For to the common-minded Brits, the name Hollywood film sometimes carries its own unknown associations and unfortunate resonances. Many lamented the lackluster response here in 2017 to Robert Redford’s studio title film Our souls to the night. Now here is a small new part of the Netflix product, a gardener about a bomb hoax on a plane in hand luggage, Taron Egerton stars as Ethan, the airport security in time and Jason Bateman as the left mind of an explosive master. It’s called … Fer-On.
That title is self-explanatory for everyone in the United States. But it is bound to the British Netflix Subscribers are overexcited if they want to be sure that the biggest franchise movie in movie history is going to be rebooted with a sexy new cast. Egerton is a Brit. Didn’t Netflix hint that the film might be released for the UK?
It must be said that Egerton, with his look and air of sorrowful misery, got the part of Kenneth Connor. His friend, who incidentally bears the same name as Nora, is played by Sofia Carson; Ethan is pregnant and struggling to follow his dreams and reapply to the police academy. I spent the entire film wondering how Johanna Sims would have handled the part, probably giving Ethan an odd earful. The tough, wizarding airport security boss is played by Dean Norris; if his character’s just-lined face allowed him to break into a grin at times while he laughed rock haah-haah-haah, then it’s a shoe-in for Sidney James. And as Jason Bateman’s creepy terrorist, his face in proud rejection and contempt … can only turn Kenneth Williams.
This Carry-On could really lean more towards classic harnesses. When he fought the bad guys, Egerton could be accused of infamy, infamy, they all have … Well, not to be.