Film: Carry-on

Spoiler Alert: This is not a Carry On film of the 70s variety with enough racism, sexism and innuendo to fill my large Samsonite zipfree suitcase.

Instead, it’s an airport-based thriller about terrorists. Not the film to watch while preparing for a trip to Tokyo, but we decided to watch it anyway.

Taron Egerton plays a TSA agent at LAX who in the tradition of airport-terrorist films, is the wrong guy at the wrong place. After deciding to up his career game to better support his pregnant girlfriend, he asks for more responsibility at work and is swapped with his colleague to be on a particular baggage security belt.

The terrorists were fully researched and ready to blackmail his colleague into letting a suitcase pass through unchecked. They quickly had to research Agent Ethan Kopek instead which immediately put his girlfriend in danger.

His brain works quickly (which says he’s earned a promotion at any rate) as he tries to outwit and outsmart the terrorists to stop anyone from getting hurt.

We know this is an update on an age-old story but there are enough twists and turns to keep me at the proverbial edge of my seat. Anyway, I needed him to succeed before I got onto my Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo.

7½/10 (Netflix)