by Jonathan Klotz
| Published
This holiday season, streaming companies are powering unexpected films to the top of the charts, with a Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans starrer in the works Red onewhich has recently taken a beating at the box office, holding onto the No. 1 spot on Amazon since its release, and Jack Black's Satanic Christmas , Dear Santais on its way to becoming one of Paramount+'s biggest hits ever. Matching them is carry, Which premiered on Netflix on December 13, and since then, the airport thriller has become the most popular movie on the world's most popular streaming service.
Simple and predictable but a lot of fun
carry It has a simplistic plot, but that's part of the charm. Taron Egerton has played Robin Hood and Elton John, but here, it's Ethan, the TSA officer at Los Angeles International Airport who is targeted by Traveler, and he's a delightful villain. Jason Bateman. The traveler uses blackmail and threats of violence against Ethan's girlfriend to coerce the officer into letting in a certain bag. It's not a spoiler to reveal the briefcase's passage, and yes, it's a lethal weapon, but there's still half the movie left.
Ethan is forced to make a series of moral decisions when he learns how far he will go to protect his friends and family. Complicating the situation is the Traveler's network of agents, which includes an intelligent person named Watcher, who plays himself Sons of Anarchy Theo Rossi, who, just like Uatu is from marvel Caricature, he couldn't help but get involved. Dean Norris, who plays a TSA agent, also appears, and then the bodies start dropping carry He ends up racking up a surprisingly impressive kill count before it's all said and done.
The kind of movie you can't find in theaters
While watching the movie, I couldn't help but think back to similar thrillers, Red eyewhich also took a wild turn at one point. carry It was cut from the same cloth, but stands out today as a film that could have been buried in theaters but thrives My neighbor. For decades, theaters have been filled with thrillers like this one, mid-budget films with a fun premise and a few recognizable stars who are more focused on having a good time than being Oscar bait or creating a shared universe.
That's what makes carry So refreshing and why it has resonated so strongly with viewers over the past two weeks. You can fire it up and enjoy it for two hours, and then the story is over. Besides the few B-movies that still get wide releases each year, this type of moviegoing experience has been mostly priced out of theaters, but when streaming and in the comfort of your own home, it's thriving.
With a budget of $47 million, or one-fifth of that budget Red one, carry It defied even the most optimistic pre-release expectations. Critics loved it, with an 87 percent fresh rating Rotten tomatoesand while the overall rating is average at 53 percent, it may be because many audiences today expect a big, big-budget spectacle from every film and forget that this is the exact kind of thriller that fills theaters every week. In the 1990s. It's a predictable movie, and all the performances are just right, but it's also the most popular movie in the world right now.
carry It is broadcast exclusively Netflix.
