Non-Stop

I see that Liam Neeson can get himself mixed up in some great stories. After the movies Taken and Unknown, he completes his distinctive thriller trilogy with this very film. I just hope it’s not the end of the thriller genre for him, because I think he has found himself in those movies. And it doesn’t really matter that in this movie, he plays an aged alcoholic who shakes like a leaf at the thought of a stressful situation. Anyway, I can’t just talk about him all the time. The director has a great deal of credit for the high quality of this movie. If I decided to view this thriller as a crime investigation story, I’d think that everybody on the board of that plane was the killer. The camera shots of those people, their looks and even their behavior was exactly what I needed. Because I wasn’t sure about absolutely anything. And that’s why I really enjoyed this dynamic and tense movie. (2014-06-29)

You’ll keep telling yourself that if the screenwriters don’t mess it up, it’s going to be a perfect aero-thriller. Non-Stop has a fast pace, a charismatic lead actor, rising paranoia and escalating suspense. But the screenwriters do mess it up, and even though the suspense remains, the film gradually loses its seriousness and in the end leaves you smiling indulgently over another silly action flick with a 1990s mentality (as you could expect from a Joel Silver production). A piece of advice: if everyone on the plane thinks you’re a terrorist and the situation gets out of hand, just tell them that your daughter died of cancer. (2014-03-04)

After a great introduction, I was full of hope and hoped that it wouldn't be spoiled... But it was. As time went on, the film became more and more futile, the various characters behaved more or less stupidly, and the repetitive "killer twenty minutes" started to look almost ridiculous as the filmmakers tried to cram in some action... By and large, Liam Neeson saved the day as the paranoid alcoholic, although he was given a much better opportunity in Unknown (not to mention the excellent The Grey). Yes, I was curious all the time with regard to "what, who, how and why", but sometimes something was just so evident that I couldn't miss it. Three and a half.__P.S. My favorite composer John Ottman unpleasantly surprised me with the bland music, which is a pity. (2014-03-07)

This film is an action thriller that turns into an absurd comedy after fifteen minutes that attacks your brain neurons with utterly stupid twists behind a hair-drawn storyline and clichéd stereotypes - airplane passengers, who of course include a Muslim doctor with a beard, a little girl flying behind her father, lovers trying to have sex on the plane, a computer expert able to program a message with a virus in eight minutes, and a woman who earns the full trust of the protagonist just by sitting next to him. Liam Neeson is traditionally the ultimate badass, but his opponent, an "invisible terrorist", would have to be a thousand times bigger badass to come up with such a sophisticated plan based on a perfect estimate of the protagonist's reactions, a perfect overview of the situation and an endless number of hellish coincidences. Thanks to its unrelenting pace, at least something is always happening in the film, and given to the dynamic camera and successful action sequences, the film is nice to look at. In the end, however, it's just single-use, popcorn action nonsense, offering quality filmmaking and over a hundred minutes of demented entertainment, but also a story so dysfunctional and illogical that it is almost interesting. (2020-11-23)

A solid average that’s nothing to write home about. There’s an undeniable partial originality in terms of visuals (the text messages in the background, etc.) and in terms of the progression of the plot, when Liam Neeson, as a retired Marshall, falls into solid paranoia in the first act, but that's about it for anything truly interesting. And no, don't expect any action this time, this is not Taken. The only truly interesting fight is the opening one in the toilet, and it doesn’t get any better than that. On the other hand, what is not missing is the traditionally overblown ending and the digital landing. (2014-03-17)