Review of Non-Stop (2013) by Reece L — 12 Dec 2015

I don't understand Non-Stop, as an idea. Nothing about this film makes any sense in any context.

How the hell did Collet-Serra get this cast? I mean, Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, Oscar-nominee Liam Neeson, Lady Mary Crawley, Scoot McNairy, Corey Stoll, and Shea Whigham (a cast that would be impressive for a prestige drama) are all in this schlock, some of whom play throw-away, tertiary roles. How did this happen? Why did this happen? And can you really "guarantee a window seat" with an airline? If so, how do I get in on that?

This is a ridiculous movie. It's laughably contrived, it's filled with forty different red-herrings, and the ultimate social commentary about post-9/11 paranoia and the pointlessness of the Iraq war (a cogent point, but how that applies here is unclear) is extremely muddled. All that aside, it's way more fun than it has any right to be. Neeson's character, an alcoholic air-martial who lost his family in a nasty divorce, is compelling when contextualized with Neeson's personal life, and the film he consistently saves from collapsing in on itself is aware of its buffoonery, using cracks on a phone screen to avoid showing profanity for the sake of a PG-13 rating, showing Neeson conveniently dropping his phone in the toilet because the script needs him to, using Moore's gravitas and cultural relevancy as a means of deflecting attention away from the other passengers.

Its all goofy nonsense, a bizarre, hokey action film with a ludicrous plot, but it's an especially fun one, offering up both well-choreographed fight scenes in airplane bathrooms and Liam Neeson yawning in an uncomfortably aggressive way for the amusement of an audience that, if willing to go along with the idiocy, will have an absolute blast.