Fine buildup, then the story has to crash-land somehow

Rating: 3/10 (3 March 2014)

The good thing with action movies is that I am not expecting too much. My curiosity was adequately titillated, less than for Snakes on a Plane, but Non-Stop is definitely not in the 'tongue in cheek' category. On the one hand Liam Neeson is really good at being dead serious for 100min and on the other hand straight all thrills/no pun action is a difficult plane to land.
The buildup is really good, you fasten your seat-belt and get into the story smooth and nice. But it is a really long stretch for your average suspension of disbelief. And Liam Neeson's character gradually loses its aura once we get the full swing from his heavy back-story to the clear situation in the plane. He is travelling business class and should really concentrate on suspects monitoring him here. Instead we get a man on the loose that is more a pawn in a malicious plan than the guy in charge.
As an action movie it is not quite satisfying because we are kept wondering where the threat is coming from for too long, and we don't even want to believe in the various paranoid bursts. When the hijacker comes forward there only remains space for full throttle action, or as they say in the cockpit apply TOGA power: Take-off/Go Around. So we go around with a lame exposition of the hijacker's motive before routine action brings it all to a close.
I wanted to watch a simple and effective action movie but Non-Stop only exists thanks to Liam Neeson (and Julianne Moore). Suspense and action are really poor and there is not real effort to make it consistent. Unfortunately it is more about the viewer being hijacked. I will check Unknown though for it can only be slightly better.