'Non-Stop' Suspense.... and Suspension of Disbelief

Since his surprisingly successful ‘Taken’ back in 2008, Liam Neeson has established himself as a popular action star, and one over 50 no less.  The ‘Rob Roy’ star’s latest actioner, ‘Non-Stop,’ proved once again that he’s a relatable, tortured and flawed hero with charisma to spare whom we cannot help but root for.  A movie like ‘Non-Stop’ is supposed to prove that moviegoers have put behind their post-9/11 airplane hijacking fears, and in spite of Malaysia Flight 370 (which happened after its release), the movie is doing respectably well at the box office.
 

As I’m sure you’ve seen from its trailer, ‘Non-Stop’ is a serial-killer-on-a-plane movie, one of those movies that you should not even attempt to watch unless you can check your disbelief out at the door.  Your mind has to be open to all ‘possibilities,’ as unlikely (okay, impossible), as they may seem.  You’re at the movies for Chrissakes, so stop analyzing already! 

And boy, does ‘Non-Stop’ put your suspension of disbelief to the test.  Liam Neeson plays an US Air Marshal who gets mysterious texts on his cellphone via a ‘private network’ informing him that, unless he wires $150 million to a certain account, a person on the plane he’s on will die every twenty minutes (all this is clear from the trailer).  Yes, we’ve all seen these sadistic guessing-game whodunit? movies before, but ‘Non-Stop’ gives us a variation so deviously and delectably delicious with such creeping, palpable and tightly-wound suspense that I’m going to recommend it, plot-holes and implausibility be damned.  It’s the perfect summer popcorn movie (in March).  I somewhat enjoyed ‘Red Eye’ and ‘Snakes on a mother-#@&%*! Plane’ too, so sue me.

Grade: B+