Non-Stop is a newly released film on DVD and Blu Ray that people can rent or buy and stars Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery and Linus Roache. The movie comes from director Jaume Collet-Serra who some may know for his work on House Of Wax (2005) or Goal II: Living The Dream.
In terms of films from Jaume Collet-Serra Non-Stop may be his best work. I have not seen every single one of his films but I have seen quite a few and Non-Stop for me is the most entertaining of his films. Non-Stop has a very simple and contained storyline. It follows Federal Air Marshall Bill Marks who is played by Liam Neeson on a plane ride gone wrong. Basically as you can see in the trailer, some maniac who I won’t reveal because of spoilers starts texting Liam Neeson. The maniac asks for 150 million dollars to be transferred into an account, if it doesn’t happen then a person will die every 20 minutes. It’s up to Liam Neeson, well Bill Marks to solve this mystery and also manage the worried airline passengers.
The plot really is very simple and is more a mystery thriller film that the usual Liam Neeson action, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its own fair share of fight scenes, of course it does! It’s a Liam Neeson film! I actually quite liked this movie and enjoyed that practically the whole film is contained to inside the plane as it helped increase the tension. A lot of movies feel the need to jump around to many locations and characters. But Non-Stop stays focused on just the one location and just a few chosen characters. It doesn’t mess around or go where it doesn’t need to and I liked that.
Side characters are there to be mostly distractions and during the movie you might be trying to guess or changing your guess throughout to figure out who it was that was texting Air Marshall Bill Marks. Most of the actors do quite well to help you question who they are at different points. Julianne Moore was great at being the suspicious woman who befriends Bill. Julianne Moore of course has starred alongside Liam Neeson before in Chloe (2009) and I think they have a good working relationship together. The flight attendant Nancy who was played by Michelle Dockery had me wondering about what she was up to for a long time during the film and of course she’s recognizable from her role in Downton Abbey. Linus Roache also appears in this film, but not as much as I would expect, many may know Linus for his role in TV series Vikings as he plays King Ecbert. . The film also has an appearance from Lupita Nyong’o who plays Gwen, many will know her now for her work in 12 Years A Slave, she is barely in this movie at all, so don’t expect much from her here. Corey Stoll also makes an appearance in the film, many would know him as Peter Russo from House Of Cards, he plays a policeman in the film. Overall the cast of actors all did well with their characters and were good enough to entertain for the 106 minute run time.
While the actors all did really great with all of their performances, it’s not like any of them did legendary work here, but they were good and entertaining for what this movie is. This movie is a good distraction on a Saturday night or Friday night. It’s got a really simple plot that anybody can follow and it’s an entertainment film. However even though its plot is super simple to follow it does mess it up a little towards the end. I wasn’t so convinced with the message and the motivations for the villain once they were revealed. It seems to go for a kind of political message that really was not portrayed so well and seemed out of place to me, it didn’t really need to go there I thought.
Overall Non-Stop is quite entertaining and many know what to expect from Liam Neeson films by now and this movie fits right into the mix with his recent works. I didn’t actually get bored in any parts of this movie and I quite enjoyed the mix of the cast of actors in this film. I also enjoyed the contained setting and thought it added to the tension which created a sense of urgency for what was going on in the plane with the characters. It falls down however with the ending and the poor motivations for the villains. But overall an entertaining simple film that is easily good value as a weekend rental.
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