Cast: Liam Nesson sleepwalks through this (to be fair, that's somewhat descriptive of his character, so it's partly an acting choice). I'm glad he's still getting these paychecks. I just wish it was for something other than a 90% remake of his Taken character but with a drinking problem. Julianne Moore acts like she walked onto set and started playing a random character (something between sidekick and love interest). Michelle Dockery is there basically to perpetuate my stewardess fantasy. That's a waste. I want to check the production dates for this and 12 Years a Slave because this is an embarrassing under-use of now Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o. She has fewer lines than such memorable characters as "guy on the phone", "guy who dies in the first 20 minutes", and "co-pilot". Corey Stoll is a generic enemy becomes friend type. I wish there was more to say about him.
Plot: Here I thought the movie would only be contrived and implausible. I didn't know I was dealing with laughably bad. The plot is a basic one: Liam Nesson is an Air Marshall on a plane being hijacked by someone who is framing him. They do this through a series of increasingly unlikely and poorly plotted schemes that almost exclusively rely on so many uncontrollable variables that your mind has to give up and say "well, they did that, so I guess it was part of the plan". Absolutely every single character reacts in a way that no human would. When the big reveal happens and the climactic action ensues, it gets brought to a level that left me with no choice but to laugh aloud (and not in an Expendables way).
Elephant in the Room: But, if I liked Taken, could I like this? Anything's possible, but I don't see how. even Taken 2 made over $100 million. This has all the DNA of Taken without an understanding of what made it good. Liam Nesson isn't fighting bad guys. Mostly, he's beating up on civilians. There's no gun fire because they're on a plane. When the plane inevitably crashes (Look at a promotional poster. That's not a spoiler) the movie jumps from Bourne to Commando so quickly it makes your head spin.
To Sum Things Up:
I don't take delight in saying how much I disliked a movie. It doesn't make me feel better or like I have a more critical eye when I go on about something I thoroughly didn't enjoy. Let that be understood when I say that this is a bad movie. A lot of good intentions went into this movie. They cast it better than they had to. There an obvious attempt to be clever. It works as best as it can within the limited confines of a plane. It falls short of every single goal though, which is a shame.
Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend
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