Theo Rossi – STREAMING MOVIE NIGHT

2024 Netflix

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 59min

Action ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Starring: Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi and Jason Bateman.

“One bag…..for one life.”

It’s Christmas Eve and Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) and his pregnant girlfriend Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson) are getting ready to go to work. They both work at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) and reluctantly have to work Christmas Eve. Ethan is a TSA agent and Nora is Director of Operations at Northwind Airlines. Nora mentions to Ethan that she thinks he is unhappy with his job at TSA and should consider applying for the Police Academy again. As Ethan arrives late to his shift he considers Nora’s remarks and decides that he likes his job at TSA. They have a baby on the way and he sees it as the quickest way to get more money, and asks his boss for a promotion.

His boss decides to give him a chance as they could use another man on the front lines and puts him on the line scanning passengers bags. A young woman gets his attention ands says the earbud in the bottom of one of the bins is not hers. He takes it and his phone immediately rings, he answers and is instructed to put the earbud in his ear. The voice in the earbud explains to him that he is to do exactly as instructed. There is a passenger coming through very shortly and Ethan is to allow his bag to pass through the scanner or else. “All you have to do is…..nothing………let the bag pass, Or your pregnant girlfriend ends up dead.”

Jason Bateman stars as the bad guy whose voice is in the earbud. He does an excellent job of being the bad guy who will do whatever it takes to get the carry on bag through the scanner and on the plane. Theo Rossi stars as Jason’s partner in crime who is in charge of surveillance and murder if necessary. Danielle Deadwyler stars as the Detective who starts to put pieces of a puzzle together that lead her to the unfolding events at the airport. I really like her! In this and also in The Piano Lesson and especially in Till.

It is a Christmas movie in that it is set on Christmas Eve. Netflix”s Tudum features an article with the director Jaume Collet-Serra who explains: “Like Die Hard, Carry-On is a Christmas Movie. My hope is that Carry-On can be enjoyed all year round as a fun, popcorn thriller. But of course, the holiday travel theme is integral to our story, and we definitely had fun with it in terms of Christmas decorations in the airport and some classic holiday tunes in the soundtrack.” It is a good soundtrack, and a good movie as well. I enjoyed it, it kept me involved with all the twists and turns the plot took.

Highly Recommended, especially to watch Jason Bateman as a really bad guy for once.

Two Thumbs Up!

2022 Roadside Attractions

Rated: R

Length: 1hr 37 min

Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Directed by: John Patton Ford

Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Gina Gershon.

“Motherf**kers will just keep taking from you and taking from you until you make the God damn rules yourself. That’s what this is about.”

Aubrey Plaza stars as Emily Benetto, an independent contractor living in Los Angeles delivering for a catering company. She is renting a room in a couple’s house and struggling financially with tens of thousands in student debt. She is trying to lift herself up and find a better job, but is encumbered with an assault conviction and a criminal record thanks to an abusive ex-boyfriend, and is having no luck. Her co-worker Javier turns her on to a side gig where she can make $200 an hour.

Desperate she calls the number and the next day goes to the address they gave her. She meets Youcef (Theo Rossi), who explains that it’s a credit card fraud ring who uses people to perpetrate the fraud purchase in exchange for a hefty fee. Emily hesitates but then, being desperate for some hope of financially getting out of the hole she’s in, agrees and goes to a big box store where she purchases a $2,000 Big Screen Tv with the fake credit card. She then exchanges the tv with the fraud group and gets an envelope with $200 cash inside.

Seems easy enough and Emily digs in deeper for more. Going after bigger and more profitable fraud purchases. Eventually Youcef takes a liking to her, and her eagerness to learn, and sets her up so she can operate on her own. He makes her promise not to visit any one store more than once a week, and if she makes more than $5,000 he gets a cut. She starts having success on her own and gets braver as the money rolls in. But it also exposes her to the unsavory characters in the criminal world and her life gets more dangerous.

Emily’s downward spiral into the criminal world, or her success at achieving financial independence depending on how you look at it, happens at a rapid pace. Emily gets more brazen and ruthless the more dangerous the journey becomes until she is forced to be the victim or the aggressor. After liking Aubrey Plaza last night in Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre , I wanted to see more of her and saw she was in this. I am glad I watched it, thought she did an excellent job of portraying Emily and she is now one of my new favorites.

There is an Emily The Criminal TV series in the works being executive produced by Aubrey but she will not star in it.

I thought it was good and definitely recommend it.

Two Thumbs Up!