NON-STOP  2.5***

 

          Another year another Liam Neeson action thriller. First his daughter got “Taken”, then he and his wife got “Taken 2”  and now his plane gets taken .But this year the new concept is "air marshal threatened by mysterious on-board texter threatening to kill a passenger aboard a 6 hour transatlantic flight every 20 minutes unless $150 million is paid into his account. Who is the mystery killer? Who can he trust? What is the bigger picture behind events?"

 

 

The name of the game is "guess who?" And to that end we are fed a lineup of shifty individuals who may or may not be the mystery attacker/s.  Making a thriller  is rather like performing Magic and the secret is misdirection and sleight of hand and the movie does an OK though not spectacular job. Action is naturally limited given the confines of an airplane packed with passengers but they do use the tightness to create good  close quarter combat between Neeson and various opponents.

The villains motivations, when revealed, are quite interesting if somewhat lacking in logic.  Some reviewers have complained about the fact that a Muslim doctor is shown positively while the terrorists this time are not Islamic, but in its defense a real Muslim terrorist would not have gone through all this twisty- turny misdirection plot stuff but would simply have blown the plane to bits 10 minutes after takeoff, which though more realistic frankly wouldn't have made for much of a movie!

Reminiscent of those mostly forgotten airliner thrillers from the early- mid 90s, this will doubtless share the same fate but may amuse for now, and Liam Neeson still looks and moves great for a 62 year old .

 

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some language, and drug references… but a “soft” PG-13.