Non-Stop, PG-13
106 minutes
2.5 stars
Liam Neeson stars as Bill Marks, a U.S. Air Marshall who has
been down on his luck as of late. He has
a drinking problem and his wife is not too happy with him either. He has a habit of covering up the smoke
detector on an airplane and lighting up in the restroom. Bill is booked onto a NY-London red eye and
everything seems normal until he receives a text message on the secure network
the Marshall’s use. The messages are
from a terrorist on the plane who says he will kill someone every 20 minutes
unless he has $150 million wired to an account.
Bill doesn’t think the threat is real and neither do his
connections on the ground, but every threat must be investigated. The threat turns out to be real and Bill is
being used as the patsy for the hi-jacking.
Bill searches the plane for the source of the messages but he comes up
empty every time. The passengers get
very restless after they realize that something is going on. Some are thinking they need to save the
airplane from Bill. One passenger trusts
him, Jen Summers (Julianne Moore), yet even she maybe the hijacker.
The suspense in this film is genuine and it does build
pretty well, even to the point you are really wondering if Bill is
responsible. Neeson and Moore do a good
job in this film but it’s not enough to save the ending of the film. The plot is believable up to a certain point
in the film. That is when there are some
almost super hero actions that don’t really work with the rest of the film. I have heard many people are enjoying this
film and I can see why. It does make you
think in places and the acting is believable.
For me though, the last 20 minutes of the movie don’t feel right. Plus there should have been more resolution;
it feels like there was no more budget so they ended the film.
Non-Stop: 3 points for parents
- Violence – Two men fight in an airplane bathroom, one is killed. Guns are used mostly to threaten people, not many shots are fired. A group of men try to subdue another man. Two other people are poisoned. A bomb explodes and the passengers’ lives are threatened.
- Drugs/Alcohol – A man drinks in his car. People are smoking outside the airport. Some passengers are served drinks. A man smokes in the airplane restroom. A man is smuggling drugs in a briefcase. One man discovers the drugs and tastes them.
- Language/Sensuality – some expletives including abbreviated forms of words. Words are hidden by cracked cell phone glass, others are not hidden. A man has pictures of a woman’s cleavage on his phone. A couple is under a blanket together as the man says no one can see. The same woman accuses a man of searching her for sexual reasons.
