Non-Stop

Excellent thriller, which gradually runs out of ideas and it is clear that the ending will somehow be forced. Liam Neeson is great once again as an action hero, except for the strong emotional speech that was dictated to him by the screenwriters. Otherwise, I must say that I enjoyed the film because of its palpable tension. It doesn't last the whole time, but you will be rooting for Liam. (31/07/2014)

You’ll keep telling yourself that if the screenwriters don’t mess it up, it’s going to be a perfect aero-thriller. Non-Stop has a fast pace, a charismatic lead actor, rising paranoia and escalating suspense. But the screenwriters do mess it up, and even though the suspense remains, the film gradually loses its seriousness and in the end leaves you smiling indulgently over another silly action flick with a 1990s mentality (as you could expect from a Joel Silver production). A piece of advice: if everyone on the plane thinks you’re a terrorist and the situation gets out of hand, just tell them that your daughter died of cancer. (04/03/2014)

Hitchcock with french fries. The first half works outstandingly, but gradually the lapses begin mounting up and by the finale it’s turned into a 90s air disaster movies the likes of Executive Decision or Air Force One. But the beginning is atmospheric, actors great, Liam Neeson continues to build his hard guy aura. Collet-Serra is a good filmmaker, but nobody wants to give him a decent screenplay, so for now he’s made friends with guns and Neeson. We can at least be pleased about that. (13/03/2014)

This film is an action thriller that turns into an absurd comedy after fifteen minutes that attacks your brain neurons with utterly stupid twists behind a hair-drawn storyline and clichéd stereotypes - airplane passengers, who of course include a Muslim doctor with a beard, a little girl flying behind her father, lovers trying to have sex on the plane, a computer expert able to program a message with a virus in eight minutes, and a woman who earns the full trust of the protagonist just by sitting next to him. Liam Neeson is traditionally the ultimate badass, but his opponent, an "invisible terrorist", would have to be a thousand times bigger badass to come up with such a sophisticated plan based on a perfect estimate of the protagonist's reactions, a perfect overview of the situation and an endless number of hellish coincidences. Thanks to its unrelenting pace, at least something is always happening in the film, and given to the dynamic camera and successful action sequences, the film is nice to look at. In the end, however, it's just single-use, popcorn action nonsense, offering quality filmmaking and over a hundred minutes of demented entertainment, but also a story so dysfunctional and illogical that it is almost interesting. (23/11/2020)

A solid average that’s nothing to write home about. There’s an undeniable partial originality in terms of visuals (the text messages in the background, etc.) and in terms of the progression of the plot, when Liam Neeson, as a retired Marshall, falls into solid paranoia in the first act, but that's about it for anything truly interesting. And no, don't expect any action this time, this is not Taken. The only truly interesting fight is the opening one in the toilet, and it doesn’t get any better than that. On the other hand, what is not missing is the traditionally overblown ending and the digital landing. (17/03/2014)