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Non-Stop


Ever since 2009's Taken, Liam Neeson has become the go to action hero “bad-ass” garnering that reputation over the course of the years, and continuing to build on it. He fits the role flawlessly, plus he’s completely believable. I always 100% buy him as whatever character he’s playing. With the exception of Taken 2, all have been enjoyable. The Gray is his greatest achievement because it has the amazing action, but also is deep, intelligent, and highly philosophical. This is the second collaboration between Liam Neeson and director James Collet-Serra. They previously worked on Unknown together. I thought that was underrated. There was a twist that occurs, and most critics said it came out of nowhere, making no sense – don’t share the feeling. What’s cool about Non-Stop and Unknown is both have Hitchcockian plot setups that got me intrigued early.

Liam Neeson stars as Bill Marks, a U.S federal air marshal. Bill is on a plane traveling from New York to London. Soon after the flight takes off, he begins to receive threatening text messages telling him a passenger will be killed every twenty minutes, until $150 million is transferred to a bank account of his choosing. It’s revealed that the bank account is in Mark’s name. This leads others to believe he is the hijacker. Bill can’t be sure who to trust, but must find out what is really going on, and stop whoever is behind it.

The story had me hooked from the beginning. It’s only downfall lies within its third act where the movie attempts to take itself too seriously explaining why he/she is doing this. Granted, that was needed, they couldn’t just ignore it or simply brush it under the rug. The writing just didn’t make sense there. I didn’t need anything super thought out, but it could have been handled better than it was. Even with that misstep, it didn’t really bother me in the end because of how much I enjoyed everything prior to it. It’s basically summed up in a monologue where the biggest negative reaction it got from me was an eye roll. Non-Stop does what few B-movies do, got me engaged in the actual story. I wasn’t merely watching for a few thrilling action scenes and checking out the remainder of the time. I was constantly on the edge of my seat; there was some real tension that had my blood pumping.

One thing I absolutely loved was the mystery of who was hijacking the plane. We knew he/she was on board to start off with, but that’s it. No other details were given. Surprisingly, was unable to pin-point the culprit. I probably suspected about everyone on the plane at one point or another. You have all these potential suspects, and they’re all played by people who you could see pulling off a big reveal scene down the line. Many times in a movie like this you can spot who the villain is simply based on casting, but here amongst other red herrings that are thrown in the mix to keep things interesting, you can’t be sure. I fell hook line and sinker for the numerous little twists, constantly flip flopping from person to person – that was refreshing since in most instances I’ll be able to have a fairly good idea on who’s to blame right from the get go. Non-Stop finds ways to keep you guessing throughout.

Non-Stop

It can’t be stated how much Liam Neeson brings to Non-Stop. He commands such a presence that elevates these B-movies to places that they would be unable to reach if anyone else was starring. In many campy action type flicks, it’s obvious the lead is going through the motions, not putting forth any true effort. No matter how silly the movie, Neeson always seems to take it seriously. That’s an important aspect to why I prefer his fun films over other actors (the script does tend to be a bit better too). He actually gets into the character and gets me invested. Neeson makes Bill Marks a compelling figure that deserves to be picked-apart. You get the sense early on that Marks is disturbed, having maybe more than a few skeletons in his closet. I do applaud the writing for setting up the character, after that, Neeson runs with it. Don’t want to negate the supporting crew that consists of: Julianne Moore, Corey Stoll, Nate Parker, Scoot McNairy, and recent Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o. Each one has enough positive-qualities so you can side with them, but then on the other hand just enough shady-qualities to where you wouldn’t be shocked if any turned out to be the big bad.

Even though there were other components besides action scenes, I didn’t want to come across as diminishing them. They were impressively filmed considering the close quarters. One in particular really shined. That would be the bathroom fight. I’ve been in countless airplane bathrooms, trust me, you can’t do anything in there, let alone have a brawl; not that I’ve ever tried something like that. Non-Stop provides non-stop entertainment. I could see myself buying this when the DVD is available. It’s not very logical (does get more and more implausible as everything unfolds, John W. Richardson and Christopher Roach’s screenplay is nothing to marvel at), or anything that’s going to end up on a best of the year list, but I had such a fun experience. I’m not sure how it’ll hold up on repeated viewings, but man was it a blast the first time around.

Rating:  3 Star Rating


Non-Stop arrives in UK cinemas on 28th February 2014.
You can watch the trailer by clicking here.

Review Written On:


Movie Released On:
28th February 2014


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