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| Review by Benn Robbins |
Liam Neeson has become the heir apparent to Harrison Ford of the 1980’s.
Albeit a much more brutal and menacing one but still, who would have though Liam Neeson would be an action movie star?
Also a damn good one.
And starting in his late 50’s?
He pistol-whipped his way through the Paris criminal underbelly, he punched wolves with his glass taped fists, took on the entire Albanian human trafficking gang and in his new action-thriller Non-Stop, he has to save a cross-Atlantic flight of passengers from an unknown assailant before he can blow up a plane and kill more people.
Non-Stop is better than it should be.
Starting with the gorgeous cinematography and the muted color pallet, I forgot I was watching a action thriller. Director, Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed Neeson in Unknown, once again shows off his flair for beautiful visuals, close, hand-held shots, and an almost slow boiling plot that builds to a deafening crescendo. Working again with Spanish cinematographer, Flavio Martínez Labiano, once again, Collet-Serra shows his love of the shallow focus and precisely choreographing every movement of the film.
Story wise, this is your standard fare.
Air Marshall, William Marks has personal problems, and on his most recent assignment, Trans-Atlantic flight from New York to London he begins to receive text messages. Seemingly joking at first the messages soon becoming more and more menacing. When he is told, at 38,000 ft, that one passenger, every 20 minutes, will be killed if $150 million is not deposited into a Swiss account things start to get serious.
My first question, to myself, was, how does one kill someone on a plane, over the Atlantic, without getting caught?
The way is pretty ingenious. It is handled, in this taut thriller, is with the precision kill of a MMA fighter batting a rabid bull in a china shop full of plastic explosives.
Which is to say AMAZINGLY.
Three things stuck out in my mind, as I watched the events unfold in the is film.
The first. In the first fight sequence that takes place in the airplane bathroom. An elegant and brutal fist ballet. I can barley fit in those things so choreographing a close quarters fight scene in one must have been insane.
The second. What the hell is 12 Years A Slave’s, Oscar nominated actress, Lupita Nyong’o, and Downton Abby’s Michelle Dockery doing in this film?
And third. How am I enjoying this film so damn much? Every fiber in my body keeps telling me that this should be a terrible film. That I should be groaning and rolling my eyes back into the guy behind me’s head. But I sat there flabbergasted. I dunno if it was the amazing cinematography, the fact the watching Liam Neeson kick the shit out of people is like watching your “not so cool “ dad beat the crap out of a bunch of crappy people or the fact that I went into this film hoping it was going to be Liam Neeson punching a plane full of wolves while Lady Mary Crowley shot bitches.
I dunno.
But I liked it.
It isn’t Citizen Kane, but if you like Snakes on a Plane, Taken, The Grey, or any number of fun action thrillers, then this will be a fun ride for you.
It was for me.
