Review for Non-Stop

Bill Marks is a US Air Marshall at the last tether of his passion for his job, for anyone, for himself. Getting on a plane he soon starts receiving messages instructing him to transfer $150 million into an account. If he doesn't, a passenger on the flight will die every twenty minutes. This becomes a game of cat and mouse where everyone onboard is a suspect with even Marks under suspicion. But who can anyone trust, when you are 40,000 feet up?

It would be easy to describe this as 'Taken on a Plane' and it is true that with a few tweaks this could have been that, but I have to admit I really enjoyed this film. Liam Neeson as Bill Marks is wonderful as always as the US Air Marshall who has been pushed to his limits. The ensemble cast which includes Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery and Lupita Nyong'o are wonderful and this has almost a Hitchcockian feel as you simply do not know who to trust or who is behind everything. I will defy anyone who can guess who is behind it all and even when you do know it is still such a mystery that you wonder how and when certain things were put into place.

The action scenes are fantastic and in the claustrophobic settings of a plane it is made even more so. Neeson's fighting for his life in the cramped plane bathroom is possibly the most intense and funny moments I have seen in a while. The film is just filled with exciting action setpieces that are just perfect and the final climax is just wonderful. It would be difficult to think of a bad thing about this film and though I'm sure we could go through every cliche that the film has I think when it is this entertaining it shouldn't matter.

Apart from the usual Trailer, Extras include some wonderful interviews with Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Director Jaume Collet-Serra and Producer Joel Silver. All sound like they had so much fun working on the film and listening to Director Collet-Serra talk about making the film is interesting.

Suspense at 40,000 Feet is a short look at the making of the film and really just shows how clever the 'who done it' elements of the film are. We do get to see what the filmmakers were trying to create and it does look as though everyone making this film really enjoyed doing it. And the end product shows this. Non-Stop Action is a short five minute piece about how they created the action scenes in the film. It is a great little feature that shows all the complications of making the film, especially due to the restrictive set of the plane.

Non-Stop is more than just another Taken-clone or another Liam Neeson Hard Man film. It is a perfect mystery film masquerading as a non-stop action film. If you are a fan of the Taken series you will love it and if you like your films to be a bit more cerebral you will love it even more.