Non-Stop (2014)

If you don't want to read it all:
Score: 6/10
Verdict: It's ok if you want to kill some time.


The latest of Liam Neeson's movies where he seems to be playing the same guy over and over again. It's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you liked Taken or Unknown (as I did). Taken 2 was a bit of a disappointment though; it was just so obvious it was a money squeeze and not a real, genuine thing. If such movies can be genuine at all. Warning: this review contains massive spoilers!

So Liam is an Air Marshall this time, protecting the innocent air travelers from all kinds of threats, both possible and impossible. Right at the start we learn that he has a problem with alcohol and his job in general, just to spice up his status with both the viewers and his superior officers. Some time later we will learn of his dead daughter and complete the full circle of all the usual background stuff that haunts 90% of all movie heroes. Surprisingly, there is no kid with asthma in Non-stop. A nice refreshment for sure.

Anyway, Bill (Liam's character) is facing an unknown threat in an airborne passenger aircraft. The terrorist is contacting Bill via special, "security" network and warns him that a single passenger will die every 20 minutes unless a huge amount of money is paid onto a secure account. Bill contacts his superiors and tries to contain the threat, but gets into trouble himself - the mentioned account was open on his name and now his bosses don't trust him. Things get spiced up after Bill kills a colleague Marshall (whom he suspected to be the terrorist or in league with him/her) and marks the 20 minute spot with a murder, just as the mysterious terrorist promised.

To be honest, the story is kinda intriguing and thrilling. It makes you wonder who will die next and how, if poor Bill will be manipulated again into killing another person and so on. Even if it seems impossible to time everything so perfectly, it just adds to the thriller and excitement as we try to find the actual terrorist ourselves. The movie itself does not really offer you a lot of potential suspects and is not even trying to lure you towards anyone in particular. If you have ever seen a movie like this before (and I am sure you have, unless you are 6 years old), you just KNOW that Bill will win and everything will be fine, but you will be trying to "beat the movie and guess the bad guy correctly before it's revealed". And it wasn't the Muslim guy (thank you Hollywood!).

Overall, Non-stop is an OK movie. It's not a complete waste of time and is a good way to spend an hour and forty five minutes of your life. Liam put up his usual performance and so did Julianne Moore who plays a woman who just happened to be sitting next to Liam on an airplane. So if you are wondering what to watch next, but you don't have 3 hours for... lets say Django Unchained or The Wolf of Wall Street - watch Non-stop.