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Your In-Flight Entertainment ‘Non-Stop’ may rest on cliche, but it’s suspenseful fun
‘Non-Stop’ (PG-13)
Film Review “Non-Stop” is by no means a perfect movie. Made for the multiplex, it’s a middlebrow murder mystery with a lot of “Airport” DNA in its genes. Still, Liam Neeson lends the effort a gravitas that makes it, at least by the standards of gimmicky thrillers, a perfectly entertaining antidote to all the Important Films that have been filling up your pre-Oscar-night to-do list. With obvious correlations to such classics of detective fiction as Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” and “Murder on the Orient Express,” the film tells the story of an air marshal (Neeson) who must identify and thwart a passenger
who is threatening, by text message, to kill one person on his six-hour flight to London every 20 minutes unless he receives $150 million. As with Christie’s most famous works, most of the main characters, including Neeson’s Bill Marks, a troubled alcoholic, initially draw our suspicion. The characters are either too cooperative, not cooperative enough, weirdly furtive, excessively flirty or hiding a dark secret. Of course, almost all of the sus-
Liam Neeson wields a gun and tries to save the day in “Non-Stop.” What a surprise.
pects will eventually be proved innocent — several of them, as you might have guessed, by dying. The extortion attempt — more killings will follow unless Bill man-
ages to get a ransom transferred to a numbered bank account that turns out to be in his name — is carried out via an exchange of text messages that pop up onscreen,
(THE WASHINGTON POST )
An R-rated version of ‘Anchorman 2’ is coming to theaters
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UK Glastonbury Festival Ropes in Dolly Parton
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Aaron Paul is in talks to revisit his “Bad” character Jesse Pinkman.
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Allman Biopic Placed on Hold After Crew Death
Aaron Paul May Cameo On ‘Better Call Saul’
Filmmakers have shelved production on “Midnight Rider,” a movie about the life of Gregg Allman, a week after a freight train collided into the production team and its equipment, killing one crew member and injuring seven others. Investigators say the crew was on the tracks without the railroad’s permission. (AP)
“Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul says he’s had “serious talks” with “Better Call Saul” co-creator Vince Gilligan about returning to his character, a low-level drug dealer. “Anything Vince is involved with, I’m there,” Paul said in an interview. The series is set to premiere on AMC in November. (AP)
Because we weren’t v isually assaulted enough by Ron Burgundy’s mustache the first time around, “Anchorman 2” is getting a theatrical rerelease and a rating change from PG-13 to R, while promising “763 new jokes.” (The film, originally released Dec. 18, garnered 2½ stars from The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday.) “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Super-Sized R-Rated Version” will be in movie theaters for one week starting Friday. The Paramount Pictures announcement boasts that “Anchorman 2” has made $170 million at the box office worldwide. But apparently that is not enough, because this
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Now With More Rudeness
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Officials announced Thursday that Dolly Parton will play the Glastonbury Festival on June 29. Festival programmer Emily Eavis told the BBC that “it’s something we’ve been wanting to happen for a long time. And she finally said yes.” Held on a family farm in southwest England, Glastonbury is Britain’s most prestigious summer music festival. (AP)
MYLES ARONOWITZ
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra Stars: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Lupita Nyong’o In a Nutshell: An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages that put his fellow passengers at risk.
like little cartoon speech bubbles. It’s annoying at first, but you’ll get used to it. But it’s the propulsive pace of the film and the nice sense of suspense it builds that help most in glossing over “Non-Stop’s” failings. In addition to a series of preposterous plot coincidences that, in hindsight, strain even generous credulity, the film’s flaws include a motive that is ultimately revealed in what may be the most torturously reasoned politically themed speech ever delivered by a mad criminal mastermind at the climax of a movie. My response to hearing it was essentially the same as Bill’s. “You should have just handed out pamphlets,” he tells the murderer. “It would have been a lot easier.” T hat ’s cer tainly t r ue, but the movie would have been a lot less fun. M I C H A E L O ’ S U L L I VA N
Will Ferrell, left, and Christina Applegate keep it professional in “Anchorman 2.”
extra week of even grosser jokes will bank even more. Just a heads up: If you’ve had enough Ron Burgundy in your life to last until the inevitable third movie, this update clocks in at longer than two hours, director Adam McKay said in a canned statement. “W hen my editor told me we had a whole different ver-
sion of the movie that was more than two hours long with nearly 800 new jokes, I was shocked,” McKay said. “But when Paramount said they were actually going to put it in theaters, I did a 1950s spit take. If you’re a hardcore ‘Anchorman’ fan go see this. If you’re not, stay very far away.” EMILY YAHR (THE WASHINGTON POST )