Bless me father, for I have been absent. It has been over a month since my last post. I will perform 8 Our Fathers and 15 Hail Marys to account for my wrong doings.
My brother in-law took me to a movie for my birthday last weekend. There were quite a few to choose from, but we settled on the following...
Non Stop
Starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, and Michelle Dockery
Overview - Liam Neeson plays Bill Marks, an air marshal that has had a rough go of it recently. Labeled as a drunk and a has-been, he's near a forced retirement. Until one fateful flight when he gets a mysterious text message from a passenger who claims he has plans to murder the passengers.
Review - "Taken: On A Plane". That's what most people expected from this movie. Maybe he has a daughter who gets nabbed by the bad guy and held against her will. Thank God that wasn't the case. Marks (Neeson) has gone through a rough time with his family as of late. His wife won't speak to him, he is ostracized from his children. Doing his duty, he continues to defend flights, even though he hates flying. Might I suggest another line of work Mr. Marks? Tell me why a guy who hates flying spends a great portion of his day on a plane? Sure, we all have had jobs we have had to do, that we hate, But by the time you're as old as Liam Neeson, one would assume you would have a job that you could at least STAND.
Neeson absolutely blew me away in the original "Taken". We're going to pretend "Taken 2" doesn't exist, because it never should have. His voice, words, actions, facial communication, EVERYTHING HE DID was incredible. The guy was solid gold! When I see that he is going to play a dejected air marshal who gets to fire his weapon in near zero-G, I'm in! He delivers his role, as the air marshal as well as anyone could. He's the right call for that role on every count. When Liam says, "I'm going to kill you." your options are to run, or cry. Usually people just freeze and pray for mercy.
But he's not the only actor in the film. In the case of Julianne Moore, crying is about the only option. In my humble opinion, she has never played a character that couldn't be described as "replaceable". I think back to movies like "Children of Men", "Evolution", and even her last movie, "Don Jon". She's completely forgettable, unless she does something outrageous that stands out in people's minds. I image that the writers sit down with the directors and casting agents to discuss who will be in the film, and Julianne's name is on an "In case no one else is available" list. In this movie she plays an annoying nosy passenger who just happens to be sitting next to our intrepid hero. Needless to say she was very "meh".
Michelle Dockery is a fairly new face, to the silver screen. She is probably well known by the "Downton Abbey" crowd as Lady Mary Crawley. Other than that, she has only had small roles in movies like "Hanna" and "Anna Karina". She plays a frightened stewardess who feels compelled to help the air marshal any way she can. It's another role that could have been filled by any number of people, but I liked her in the role. She was believable.
My biggest complaint about this movie would probably fall into the category of the writing. Most of the conversation Neeson has with his nemesis is through text messages on his sideways flip-phone. Most of his acting was done with facial expression responding to threatening words on a screen. On that note, here's a message to the writers. If you're going to have a good portion of the movie done via text, how about using a phone that's from this century?
The movie was well-shot. The story-line was believable. I'm always impressed if you can have the movies set be a single stage, such as a plane, and have the movie still be engaging. This movie was fun, interesting, and had a few well-placed intense moments.
I'll give this one a 3.5 out of 5. I would buy it on Bluray after it's come down in price. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good action movie.
Suggestions? Comments? Requests? Email me at entertaindave@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @entertaindave
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