Non-Stop

Non-Stop
PG-13
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Nate Parker, Linus Roache, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong'o.

Synopsis: During a transatlantic flight from New York City to London, U.S. Air Marshal Bill Marks receives a series of cryptic text messages demanding that he instruct the government to transfer $150 million into an off-shore account. Until he secures the money, a passenger on his flight will be killed every 20 minutes.

Review
In light of the recent MH370 tragedy, this review was written with a heavy heart. I was watching this film on a Saturday evening (tickets purchased the day before..), hours after the flight incident broke out. The experience were both chilling and sad. Nevertheless, my heart and prayers go out to all the passengers and crews aboard the MH370 aircraft.

Liam Neeson is back as he takes it all to the sky literally in this action thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. 'Non-Stop' had a promising start, which echods to a grey-scaled, claustrophobic sense of impending terrors upon take-off. The suspense was succinctly brought out through character roll-call and sinister progressions. Instead of formulating the plot just like any other hackneyed on-flight thrillers, the storytellers here managed to raise the stakes by toying around with a fearful twist. No spoilers here, the movie has represented itself as a post-911 product, a realistic view towards how security might be a potentially illuding code of trust, confidence and belief. Once the curtain closes, rest assured that people will be struck by both paranoia and scepticism over the current air safety system. Apart from that, Liam Neeson has been typecasting himself to heroic roles since 'Taken'. While there's no doubt Neeson carried the whole film, the supporting roles were brought out as a jumbled bunch of tools deemed necessary in advancing the plot because after all, the protagonist is only human, and he can't save the day all by himself. Moore's character is supposed to establish this usual emotional connection to the lead, but it seems that all the people on board were too busy minding their own business, thus overlooking this elementarily one-dimensional aspect of relationship and emotion. Of course, all the excitement ends in a pretty disappointing manner - the third-act was a complete meltdown. It was preposterous and blown way out of proportion. And that's how they save all the kinetics until the end, there's nothing more I can say.

Rating: 3/5 Stars