There are a number of films that have continued to captivated audiences since their release, and one such title is Die Hard.

The 1988 action flick has, quite rightly, become a classic of the action genre, as Bruce Willis’ John McClane scuttled around the Nakatomi Plaza building in his white vest, bare-footed, taking out the bad guys.

It was a winning formula that has been much replicated, but never matched.

This film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra certainly has similar traits, set entirely in an airport on Christmas Eve as it is, but can it really compete with McClane and co?

Christmas Eve at Los Angeles airport, and passengers are gathering in numbers for the holiday getaway.

The people who have to manage them all are the airport staff, which includes TSA (Transport Security Administration) agent Ethan (Taron Egerton) who has just got some good news from his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson), who also works at the airport, that they’re expecting their first child.

This pushes Ethan into asking for a promotion, which he doesn’t get, but he does manage to get on the security conveyor belt, checking all the passengers’ hand luggage before boarding.

During his shift, a young woman hands him something from the belt that isn’t hers, a small device, which Ethan takes off of her. It transpires that it’s an earpiece, that he has to put in, only to find a man (Jason Bateman) giving him instructions – and if he doesn’t follow them, bad things will happen to those he cares about.

So now Ethan has a dilemma, does he do as he’s told and possibly have the death of passengers on his hands, or follow the instructions to protect his loved ones?

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – Well Oscar Wilde did – but there’s nothing flattering about this knock off, which would have been better off being called Dire Hard.

It is agonisingly slow, almost painfully so, to get its story off the ground. And when it finally does, it literally doesn’t go anywhere, instead choosing to follow a rather bland holding pattern.

It’s not helped by Collet-Serra’s generic direction, that lacks the kind of pace and energy a film like this desperately needs to succeed.

And sadly Egerton is wasted as the main protagonist, who you can tell is eager to channel a younger McClane, but just getting nowhere close to his vibrant, ballsy personality.

And Bateman, who is an odd choice to play a baddie, despite his dark tones in his superb Ozark, literally phones in his performance, as much of his dialogue comes from Ethan’s earpiece; you can see what he was trying to do, build up a mysterious figure who can turn the evil all the way to eleven if he so wishes, but with no edge there, it’s difficult to take Batman seriously, much like the rest of the film.

There were two moments that caused laugh out loud moments, but only due to the absurdity of the scene, which is never a good thing.

Carry On promises much, but ultimately delivers very little, if anything at all.

Don’t be surprised if it makes you feel how you would do at a real airport; after the initial novelty wears off, you’re just in a hurry to move on to something far more exciting.