Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Written by John W. Richardson, Christopher Roach, Ryan Engle
Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianna Moore, Lupita Nyong’o
Neeson has forged a second career of sorts by a series of late winter releases. THE GREY, ranks as the best of these. Not sure, which is the worst. Probably not NON-STOP but it has more than its share of moments of complete nonsensicalness.
Neeson plays Bill Marks, an air marshall with a drinking problem and a serious depression. He’s not on this overseas flight more than a few minutes when he begins receiving texts saying someone will die every twenty minutes unless $150 million is placed in a bank account. Nearly everyone on the plane plays a suspect over the next two hours, and part of the fun, or what there is of it, is watching Neeson storm the aisles, manhandling the possible suspects.
This is a diverting, atmospheric film, but it’s filled with so many improbabilities that you are constantly distracted as they occur to you. The biggest problem with the film is the motivation it gives to the perpetrator when he/she/they are finally unmasked. And, the very end, with its rush to sentimentality irked me even more than it big reveal.
The best thing about NON-STOP though is watching Neeson’s pass through the aisles that the typical drink carts struggles with.
Patti Abbott
