Pass the Popcorn! review

Rating: 7/10 (18 March 2014)

Who else saw the trailer for Non-Stop and thought, "oh dear, here's another movie that will make me feel ashamed when I go buy the tickets for it, I'll probably give it a low grade and write a negative review about it – what a waste of time and money!"? I hope it wasn't just me. I mean, an action movie, set on a plane, and the main character is played by Liam Neeson. Not my kind of movie, to be honest. I just couldn't understand what Julianne Moore was doing in the movies, as she's a good actress. Well, it turns out Non-Stop is actually a good movie that managed to keep me interested all the way. I was never bored and some scenes and twists even surprised me. My apologies to the movie makers for my jumping to conclusions!
In Non-Stop, Liam Neeson plays Bill Marks, a U. S. Federal Air Marshal, and a divorced alcoholic who doesn't like flying. On the flight from New York to London, he meets Jen Summers (Julianne Moore), who asks him about his private life in order to relieve the fear he feels while the plane is taking off. While over the Atlantic, Bill receives a message on his secure phone from an unknown person who threatens to kill one person every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to a bank account. Bill asks the other air marshal on the plane, Jack Hammond (Anson Mount), for help, but they get into a fight and to save himself Bill kills Jack – at the 20 minutes mark.
Why did I presume this would be a bad movie? Well, first of all, it's an action movie. More often than not, little effort is put in creating an interesting and original story to accompany the action scenes in an action movie, and you get a Steven Seagal movie – which means a boring collage of shootouts, explosions and deaths. Fortunately, Non-Stop didn't make this mistake: its story isn't original, but it's entertaining and gripping, and the non-action scenes aren't just tedious fillers – you can actually enjoy the movie as a whole, as it doesn't rely exclusively on action. Of course, there are some cheesy and silly scenes, but they don't ruin the overall enjoyment this movie provides; they just temporarily relieve the tension in the scene.
In action movies, acting can be bad, because who cares about the actors as long as there's guns and fire and car chases and bad guys dying? Again, Non-Stop avoided this trap gracefully. Liam Neeson is good, most of the time, Julianne Moore is great in every scene, and none of the other supporting characters feels unnecessary or acts bad. The only disappointment may be represented by the villain, who, when finally discovered, doesn't really have time to leave an intimidating impression, and whose motives are kind of silly and unbelievable. It would almost have been better had he remained faceless throughout the movie, but this wouldn't have made much sense. Overall, Non-Stop is a good action movie whose flaws are easy to ignore, and I'd recommend it for a Friday evening with friends.
Rating: 7/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/