"Non Stop" Reviewed

Implausible

I have no problem with “B Movie” thrillers, escapist whodunnits that kill a coupla hours before the concert starts, and if that is your level of interest in “Non Stop” you could sure do worse than the Liam Neeson action in the air flick with unfortunate 9-11 echoes (wholly undeserved by the way), which strands you on an airplane the way Agatha Christie could strand you on an island and then kills em off one by one.

Liam plays US Air Marshall Bill Marks, an alcoholic fired from the NYPD so naturally hired to protect the unfriendly skies.  On a flight to London, Marks gets texts claiming that somebody on the plane ill be killed every 20 minutes unless they receive $150 Million dollars in a bank account and lo and behold people start dying on. Meanwhile, the account is in Marks name and he is prime suspect # 1.

So who is the real blackmailer? Could it be Julianna Moore? well, what do you think?

Stuck in a plane at 40,000 feet, Liam looks as anguished as a six foot four man mountain can look. I once saw Liam portraying Oscar Wilde on Broadway and you haven’t lived till you’ve caught the bruiser play gay. It was hysterical. Nearly as amusing is Liam in mourning for a dead daughter while running every clue up a flagpole. To claim “Nonstop” beggars the imagination is to damn it with faint praise. I will go along with Hitchcock’s damning of those reviewers obsessed with plausibility but as far as flying epics are concerned “Peter Pan” is more believable. And, even ten years later is a little soon to use 9-11 as a mindless plot point.

But still, the gig doesn’t start till nine and I don’t drink any more, what else is a boy to do? Might as well watch Liam bet on the baddies.

Grade: B