CARRY-ON

TSA agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) has been mailing it in on life until today. Today is Christmas Eve and he found out his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) is pregnant. In order to begin providing for his soon-to-be expanding family, Ethan asks his boss for a chance to prove his worth on the busiest traveling day of the year. His boss obliges and allows him screening duties; however, he soon is forced to contend with Jason Bateman's character, who is only referred to in the credits as traveler. He's extremely smart and always one-step ahead of Ethan. The only thing Ethan needs to do it allow a bag going through his line to clear security and his pregnant girlfriend will live. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I was going to. I'm a huge Bateman fan and relish the opportunity to see him play against type as the baddie and here, he does not disappoint! It's an extremely interesting cat-and-mouse game set inside LAX. The story doesn't drag, constantly throwing curve balls at the audience early on, establishing and buying Bateman's character a ton of credit. This is a man who is on a mission and will not let anything or anyone get in his way of achieving his goal. Throw in for good measure a small but important role to Theo Rossi, who's credited as watcher, Bateman's trusty handyman who is also at the airport to ensure the plan goes off without a hitch. I won't say this is as good as DIE HARD but does seem reminiscent to it in a sort of homage sort of way and at least in my house hold, this just became a holiday classic! 7.5/10

RED ONE

Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) gets kidnapped at the North Pole and it's up to Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson) and Jack O'Malley (Chris Evans) to get him back before Christmas is ruined. I enjoy the world the creators of this content created and that's about as much praise as I can give this film. It's a family, holiday film but it just wasn't for me. The story had little value and as has become the norm for streamers such as Netflix, Prime, and Apple, they're banking on A-list talent to garner an audience and in this case on me, it worked (but that doesn't mean the final product was satisfactory). I understand the story is quite a stretch but there were even parts were I had to roll my eyes. I could never get into this and while Johnson and Evans aren't the problem here (that would be the script), they're not working with a lot here. This may play well to a younger audience but there was a reason why I passed on seeing this in theaters and opted to watch it on Prime (because it would have been a waste of my time, money, and gas to view it on the big screen). Lame sauce. 5/10

DIRTY ANGELS

A group of American girls get kidnapped from a high school by ISIS in Afghanistan. Team leader Jake (Eva Green) is convinced to lead the rescue mission after it's revealed the local ISIS leader is Amir (George Iskandar), who was responsible for the death of Jake's team during a previous mission in Afghanistan. With a list including Green, Maria Bakalova, Rudy Rose, and director Martin Campbell, to say this was a disappointment would be a gross understatement. For an action film, it's extremely thin on the action, feels low budget, and outside of one shocking 10 second scene, there is zero going on here. None of the cast stand out in this soon-to-be very forgettable movie (if anyone even watches it). Campbell has shown he is capable of so much more with the likes of GOLDENEYE and CASINO ROYALE. But I guess for every one of those there's a GREEN LANTERN or now DIRTY ANGELS. 4/10

Gonna watch this one tonight with the wifey. I'm a massive Die Hard fan, so my standards are annoyingly high for these types of movies.

Hope it lives up to it Gia. Would love to hear your thoughts after you watch it.

MARY

The story of the Virgin Mary (Noa Cohen), from her birth until the birth of Jesus. A lot of biblical stories don't give Mary her fair share of screentime and I'm very happy that oversight has been rectified with the release of this film. It shows the struggles she went through as a young woman, chosen by God to deliver His Son. In addition, it shows just how volatile it was for her to conceive this baby out of wedlock and just how far Herod (Anthony Hopkins) went to ensure Jesus' death in His infancy. This is a very beautiful and moving film. Cohen plays Mary with such grace, tenderness, and care. I applaud Netflix for having this film in their library as it seems to go against everything else they put out. My hope is Hollywood will take note and release more of these types of films as there is most definitely an audience for them! 7/10

Sorry Irish, but I found Carry-On to be disappointing lol. Taron Egerton did his best, but I felt the script let him down. His transformation from a TSA agent with a wannabe cop complex to a crime-fighting hero just wasn’t believable to me. I also thought Sofia Carson brought little to the table, with an annoyingly flat performance that lacked all impact lol. Bateman stood out as the film’s saving grace, but even his strong performance wasn’t enough to elevate the movie. The whole problem for me was that the movie didn't thrill me. It didn't excite me enough. So for me it doesn’t come close to capturing the magic of Die Hard, but I am happy that many people enjoyed it. 6/10

I appreciate your feedback and definitely agree with you on Sofia Carson.