The Plane Has Been Taken

Rating: 7/10 (2 March 2014)

Liam Neeson continues to bear his straightforward action star talents that was famed by Taken. This time it takes place on a plane and unsurprisingly he has to beat up some bad guys there. We're always fine by it, but Non-Stop is the one that it's hard to take seriously. It does have a great setup, but ends up making silly tricks through the third act. It's not a bad thing, in fact the film takes plenty of clever choices to bring out its tension, even if the revelations of the mystery have gone absurd. Non-Stop is the kind of simple action film that pushes the limit of its ridiculous and by that, it's fun.
Before all the twists and turns, there is this intellectual intro. The camera focuses on every passenger assuming that one of them could be the suspect. We don't have any knowledge about the characters until they entered the plane. What's smart in this case is the beans are allowed to be spilled when they exactly needed to. It's a shame that their answers turn out to be the silliest things you would get in any basic thriller. But the tension is inevitably effective. The direction just keeps the bad things happening in the oddest ways possible to make it feel so surreal.
Even the characters are a lot smarter at the first half. The passengers having awareness on the situation gives a secondary conflict for Bill Marks to deal with. How the problems are solved are either too easy or something that are senseless. Despite of that, the ride is quite fun, even if it also inappropriately includes humor in some critical moments. The acting helps to brim up the suspense. In every action Liam Neeson makes, it always have to be interesting. He's also backed up with actors who gives a lot personality to point fingers at him.
Non-Stop would have been as smart as its setup, it just couldn't regress from the standard action movie storyline. And there, it ends with a silly bang. Although silly, it's undeniably enjoyable which lead to instant forgiveness for its twists, because definitely its only ambition is to excite and it succeeds by being creative to its thrills. It still leaves a couple of holes in the end, but then no one seem to matter. The ride already provides enough tension and energy to make things worth it.