Non-Stop

This pulse-deadening thriller from director Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) would like to be an airborne thrill ride, but it only manages to capture the claustrophobic tedium of a transoceanic flight. Liam Neeson phones in another growl-and-glower job as Bill Marks, a blearily alcoholic federal air marshal who begins receiving midair text messages from a passenger threatening to murder people. Marks tramples all over the passengers' rights in his attempt to uncover the killer, whose plan appears to implicate the troubled air marshal. The setup is just Ten Little Indians goes techno, and much like last year's dismal The Fifth Estate, Non-Stop is convinced that watching people play with their cellphones is the apex of suspense. Collet-Serra hints at an insipid political consciousness, but the reveal of the killers and their motives is so pointless, it may as well have been determined by a dice roll.