t make it to that particular list (which, as Santa knows, also belongs on another list). Sure, it changes your focus occasionally, but so does killing time while you’re waiting for your flight to board.
