Carry-On may be a Netflix thriller, but it’s perfect for cable

A great thriller lives and dies by its complexity. Movies like All the President’s Men or Blow out create intricate, detailed worlds of mystery that draw you in before leaving you in the middle of the maze to unwind for days afterward. However, a solid B-tier thriller is all about simplicity. It’s movies like Foggy and Telephone booth which you may not necessarily choose to put on, but never say no to if you find them on cable. What makes these films so fun and so endlessly rewatchable is how effectively they wring every last drop of mystery and suspense out of a deceptively simple premise. And Hand luggagethe new holiday airport thriller from Netflix is ​​about as solid a B-tier thriller as you’ll ever find.

The film follows Ethan (Taron Egerton), a bored TSA agent with dreams of becoming a police officer. But as long as he’s stuck working at LAX, he’s determined to put as little thought into his work as possible, much to the dismay of his newly pregnant girlfriend (Sofia Carson), who would love to see him get a promotion or finally join the LAPD. Unfortunately for Ethan’s minimal efforts, during a Christmas Eve shift at the X-ray machine, he receives an earlobe that a terrorist (Jason Bateman) tells him will kill his girlfriend unless he closes a certain bag through the machine.

All of this setup takes less than 10 minutes to communicate, and now we’re into a duel between Ethan and a terrorist with a massive lead and an eye on every security camera in LAX. Director Jaume Collet-Serra is a master of these cable thrillers – with his Blake Lively shark survival film The Shallows to be a particular standout – but it’s these earliest moments where he’s at his very best.

While in some films the plot unfolds and gradually reveals itself to the audience, Collet-Serra’s thrillers feel like watching someone make origami, where every fold of the plot is crucial, precise and surprisingly intricate. His protagonists start with the easy, obvious moves: Ethan tries to call the police on his cell phone under the table and send a text with his Apple Watch, but they are stopped immediately; now the folds must become more delicate and complicated. Suddenly we are knee-deep in secret messages, nerve agents, airport codes and TSA tricks, and Collet-Serra beautifully engages us with each new revelation or twist in the story.

But for all Collet-Serra’s talents in this particular subgenre, Hand luggage‘s real strength lies in the performances of the two leads. Egerton and Bateman are either on screen or speaking for nearly every moment of the film’s two-hour runtime, and still every delivery and airport-based chess move crackles with energy until their inevitable, climactic showdown.

Egerton has proven himself as a leading man a few times before, between playing a spy in Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman movie and rocking the piano as Elton John in Rocketmanbut Hand luggage is the first time the 35-year-old actor has really shown his age, proving he can play an older character who pulls off a slower, less friendly act. He gives a quiet and determined performance here that can’t help but make you hope he’ll return to similar roles in all areas of seemingly dull service – perhaps he and Collet-Serra can team up on a notary thriller next, since Ben Has Affleck already covered the Accountant pitch?

The real treat here, though, is Jason Bateman, who gets to play creepy in a way he’s never really been allowed to – though Ozark lets him dip his toe in the villain pond every now and then. It’s a straightforward, uncomplicated evil kind of character that we’ve rarely seen in thrillers over the last decade or so: He’s just a guy who’s here to get paid and kill lots of people. But Bateman plays the character with a panache that cleverly hides how much this guy enjoys his evil work and being good at it. His terrorist is always one step ahead and more than happy to watch people like Ethan play games that Bateman’s character is already sure he’s won.

Given the size of both leads, it should come as no surprise that the only real turbulent disruption to Hand luggage‘s otherwise excellent tension comes when the film breaks from its central duel to introduce a police detective (Danielle Deadwyler) who accidentally enters the action. As with so many of these thrillers, the cop character feels both like an unwelcome distraction from the film’s main event and completely integral to tying together a plot that was more interested in creating a fun premise than a mystery that makes sense. But it’s hard to fault the film for a so-so conclusion when the journey to get there was as fun as it was Hand luggage‘s.

In another era, this is the kind of movie that, when you get home for the holidays, you’d find out your parents have seen six or seven times simply because it’s playing on TNT and they stop channel surfing, every time they see it. And who could blame them? Hand luggage is enormous fun. It won’t blow you away, it won’t replace Die Hard as your father’s favorite winking response to what is your favorite christmas moviebut it will entertain you and whoever else is watching every time you turn it on. It’s just a shame you’ll never be able to catch it on cable halfway through.

Hand luggage now streaming on Netflix.