Man, Was I Surprised By Non-Stop!

It's not like the filmmakers broke new ground with this movie... rather, they put together a fun, action-filled experience in much the same style as old genre flicks like Air Force One. If you've ever seen that movie, you know being compared positively to it can only mean one thing... Non-Stop is pretty awesome!

Liam Neeson had already found his new niche with the advent of Taken back in 2008, but to be honest, I never really got a whole lot of enjoyment from the attempts that came after. Unknown was extraordinarily awful, and while I did enjoy The Grey to some degree it would seem Taken 2 left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. So I went in to see Non-Stop pretty much holding my breath. My expectations couldn't've been lower. And somehow I came out the other side with a big old smile on my face.

Essentially what you need to know is:

1) They got the action just right... there was a certain fight in a bathroom that was both surprisingly cool and weirdly funny at the same time... and a certain moment with a gun toward the end of the film that I'm gonna remember for a long long time (it could've been bad cheese, but instead it was good).

2) The film was very well cast... obviously Liam Neeson's been doing this for a while and he's really beginning to develop a nack for his own brand of fun/funny but good action... Julianne Moore was just a very welcome surprise and once I saw her doing her thing before the flight I knew there was going to be at least a small amount of quality to this film... add in Scoot McNairy, Michelle Dockery, Corey Stall, and the Oscar winning Lupita Nyong'o and you've got yourself a pretty well rounded group of performers.

3) The cheese was not too cheesy... this film lived on action and awkward cheesy wit... but sometimes that can work against a movie... this is a good example of the cheese factor giving the movie a boost and welcome applause rather than boos.

4) The mystery really stays a mystery until you absolutely need to know... and then, when the reveal does take place, I promise everything that has happened that seemed unlikely for one reason or another really does make sense... it may seem outrageous at times, and the reveal is not of the earth shattering variety, but it absolutely works for what kind of movie this wants to be... and is.

I'm not afraid to say it, I really like Non-Stop!