Non-Stop

                Back in 2011, when I started originally doing film reviews on Deviant Art, one of my first films to talk about was “Unknown, starring Liam Neeson and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who made that awful remake of “House of Wax.” It was a film that while had great action, was more focused on the suspense, thrills, and mystery aspect that it brought up. In that film, Neeson played Martin Harris, a man who arrives in Berlin with his wife, but when he goes to get his ID back from the airport, he gets into a car accident. When he wakes up, he realizes there is another man who claims he’s Martin Harris, and now Neeson needs to find out what’s going on, as he’s been hunted by people trying to subdue him. It was in my opinion Neeson’s best film in a long time, in the ways of portraying an action star, more so than “Taken.”

                Now this time around, Collet-Serra and Neeson are working again, this time with the film, “Non-Stop.” The film tells of Bill Marks, an Air Force Marshall, who starts getting texts on a flight by someone threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes, unless a payment of $150 million is forwarded to an account. Marks tries to find out who it is, but soon finds out that the account number is in his name, and now Mark is framed for hijacking the plane, as he desperately tries to clear his name, before the plane crashes. Much like “Unknown,” the film brings the focus away from the action, and goes for the suspense and thrills. And for a film in a plane the whole time, there is only about 3 action scenes total, as well as lasting about three to five minutes at most. But that’s what I felt worked, was that there wasn’t much action to begin with, since it’s in a plane, and you can’t do much anyway.

                As always, Neeson brings a captive presence to him, playing a former New York cop, turned Air Marshall, after life changing events. Yeah, there are clichés, but I didn’t let them bother me, since he’s proven to make it work extremely well. To this day, Neeson has proven to not only be a great actor, but a great action star at that, even in his 60’s. We also have Julianne Moore in the film, playing the lady friend that he meets on the plane. She does have a likable character to her, being someone who does tend to get close and help, even if she’s just a typical everyday woman. There’s also good performances from other people on the plane, like the doctor, the main stewardess, the partner of Neeson, and the pilots. We also have some great work from, now Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o. As for the twist with the culprit, I won’t spoil it for you, but with the motivations made, it does make sense. It actually makes the culprit more relatable, as it would be something I would do myself, if driven to that point.

                Does the film have flaws? Only a few. There were at times when certain moments felt out of place, like how Neeson’s partner was able to smuggle cocaine onto a plane (that does happen), but I managed to find a few reasons that were left out probably get the better of me. Other than that, nothing much really bothered me that badly, or got me confused.

                Now the big question is, how did this hold up against “Unknown?” does Well, as much as I do enjoy this film with what it does, “Unknown” is still the better film in my opinion, as it had much more enjoyable mystery and suspense to it, with enough action to balance it out and make it just as investing as any typical filmgoer would find.

                Overall, “Non-Stop” still manages to prove that Liam Neeson is still a badass, and that this director CAN do good movies. If you’ve got time, definitely take a look at this and have a blast with it.

Rating: 9/10