Alfred Hitchcock presents Agatha Christie's Executive Decision! - Pie in the Sky for Neeson's latest.

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2014)

Another year another Liam Neeson thriller (usually released between the Jason Statham ones) This year the high concept is "air marshal threatened by mysterious texter threatening to kill a passenger aboard the transatlantic flight every 20 minutes unless $150.000 is paid into his account. Who is the mystery killer? Who can he trust? What is the bigger picture behind events?"
The trailers say it all really, and the whole thing is strictly of a B- movie standard, a Euro-thriller released by a US studio (as in fact are most Neeson movies including "Taken" and "Unknown" with whom this shares a director) Apart from Liam and Julianne Moore (who it is great to see back so busy on our big screens) most of the rest of the cast are Brit thespians of high quality, especially the flight crew which is made up of "Downton Abbey" star Michelle Dockery,"12 yrs a slave" Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, Scoot McNairy and heading them all the wonderful Linus Roache, the RSC headliner who occasionally brightens up movies with his consummate skill. The name of the game is "guess who?" And to that end we are fed a line up of shifty individuals who may or may not be the mystery attacker/s. Thriller making is rather like Magic and the secret is misdirection and sleight of hand, and director Jaume Collet-Serra does an OK if not spectacular job. Action is naturally limited given the environment but they do use the tightness to create impressive close quarter combat between Neeson and various opponents that would make Steven Segal proud. The special effects are quite ropey though, especially the cartoon airliner and Typhoon fighters which look more like something from a safety information video rather than a major movie!
The villains motivations, when revealed, are quite interesting if somewhat lacking in logic, but to their credit they are damaged individuals and so deserving of some pity as well as a pass for their poor scheme! Some have complained about the fact that a Muslim doctor is shown positively while the terrorists this time are not Islamic, but in its defence a real Muslim terrorist would not have gone through all this twisty turny misdirection plot stuff but would simply have blown the plane to bits 10 minutes after take off, which though more realistic frankly wouldn't have made for much of a movie!
Reminiscent of those mostly forgotten airliner thrillers from the early- mid 90s, this will doubtless share the same fate but may amuse for now, and Liam Neeson still looks and moves great for a 62 year old! (And Moore isn't so bad either!)
PS - Hollywood writers, please please impose a moratorium on using "I lost a child boo-hoo crying over cute photos and stick drawings" as a substitute for actual characterisation! It drags any movie its used in down and covers it piping hot cheese! Be frakking original, its what you're paid so much to do!