Liam Neeson takes to the sky in Non-Stop.
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| "RED herring anyone?" |
However, the movie is nearly as vacant as the Taken sequel with Neeson once again setting aside his respectable dramatic chops for another in a line of flailing action movies that are making this guy question his motives as an actor. Either he's just doing this for fun or he's totally forgotten where his true skill set lies. Respected stars like Neeson and Julianne Moore deserve far better than this near tragic script and laughable plot.
Non-Stop is a basic, by the books action thriller set aboard a plane that just so happens to have one of world's most skilled but deeply flawed Federal Air Marshals aboard. Sound familiar? To be honest, nearly everything about this movie has been done before. It's a sad and miscalculated attempt at recreating the magic of the first Taken, but in the sky with a dozen red herrings and absolutely no snakes to be found anywhere. The film is illogical, lacks tension, and offers no explanation for half of the convoluted things that happen. Plus, the terrible CGI work leaves much to be desired.
Neeson seems to have fallen in to the simple trappings of these mindless movies. With Non-Stop, there is no
definition to his character and nothing to separate him from Bryan Mills of the Taken franchise. I hate to harp on that so much, but it's true. This is just a bored and altogether flat Liam Neeson going through the motions to cash a paycheck while giving audiences the same old song and dance again. It's a far cry from the Liam Neeson that starred in Schindler's List. That makes me weep a little. And Julianne Moore? What are you doing here?
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| "What I do have is a particular set of skills.....blah blah blah...you've heard this before......" |
If you can accept "A" name stars doing "B" grade work, then Non-Stop might be the action movie for you. But for me, this was a grating composition of post 9/11 profiling and fear thrown in to an unapologetic mishmash that lacks any grit and ends up being another floundering and predictable movie about scared people on a plane.
-Review by Chris George