‘Continue’ Review: Airport Character Has Not Succeeded in Promotion

Every year there is a great debate about whether Die Hard Christmas movie (obviously, obviously). Regardless of which side of the argument you fall on, we can all agree that Hollywood wishes to re-create the magic and success of that epic action flick, which saw Bruce Willis single-handedly save the day after a terrorist attack on Christmas Eve. But despite all these efforts, no movie has ever lived up to that classic. Including now.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra, responsible for hits like this one An orphan again The Shallows and Liam Neeson’s requisite action moves as What doesn’t stop again A travelertrying his hand this year with Go aheada Netflix movie that should put everyone involved on the naughty list. It’s the kind of movie you watch with your family, have a few glasses of mulled wine, and maybe a few people fall asleep for part of it. That won’t matter, even if the actors, especially Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman, try their best to imbue the film with a sense of unrelenting intensity.

Egerton is a disturbed TSA agent named Ethan Kopek, who only works at LAX because his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) also works there and likes to have lunch with him. She is pregnant and disappointed in Ethan’s life choices, including failing to get into police academy despite his dream of joining the LAPD. He shows up for work on Christmas Day, a busy travel time, and decides to make an extra effort. He asks his boss Phil (Dean Norris) to give him access to one of the security cameras, something he seems to have to build himself. Phil agrees, which is good for Ethan but bad for the terrorist group, who didn’t expect Ethan to be the guy running that security line.

You know how this is going to play out: Ethan is tipped off—not at all suspicious—and Bateman’s mysterious antagonist threatens to kill Nora if Ethan doesn’t let some piece of the baggage go through. There is a lot of talking, maybe too much talking, and Ethan is forced to decide whether he should go along with his family’s interests or try to stop the attack for the good of the general public. Yes, he tries to raise the alarm, which quickly leads to the death of his colleague. Again, not suspicious at all. Meanwhile, a police officer named Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler, who shouldn’t be here) notices that something is wrong at LAX and begins to investigate outside.

It feels like there should be more action Go aheadprevented from being prepared. A fight in an airport baggage claim area, where there are apparently no security cameras, makes for a decent set piece, but Egerton spends most of the film looking anxious and, frankly, extremely volatile. Somehow he runs into Bateman’s character several times at the airport, including when he’s pushing in the bathroom, and no one seems too concerned that Ethan keeps wandering away from the security line he’s longed to handle. In fact, the whole thing undermines any idea that LAX has decent security at all. At one point, terrorists wandered into the Terminal 7 ticket booth and stabbed a TSA agent without being stopped. The climax, which is almost too ridiculous for its own sake, tries to intensify the action, but it also feels overwrought. Also: Are this many people really flying on Christmas Day?

There have been other horror films set in an airport, including some very good ones Die Hard 2which successfully brings a sense of pleasant stress to the normal environment. Con Air, Air Force One, Red Eye and the latest Apple TV+ series Hijacking they proved that airplanes can be exciting places to compete for the everyday hero and the person who is determined to destroy. Go ahead it doesn’t make that particular list (there’s more where this belongs, as Santa knows). It’s occasionally distracting, sure, but it kills time while you’re waiting for your flight to board.