Weekend Watch: Carry-On, The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim

Taron Egerton's in danger and Middle-earth sees more conflict

Image Credit: Netflix

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Taron Egerton channels John McClane and JRR Tolkien gets animated. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite

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If you read my Pop Culture Pick column on Unconventional Christmas Movies, you know I brought up the new Netflix action thriller offering Carry-On. An embargo meant I couldn’t review it until now, but I had fun with this one.

Die Hard naturally casts a long shadow, but Carry-On finds a way to be different enough.

Taron Egerton stars as Ethan Kopek, a work-a-day TSA agent whose life is at something of a standstill, at least professionally. His girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) is leagues ahead in her career, overseeing operations for one of the major airlines at LAX, where Ethan is also based.

Yet after following Nora across the country as her ambitions blossomed, he’s stuck feeling unmotivated, even as she announces she’s pregnant. He’s excited to be a dad but also a little overwhelmed. But that’s nothing compared to the bad day he’s about to have; he’s soon contacted by a mysterious individual (Jason Bateman) with an odd request: let a specific piece of luggage through the screening process or things will become dangerous for him and the ones he loves.

So begins a cat-and-mouse thriller where Ethan has to find it within himself to try and stop the threat, even as law enforcement (represented by Danielle Deadwyler’s pugnacious Detective Elena Cole) are also closing in.

It’s all well marshalled by Jaume Collet-Serra, a director who has worked on films in Liam Neeson’s geriaction era such as Non-Stop and The Commuter but has hopped all over the place in genre terms, bringing the world the likes of Jungle Cruise, Black Adam and, horrors including Orphan.

Carry-On may not compete with Bruce Willis’ action misadventures, but it’s entertaining enough stuff, TJ Fixman’s script (polished by Michael Green) finding enough logical moves for Ethan to make and also finding ways for his character in particular to be interesting. Nora, meanwhile, is never reduced to being a damsel in distress and the story makes good use of Bateman’s sarcasm-tinged tones.

One issue sticks out; an ambitious CG sequence featuring Deadwyler’s detective fighting it out with an opponent in a speeding (and then crashing) car is egregiously effects-y, looking like a CG test run more than a finished scene.

That aside, this is certainly worth watching if you like your Christmas movies with a little extra action. And presumably once you’ve seen the festive party at Nakatomi Plaza go very wrong…

Carry-On is on Netflix now.

Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Fans of JRR Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth (especially The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings) haven’t exactly been hurting for adaptations of the famed fantasy adventures.

We’ve had Peter Jackson’s two trilogies and more recently, The Rings Of Power has been exploring the time period long before even Bilbo went questing. Now there’s yet more fantastical combat to be found as another prequel story comes to screens. Big screens this time.

The War Of The Rohirrim is Set 183 years before the events chronicled in either of Jackson’s trilogies. It tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan (Brian Cox).

A sudden attack by Wulf (Luca Pasqualino), a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg –– a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra (Gaia Wise), the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.

Yes, it’s the reason why the fortress in The Two Towers’ climatic final battle is so named. The concept of combining anime with Tolkien is an intriguing one, and while the history of the Rings and animation isn’t exactly littered with glory (though Ralph Bakshi has his defenders), The War Of The Rohirrim acquits itself well.

With some solid voice performances and effective action, it also boasts a big writing team that includes Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, not to mention Rings veteran Philippa Boyens helping to craft the story. War comes across as a piece of mythology brought to vivid life that, while it can’t compete with Jackson’s own film work (or indeed the epic scale of Rings Of Power, it’ll certainly fill the hole while we all wait for more cinematic action from the world of Middle-earth.

The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim is in US and UK cinemas now.