Carry-On: Do-See

So I just got around to watching Carry-On, a Die-Hard-like roller-coaster of an airport thriller which has been on Netflix since December.

No Bruce Willis in the movie, but Carry-On does have Justin Bateman as an anti-hero, "Traveler," though just outright, contemptible, highly intelligent, ruthless villain may be a more apt description.  The hero (Ethan Kopek) is played by Taron Egerton (Elton John in Rocketman!), and he puts in a very good performance.

The plot is vaguely familiar, though I don't think I've seen anything exactly like Carry-On before.  How do you get a lethal aerosol weapon on board a plane?  You target the pregnant wife of a young TSA screener and tell him you'll kill his wife (who conveniently also works at the airport) if he doesn't let the deadly package go through and on to the plane the bad guys want to destroy.

The movie has plenty of action, all kinds of would-be heroes and outright heroes, including Danielle Deadwyler (Station Eleven) as a rambunctious LAPD detective. There are some good twists and turns along the way, and the movie also has the you-never-know-who's-going-to-die ingredient that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I won't tell you anything more about Carry-On because I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that if you're looking for a fast-paced, chic car-chase of a movie (and there actually is a car-chase in the movie), one that takes place on Christmas Eve (hence its kinship to Die Hard, and also Black Doves), you can't go wrong with Carry-On.

See also Black Doves: Snow White Thriller

more about The Silk Code here

Station Eleven 1.1-1.3: "Looking Over the Damage" Well Worth Seeing

With Apple TV+'s  run of superb science fiction -- Foundation, Invasion, and Finch -- temporarily on pause, it looks like HBO Max has picked up the slack with a powerful new series, Station Eleven, a new Matrix movie up next week, and the first half of Dune this past October.  

The first three episodes of Station Eleven introduce us to a complex, perilous, beauty of a story.  It's a story about the passion and agony of creating art, about bringing a story into being.  And, oh yeah, it's a story about "the end of the world," due to a super-virulent (super-all-too-familiar) flu that kills over 99% of the population.

So, well, almost the end of the world (shows how we’ll we’ve actually done in our real, off-screen world),  and therein lies the heart of Station Eleven.  A heart within a heart, a play within a play, because Station Eleven is not only the name of this series, it's the name of a book that Miranda (outstanding performance by Danielle Deadwyler), a major character in this series, wrote.  (A much more appropriate meta than what Facebook says it's becoming, I would say.)  And the book is no mere prop for a meta-title.  It's something that "ruined my life," as said by Miranda and her husband.

The series unfolds in a mode first perfected in Lost:  now, or close to now, when the extinction-level pandemic strikes, and twenty years into the future, when we see how a small group of survivors struggles and (at this point) perhaps triumphs in a way.  When we're in the now, we see flashforwards (the plural of Rob Sawyer's excellent term); when we're in the future, we see flashbacks to the present.  This makes the story a little difficult to follow, but it's worth that price.  Station Eleven, in just three episodes, has already unfurled a rich, memorable tapestry of characters and humanity, as they "look over the damage," another one of the mantras of the series.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

It's already left us with all kinds of questions.  Why, exactly, did Kirsten (well played by Mackenzie Davis, with great facial expressions that in themselves tell the story) try to kill that guy (Prophet?) in episode 1.2?  Because he said Kirsten and her troupe were "monsters"?  I doubt it's because she has that thin a skin. Because he told Kristen that some of her friends would start to "disappear"?  He didn't say he would make them disappear. There must be more to that stabbing, but that's good grist for the continuing narrative.  

I'll also mention that this series -- based on the novel by Emily St. John Mandel that I haven't read -- is evocatively photographed and accompanied by outstanding music, including Dylan's "Don't Think Twice."  I'm not going to think twice about continuing to watch this vivid series, and I'll be back here with reviews.

See also Station Eleven 1.4-5 : Shakespearean Prophet   ... Station Eleven 1.6-7: Time, Blake, and Bosch

 ... Station Eleven 1.8-9: Before and After ... Station Eleven 1.10: Hope and Plaudits