Non-Stop

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Release: Friday, February 28, 2014

[Theater]

In this episode, Liam’s on a mission to make sure one hundred and fifty million doll-hairs are transferred into the proper account otherwise. . . . .well, you can probably guess what the otherwise is.

This is another one of those instances where you can glean everything you need to know about the film — for the better or for the worse — just by taking a quick look at the poster. Does it catch your eye? No? Well then enjoy spending your time watching the Son of God movie this weekend, what looks to be a made-for-TV film that already seems to be faring much worse than this action-thriller.

Needless to say, this weekend isn’t exactly jam-packed with high-quality releases. Priorities are elsewhere, as are the great actors and actresses. Well, with the exception of a pair found in Non-Stop, a thriller about a packed flight that gets hijacked, terrorized and perhaps scariest of all, seriously Liam Neeson-ed.

Neeson and Julianne Moore together bring much-needed gravitas to a story that shoots first and answers questions later. But whereas the ‘shooting’ and suspense-building aspects are quite compelling, director Jaume Collet-Serra — and I love this — who is known for Unknown, as well as Orphan, doesn’t really know how to provide logical, inventive solutions to what is admittedly an intriguing puzzle, a veritable whodunnit at 35,000 feet.

When Bill Marks (Neeson), an experienced albeit troubled air marshal receives a series of threats via text message on a secure network on his 6-plus-hour flight to London, his blood boils. Now, instead of getting to join the Mile High Club with his cute seat-mate Jen (Moore), he has to jump into action to save the entire plane full of “innocent” passengers from impending doom. God, work is such a pain in the ass.

It’s a film in which anyone and everyone can and does become a suspect — most importantly, Bill Marks himself. It’s a film where trailers undersell the production and in this particular case, that’s a very good thing. Attention spans are likely to be held far longer than what the previews might suggest due to some surprising twists and turns throughout.

Unfortunately, this plane ride is rigged with one twist too many, and it’s the major one that really does some damage. As one expects from the Liam Neeson action vehicle, a fair amount of liberties are bound to be taken. To that end, Non-Stop falls short of the impressive 2008 thriller Taken, a movie where Neeson is given the green light to single-handedly slaughter half of Western Europe. It falls quite short of the bodycount of that film for sure, but surprisingly the implications of both situations are almost on par with one another, with Taken bearing only a slight advantage in that department as well. However, and to reiterate, the last twenty minutes of this pulse-pounder threaten to tear apart the film with some heavy-handed (and slightly awkwardly placed) political points and a discreditable reveal.

This isn’t one that you can easily separate from many time-conscious, white-knuckle thrill-rides but it does just enough to leave a somewhat lasting impression. It’ll be good for audiences who find themselves wanting some excitement in the earlygoing of 2014, but needless to say it’s going to be far better for Mr. Neeson’s wallet.

Now, who wants some frequent flyer mileage after seeing this? I’m giving all of mine away because I am sure as Neeson never stepping foot on an airplane again.

oh-were-fucked

3-0Recommendation: Fan of Liam Neeson? Appreciate taut suspenseful films that don’t drain your patience completely? Non-Stop delivers, despite the god-awful title. It is good at immersing the viewer in the experience of flying, so if you add any personal biases for or against traveling in a little metal tube at 500 miles an hour thousands of feet above the Earth’s surface, the experience only improves. This film was a nice surprise. Not great, but it will do.

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 106 mins.

Quoted: “I’m not hijacking this plane; I’m trying to save it!”

All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited. 

Photo credits: http://www.impawards.com; http://www.imdb.com 

31 thoughts on “Non-Stop”

  1. Pingback: Run All Night | digitalshortbread

    • Thanks man. If its the reviews that are uninspiring you, I’d still say it’s worth taking a peep at sometime. Maybe not in the theaters though. It’s an adrenaline packed ride that you now have so much more cautioning about than we did. Some parts didn’t work, that’s certainly true, but a lot actually did (for me, anyway).

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  3. Great review! That title is indeed unfortunate. Neeson has been always fun to watch and even when he should be more picky about his film choices at least this one sounds like a somewhat capable thriller. I really dig Moore, too. Gonna give this one a shot solely for the Neeson factor. Thanks Tom and good work, man.

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    • Thanks very much man, appreciate that!

