good movie

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2014)

In his late-age reinvention as an action hero, Neeson picks up from where he left in Serra's last film 'Unknown'. Here he is a federal air marshal aboard an aircraft where a passenger is threatening to kill those aboard one by one unless $150 million is wired into his/her account. The premise is interesting, and Non-Stop makes some effort to stretch the tension and to establish Bill (Neeson) as an unstable character – till invariably the invariables catch up. There is only so much action one can pack inside an aircraft – even with made- for-film larger aisles – there are only so many people Bill can haul rather cruelly for questioning, and there are only so many angles you can explore over phone calls and text messages. The 150 people aboard and their back stories could make a better film but Non-Stop is neither interested in it, nor even implies this from its name. Neeson's weather-beaten, frowning grimace is complimented by an irritatingly equanimous Moore, a solemn Muslim doctor who is called upon to redeem his faith, an air hostess who is here, there everywhere – unlike the non-existent Lupita (12 Years a Slave) Nyong'o – and a tangent that embarrassingly literally evokes the air marshal's dead daughter. And just when you think that the saving grace is that the "terrorist" only wants money, the film throws up more million dollar questions. Just the ones with no answers.