My Review: Non-Stop (6/10)

"We're midway across the Atlantic. How do you kill someone in a crowded plane and get away with it?"

That is the same question I asked myself before going into this new Neeson thriller. The premise sounded a bit silly, but the trailer had me at Liam Neeson. I will watch any action film he stars in nowadays. Neeson plays a very similar character in every one of these films (Taken, Unknown, The Grey) and they simply should've made a franchise with all these movies similar to what they did with James Bond or Mission Impossible so people will stop complaining he plays the same role (and at least this time there is an excuse for his Irish accent). Non-Stop is a fun mindless action film as long as you don't stop and analyze the plot. For the most part it really worked for me because Neeson delivers and keeps your mind off some of the plot holes, but once the final act arrives there is not much he can do to save this film. The final ten minutes are a huge let down and it almost ruined all the fun I was having during the rest of the movie. I still enjoyed this film more than Neeson's previous collaboration with director, Jaume Collet-Serra, Unknown. The cast is strong enough to carry this film past all the plot holes, and I'd rather see Neeson in a mindless action thriller over pretty much any film that has been released this year. 

Non-Stop is John Richardson and Christopher Roach's first film screenplay which stars Liam Neeson as Bill Marks, an air marshall who is going through a depressive and alcoholic stage. What appears to be a routine flight from New York to London ends up being a nightmare for Bill as he begins receiving threatening messages on his secure phone line. The message states that a passenger will die every 20 minutes unless 150 million dollars are transferred to a specific bank account. Bill decides to talk to the other air marshall, Hammond (Anson Mount), who tries to calm him down by telling him it has to be a prank. When 20 minutes go by, Bill realizes this is no prank and with very few people on the plane he can trust he has to enlist the help of the flight attendant, Nancy (Michelle Dockery) and the person sitting next to him on the plane, Jen Summers (Julianne Moore), to help him locate who the terrorist might be. 

The premise might be a bit silly, but for the most part I was still enjoying this thriller thanks to the interesting cast. The action scenes were also entertaining and for a movie that takes place almost entirely in a plane it was engaging. If you aren't demanding a film with logic, you might enjoy this mindless action film as much as I did. It's a shame that Lupita Nyong'o didn't get a heavier role because she proved in 12 Years a Slave to be a very talented actress. In this film she doesn't get to do much, but it's OK because we get to see Liam Neeson doing what he does best for most part of this film. The way its audience receives the weak final reveal at the end is probably what makes the difference in this action thriller. It is very far fetched, but as I mentioned above, it is much better than most January or February releases. I enjoyed this film because despite it not making any sense it was still an engaging and fun ride. The truth of the matter is that Neeson is the one that holds this film together and doesn't allow it to crash.

My Review: Unknown (5/10)

¨Do you know what it feels like to become insane? It`s a war between being told who you are and knowing who you are. Which do you think wins?¨

I really wanted to like this movie after watching Liam Neeson single handedly conquer Europe in Taken, and I had my hopes up for another one of his one-titled-European-action-thriller films. Unknown however is no Taken. Neeson plays kind of an opposite character this time because he spends most of the time confused and helpless while in Taken he was always smooth and in control of the situation. He was sort of a James Bond, while in Unknown he is more of a Jason Bourne, although way less gifted. This film was directed by Spanish filmmaker, Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan and House of Wax) and at some points during so many twists and turns I think he loses the direction. I really didn’t see the twists coming and thought the movie would take a completely different turn, but each time I thought the movie was going to go a certain way the film caught me by surprise again. For this I have to give the film credit, but the problem for me is that I didn’t really like the path Collet decided to take. Liam Neeson is a great actor, but I enjoy him much more when he is in control of the situation. There is something about him that just exhales confidence. Unknown is based on Didier Van Cauwelaert`s novel: Out of My Head, and it was adapted by relatively unknown screenwriters Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell. I don’t know how the story played out in the novel, but in the screenplay some of the dialogue felt a bit forced, and some situations felt unbelievable.

The movie opens as Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) arrives at Berlin along with his wife, Elizabeth (January Jones). He`s travelled for a very important scientific conference, and plans out his schedule in Berlin while taking a taxi to the hotel. Once there he realizes that he has left a briefcase in the airport so takes a taxi back before getting a chance to tell his wife where he`s heading. On the way to the airport he has an accident and the taxi ends up running off a bridge and landing in the water. Martin bumps his head and is saved by the taxi driver, Gina (Diane Kruger). He awakens from a coma after four days and is surprised his wife isn’t by his side. Doctors say that he wasn’t carrying any identification so that they couldn’t contact any family members. The first thing he does is go back to the hotel and look for Liz, but once there he finds her with another man claiming to be Martin Harris (Aidan Quinn). Liz says she doesn`t know who this man is and security officials escort him out of the hotel. Martin is still dizzy and confused, but he is sure of his identity and will stop at nothing to prove he is the real Martin Harris. He searches for Gina to see if she can help him and together they begin to work with a former East German spy named Ernst Jurgen (Bruno Ganz) who is willing to help Martin by looking at every particular detail of his situation. The movie then takes several unexpected twists.

Frank Langella also has a secondary role as Rodney Cole, a long time friend of Martin who could point out he is the real Martin, but who can`t be located. It`s always a plus to have someone like Langella in a secondary role because they can bring so much to a movie, but in this particular case he goes by unnoticed. He only serves the purpose of revealing to the audience an important twist the film will take. I thought that entire scene was totally unbelievable. I really enjoy suspenseful thrillers, but I just wasn’t pleased with this one because the pace of the film was to slow and the ending just didn’t pay off for me. I don’t have a problem with slow films as long as the wait pays off at the ending, but in this case it didn’t. I was disappointed because I really like Liam Neeson and consider him to be among the best actors in the industry, but this just wasn’t the right movie for him. He was meant to play cool characters in control of their own destiny. I really missed the Neeson from Taken who destroyed entire cities in search of his daughter. In Unknown he is just lost, confused, and less scary. Unknown isn’t a terrible movie, it has its moments and had me hooked for a while. It’s better than Jaume`s debut film House of Wax, but it’s still far from being a great film.

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