HOLLYWOOD—Crafting a smart clever thriller that keeps the audience on the edge of the movie seat is not an easy task to do, which brings me to Liam Neeson’s airplane thriller “Non-Stop.” I know what many of you are thinking, is this “Taken 3.” The answer to that question is no. Neeson stars as
U.S. federal air marshal Bill Marks who is on an international flight from
New York to

London. 

 

What starts out as just another plane ride, turns into a fight for survival after Marks receives multiple text messages indicating the threat that a passenger would be killed every 20 minutes unless a hefty amount of cash is transferred to a secret bank account.  The premise comes across a bit jarring to say the least. How in the world is someone going to have the ability to kill a person on a plane full of witnesses? It’s not like there are many places one can hide, beyond the bathroom and the cabin, right?

 

The writers of “Non-Stop” craft a story where the possibility of such things taking place becomes completely plausible. This movie keeps the viewer gripped to the theater seat to know what will happen next. It’s a who-dun-it, but more importantly allows the viewer to play detective to solve the case. Just who can be trusted? We have Marks who appears to be the hero, but if the secret account is in his name that forces the audience to question if it’s possible the good guy is not so good. Not to mention the fact that a bomb has been placed on the plane. Point blank, let the chaos ensue.

 

Neeson is not the only player in the picture, we have Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore as Jen Summers, “Downton Abbey” starlet Michelle Dockery as a flight attendant and “12 Years a Slave” star Lupita Nyong’o as a hostess onboard as well. My point is the audience is given a slew of characters that we begin to connect with, but at the same time we begin to question potential motives. We don’t know who can fully be trusted and that’s the fun of the picture. It also doesn’t hurt to see Liam Neeson doing what he does best which is kicking major butt. He’s the new action-star and he has consistently picked projects that are crowd-pleasers. 

 

What this movie has going for it is the suspense. They are built like small little bubbles and when they burst it’s so amazing to sucked into this world, which at times isn’t as plausible as we’d like to believe it is, but we buy what is being fed to us, which is the fun of a great B-movie. “Non-Stop” lives up precisely to its title and fun ride from start to finish.