Perfect pizza movie: some ham, plenty of cheese, needs a beer but enjoyable at the time..

Rating: 6/10 (12 March 2014)

Bish. Bash. Bosh. Kaboom. Bang. Get down, motherfu
That's Non-Stop. Don't gripe, don't bitch about it. If you want something cerebral, mind-spinning or morally and emotionally challenging, why not take a punt on Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac Volumes I & II? Predictably, far fewer cinemas offered me a chance of the latter, so mindless, fun Non-Stop it was! Non-Stop sees Liam Neeson escape Legoland and team up with his Unknown director, Jaume Collet-Serra, for the second time (their third outing, Run All Night, is already in post production) in another action thriller romp with guns, suspense and heroics aplenty.
Air marshall Bill Marks (Neeson) receives a text on his secure phone while on a transatlantic flight demanding a ransom of $150 million be deposited in an off-shore account within twenty minutes. Failure to deliver will result in the death of a passenger. Marks contacts his superiors but, viewing him as damaged goods, nobody believes him. Nobody, that is, except for air hostess Nancy (Michelle Dockery) and even she isn't quite sure.
Non-Stop begins like a 1970s disaster flick (think The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno) with a mini tour of the principal players including Marks' fellow passengers Jen (Julianne Moore), Tom, (Scoot McNairy), Zack (Nate Parker) and Nancy's colleague, Gwen (Lupita Nyong'o, fresh from her Oscar-winning turn in 12 Years a Slave) so that you know the villain has to be amongst them somewhere.
There are plenty of plot holes in Non-Stop, it's almost as unrealistic as Denzel Washington flying a plane upside down in Flight, and Collet-Serra cannot resist swimming in cheese in the final act, but for the most part there is enough tension and intrigue to keep the viewer alert and guessing. It is almost everything you want from a thriller with plenty or excitement in the confines of a small aircraft and, even though you know everything is going to be just peachy in the end, it's a ride of bumpy thrills that won't put you off your pizza.
Neeson has convincingly picked up the baton dropped by Harrison Ford and proves yet again to be an everyman hero and pretty good eye-candy to boot. There's nothing here to write home about performance wise and though you can evidently take the girl out of Downton Abbey, I'm not convinced you'll ever take Downton Abbey out of Michelle Dockery but she gets away with it here. As for Moore, she's providing the ham to go with the cheese.
No, Non-Stop isn't very believable but it is a most(ly) enjoyable romp for a Friday night after a week of brain ache.
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