‘Non Stop’ Blu-ray Review
Stars: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Lupita Nyong’o, Scoot McNairy, Anson Mount, Corey Stoll, Linus Roache | Written by John W. Richardson, Chris Roach | Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Liam Neeson is Bill Marks, federal air marshal on a flight to London. Not everything on this flight is as it seems however, as he begins to get text messages instructing him tot transfer a large sum of money into an account, or a person will die on the plane every 20 minutes. On top of that, the account is in his name so he is being framed for every murder which happens. When everyone on the plane is a suspect, and everyone on the plane suspects him, Non-Stop is an suspense thriller which will leave you guessing as to who is responsible.
According to Hollywood, every plane journey has to have a hijacker, bomb, kidnapping or an exotic animal outbreak and it is after films like this that I seriously consider never flying again. I am a big fan of Liam Neeson, and in this film he doesn’t fail to impress, stalking around the plane desperately trying to solve the puzzle as everything goes to hell around him. The story itself is pretty standard, alcoholic air marshal drawn into a big conspiracy and it looks like he is to blame because of his ‘troubled past’. To be fair to the film, even I suspected Bill of being the bad guy a few times despite his continual claims that he wasn’t.
Occasionally though, the story does border on the side of ridiculous. For films like this, that is either an unrecoverable sin, if you’re expected a more ‘realistic’ tale, or could be barely a problem if you are just in it for the entertainment value. Despite Non-Stop taking a few liberties, I still think it is an entertaining trip which never had me too confused or lost. I felt the ending was a little bit disappointing, perhaps because I was expecting a twist which would leave me open mouthed, staring at the screen, instead it seems to end exactly as you would expect it to. Which, is fine and all but makes the entire film feel rather average when it could have delivered so much more.
One point I must make is that there are some amazing shots in this film. Now, I am not an expert on camera work, but some of the shots in this film felt really well thought out. Even the CGI in this film definitely brought more to it and definitely had me nodding in appreciation as I watched. Overall, Liam Neeson does what he does best in this film. The ‘ageing action hero’ thing he has going on since Taken definitely still works in his favour. If you liked that film, I am sure you will like Non-Stop and, even though it doesn’t bring much more to the table, it is definitely a welcome addition.
Non-Stop is released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray Steelbook on June 30th.
