Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Genre: mystery, action
Running Time: 106 minutes
Now showing at: Cinema Magic, Metroplex Mall, Naalya, Cineplex Cinema at The Hub, Oasis Mall and Century Cinemax, Acacia Mall, Kamwokya.
A plane getting hijacked is one of those plots that we have seen quite a number of times. So when another movie on the same is released, we need a really good reason to watch it.
The combination of Joel Silver (Commando, Die Hard) as producer, Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Unknown) in the director’s chair and Liam Neeson (Taken) as the leading man is one good reason even before you watch the movie. The first has become a master at action movies, the second at the strange and mysterious and the third at a screen presence that keeps you glued from start to finish.
This time, Neeson is an alcoholic air marshal, Bill Marks (notice how Neeson’s characters usually have one emotional problem or the other?). Marks is on a non-stop flight from New York to London, hence the film’s title, and just when he thinks his biggest problem is a neighbour (Juliane Moore) who just won’t shut up, he receives a threatening text message.
The message says someone will die every 20 minutes unless $150m is deposited on a specified bank account. As expected, Marks gets into hero mode, trying to figure out who the sender is, not an easy feat when everyone is a suspect.
So while the general plot is not so fresh, the movie is infused with enough action and mystery to keep you watching.
While this is a fiction, some scenes are just too unbelievable that they will make you wonder how the director expected you to believe them. Add that to the fact that while the movie has a good cast, the majority was grossly under-utilised, and you have the two dark shadows over the movie.
– Grace Kenganzi
