Non-Stop is the newest Liam Neeson modestly-budgeted, drops-early-in-the-year, makes-a-lot-of-money for-its-budget, and is some-level-of-quality-without-being-a-great-movie for 2014. Previous movies in this sub-genre of one would be Taken, Taken 2, The Grey, and Unknown. All of these are some level of modest good and it’s fascinating Liam Neeson is either slumming it or doing it exactly right at this point in his career. He’s such an unlikely kick-ass action hero.

Non-Stop is a great title for a fairly decent suspense film. Liam Neeson plays a US Air Marshall on an overseas flight who is in the middle of a mysterious blackmail / high-jacking scheme from an unknown opponent who promises to kill one person every 20 minutes. The mystery in the movie is figuring out who the bad guy is… with the possibility that it might even be Liam Neeson himself (or possibly that he’s insane). This mystery generally worked for me – it had me guessing over each hint, clue, suggestion, and red herring. I’m not 100% sure we had enough info to know the real killer by the time it’s revealed but it was still a good exercise in suspense and misdirection.

One thing this movie isn’t though is really “non-stop” as far as marketing materials go (e.g. “a non-stop thrill ride”). It’s fairly light on action… preferring to go for suspense and pulpy acting. What action there is is pretty good and not over-the-top – it certainly keeps the movie going when it happens and is fairly compelling. And (spoiler alert) at some point the plane DOES stop… and that was a surprisingly good scene.

The reveal at the end at what’s going on winds up a little weird, out of place, and laughable in its apparent seriousness. The movie turns into a weird polemic about a topic that is too heady for the material it’s been inserted into.

Overall, a good entry into the Liam Neeson: Budget Action Hero sub-franchise.

Score: 75