Bill marks, a US Federal Air Marshal with a dark past must protect the passengers of an international flight threatened by an unknown assailant. Using the planes private network, the terrorist texts Bill and advises if he doesn’t receive $150 million in a bank account, a passenger will be killed every 20 minutes.
Liam Neeson stars in his fourth installment of Old Man Action as the ex-cop/military man with a troubled past who needs to save people from bad guys. The film aims for “edge of your seat” value and for the most part pulls it off. The mystery of the terrorist, and the ‘what’s going to happen next’ focus, adds excitement and will keep you baffled until the final reveal. Films with a huge reveal at the end typically leave clues and motives throughout the plot to direct your attention to a certain character as the bad guy, sometimes as a misdirect, other times as subtle hints. Non-Stop doesn’t worry about giving out relevant hints and leaves you completely in the dark throughout the film. The major reveal at the end seems to have no purpose whatsoever, other than to reveal someone.
Non-Stop is an excellent gauge of your ability to overlook absurdity. The film progressively becomes more far fetched and unless you are highly accustomed to suspending disbelief, you will eventually hit your breaking point. I got to the final 10 minutes before thinking to myself “wow, this really got out of hand!”. The main reasons for this absurdity is the way the terrorist is able to conceal himself and seems to know every single move that everyone on the plane is going to make. The terrorist is eventually foiled by something that is fairly easy to predict compared to previous predictions, especially considering his background. In addition to this, the characters seem to do things simply to advance the plot. Bill’s handler especially acts in a way that no one would, seemingly to just progress the story.
Liam Neeson has established himself as a diverse actor over the years and has now portrayed four action hero’s in the last few years. He gets the job done and he always connects to the audience through some compassionate gesture before turning into a ruthless killer. But its OK, because we saw him help out a little girl earlier so he’s still a good guy. Julianne Moore provides a decent performance, showcasing her refined and experienced acting skills in a fairly one-dimensional role.
The way scenes are put together in the film is impressive. It still uses the ‘quick cut’ style sequences of most action movies but considering the majority of the film takes place in a single plane, this works well. This also hides the fact that Liam Neeson doesn’t do anything remotely athletic in this film. The shots used are obviously in a set but it’s made interesting by the fact that you are shown perspective’s not possible in real life, adding to the claustrophobic effect of most scenes.
The Verdict:
Non-Stop provides an edge of your seat action-thriller based on a thin, and exploitative premise. It’s pretty entertaining and is backed up by decent acting to fill the unbelievable plot. Probably wait for this one to come out on Blu-Ray.
3/5
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Check out more on Non-Stop at www.imdb.com/title/tt2024469/
Screen Communique 