‘CARRY-ON’ ON NETFLIX

With the holiday season now behind us, would debate over certain movies being called Christmas films result in a more dispassionate discussion? Argument has raged for some time about whether “Die Hard” is Yuletide entertainment.

Now we have Netflix’s “Carry-On,” similarly placed on Christmas Eve and involving redemption of the central character, to possibly raise, by comparison, the question about whether the Bruce Willis classic is holiday-centric entertainment.

The lead character in “Carry-On” is Taron Egerton’s Ethan Kopek, a TSA agent at Los Angeles International Airport, who reports for duty on one of the busiest days for holiday travelers.

Reporting for work, Ethan must figure the spirit of the season might be a good time to ask for a promotion from his churlish superior, Phil Sarkowski (Dean Norris), only to get shot down from consideration.

His best friend at work, fellow TSA agent Jason (Sinqua Walls), points out to Ethan that he started the same job two months after him and has already had two promotions to his zero. In Jason’s estimation, Ethan has been coasting on the job.

Ethan’s live-in girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson), pregnant with their first child, also works at the airport in a managerial position with fictional Northwind Airlines.

With fatherhood on the way, Ethan needs to step up his game. His aspiration to be a police officer has failed due to not getting beyond the entrance exam to the academy. Meanwhile, he hasn’t shown much initiative to get on track for advancement in his current position.

Hoping to rectify his situation, Ethan pleads with his dubious boss for a more important assignment, such as working the security check-in to monitor bags as they pass through the X-ray machine instead of dwelling in the bowels of the terminal.

Getting his way to man the security station, his request to demonstrate fresh ambition will be something Ethan will soon regret when he gets targeted as second choice to look the other way when a certain piece of luggage gets scanned by a passenger wearing a red baseball cap.

Pulling the strings is a person only credited as the Traveler (Jason Bateman), who has done his homework on Ethan and his previous first choice to know their vulnerabilities related to their personal and professional lives.

For his part, Bateman is working against type; here he’s truly an intimidating villain rather than showing his usual deadpan comedic delivery most evident in a string of comedy films and the TV series “Arrested Development.”

Bateman’s Traveler, clad in dark clothes and black hat, exudes menace in his methodical approach to bullying Ethan to do his bidding. It all starts with an earpiece Ethan is instructed by text to wear and follow every command lest Nora be killed.

What the Traveler tells the TSA agent is that all he needs to do is exactly nothing. Let the bag pass inspection through the machine without raising a red flag. He makes it all sound so simple.

But it’s not that simple after all. The dilemma posed for Ethan in following through is that the love of his life will live, but hundreds more on an airplane will surely perish when the hidden device detonates mid-air.

Do you sacrifice the life of your partner if it means saving innocent lives? Under the watchful eye of the Traveler, how does Ethan resolve the dilemma when the anonymous criminal cohort (Theo Rossi) is an expert sniper who has Nora firmly within his sight?

Outside the airport, a subplot forms when Detective Elena Cole (Denielle Deadwyler) investigates a crime scene where there may be a link to what is transpiring with the terrorist plot unfolding at the airport.

Riding in a car with an FBI agent, the detective astutely figures out something wrong is afoot, and then the most spectacular action sequence occurs in the speeding sedan as Elena grapples with the driver while the careening vehicle smashes into various obstacles.

The subplot of a high-speed run on the freeway leads to the detective becoming part of an eventual denouement at the airport. We can sense that the plot will be averted, but getting there requires Ethan to outsmart the Traveler.

The challenge for Ethan is compounded by the knowledge that the Traveler is not bluffing for having already killed one of his TSA colleagues. Ethan has to become a hero, but how will he make it happen?

Director Jaume Collet-Serra has figured out how to deliver resolution while performing similar duties in the Liam Neeson films “The Commuter,” “Run All Night,” and “Non-Stop,” the latter involving a terror plot on a transatlantic flight.

This film does not ask much from its audience other than to enjoy the thrill ride of a throwback to an era when movies like “Die Hard” flourished. For that matter, “Carry-On” runs in the same genre as several of the director’s other films.

“Carry-On” is reliably entertaining despite its inherent predictability and the absence of plot logic when you start to think about what unfolds with a critical eye.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.