      Non-Stop is a good deal of fun, I was pleased with what I saw for the most part. It’s not quite as sturdy as Taken, but if you do appreciate what Neeson’s been doing as of late, then this will perfeclty satisfy. Look forward to reading a report from you as well.

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  4. I’d really like to see Non-Stop this weekend. With a all the festivities surrounding the Oscars however it might have to wait another week. Your review isn’t a rave, but it’s more positive than negative so I still, want to see it.

    P.S. What are “Shares of Shortbread” on the right column?

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    • That’s fine and dandy, it’s not one requiring immediate viewing. But I will say it surprised me with the ability to hold an air of tension for as long as it did, even if it almost came undone towards the end. I eagerly await a report from you on it.

      That section is kind of badly titled, it’s basically all of the newest blogs I have come across. Unfortunately WP limits it to. . I guess the top 25 or so most recent discoveries.

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  5. I have tomorrow night penciled in for a dumb flick at the cinema. Am thinking I will catch this seeing as Pompeii isn’t playing. Great review mate.

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    • No sweat man! Lupita is in here, though you’d barely know it. Let’s hope that her debut in 12 Years doesn’t mean she now gets tons of mediocre/insubstantial roles like this one. This was a fun movie but she didn’t get to do anything

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    • Indeed sir, the Liam Neeson factor was fantastic in this. he was as good as he was in Taken, IMO. The story definitely lacked more here, but I found it to be perfectly satisfactory. I hope you give it a look-see soon Mark

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  8. I was thinking of trying to convince my girlfriend to go and watch this tonight, but it did not look all that exciting. Why? Because last time I seen Liam in a similar role, it was “Taken 2” and if I made a top ten list of “WHAT MOVIES I WANTED TO CRAP ON”, that would be in the top five side of things. Just a horrible film. So thank the high heavens this one turned out a bit better, or else Liam would have joined my permanent shit-list of actors to avoid…..

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    • Yeah I have no idea why Taken 2 was made. He also made a horrendous decision to reprise the role in a film that would now be predictable as all hell.

      The same cannot be said about Non-Stop, though. Barring the really bad title, this isnt a bad movie. The suspense is most definitely there, perhaps not on a level like the original Taken was, but hey. That was quite a standard set back in ’08. Hopefully you’ll take some time to check this out, don’t write Mr. Neeson off just yet. 😀

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  9. Hello Tom, long time no *see* 🙂 Y’know, I didn’t mind 3 Days to Kill as I like Costner. I like Neeson too so I think this should be an entertaining popcorn action flick.

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    • Hey Ruth! Yeah I’m sorry I’ve been slack on my visits to FlixChatter myself. Have had some busy weeks recently, but good to see you back. Also good to hear you enjoyed to some degree 3 Days to Kill — both that and this one surpassed my near ground-level expectations so while that doesn’t sound very convincing, both were fun films. We could do a lot worse this time of year.

      Hope you enjoy this one! 😀

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      • Ha..ha.. near ground-level expectations is right, esp w/ McG’s involvement in 3 Days to Kill. But fortunately Costner still has the star power to make it enjoyable. Surely Neeson is in the same camp.

        Hope to see you around soon! 😀

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  10. Good review Tom. What it does so well is that kept me guessing just enough to where I had no idea who the bad person was, and for what reason. Problem was, that when I eventually found out, it was a bit stupid.

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    • I’m right there with you Dan. The big reveal was the film’s big misstep. I rolled my eyes for sure, but I can’t say that I expected it to be who it turned out to be.

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  11. That is better than I expected it to be, when viewing trailers. I figured this would be positively wretched. Should I see it, I hope I find as much enjoyment as you have. Good review.

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    • You may find the faults in it more offensive than I did, but all in all this was far and away a case of low expectations being exceeded, and impressively so at that. Going in with very low expectations def helps but this is nowhere near as bad as I thought it looked too, based on trailers. I was ready to write Liam Neeson off

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    • Great summation of the film Keith. It does its job well enough for me to recommend it to those who follow Liam Neeson around.

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    • That is Chris, that. It. Is. I really quite enjoyed this one. Wasn’t planning on that at all, so that’s always a great thing to have happen. I’ll keep my eye out for your review if I’ve managed to convince you to see it sometime. 😀

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    • Never seen Orphan, but quick glances at RT and IMDb say it wasn’t very good and not something I am missing out on. I thought this movie was definitely, definitely better than it looked at first. I nearly avoided seeing it. Then I saw it opening night for some reason. Glad I did.

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