Non-Stop is relentlessly silly yet recklessly entertaining

THIS much we already know now that a couple of Taken movies have come and gone: age is not about to weary Liam Neeson.

Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore in a scene from film Non-Stop.

NON-STOP [M]

Rating: 3 stars

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown)

Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong’o

Getting high on its own surprise

THIS much we already know now that a couple of Taken movies have come and gone: age is not about to weary Liam Neeson.

Particularly when it comes to delivering a cold, hard comeuppance to down-and-dirty bad dudes everywhere.

In Non-Stop, a relentlessly silly, yet recklessly entertaining thriller, Neeson plays Bill Marks, a beleaguered air marshal about to suffer through another flight from New York to London.

In the first few minutes, the screenwriters frontload Marks with all the traits you want from a Neeson character when the actor is working in righteous-avenger mode.

All you need to know — and probably already expect — is that Marks is a man with a lot of problems, and not much of a conscience when it comes to solving them.

Once we’re quickly informed of Bill’s alcoholism, broken family and dead-end career prospects, director Jaume Collet-Serra clears the narrative runway so he can let fly with the wacky stuff.

Minutes into the journey, Bill is snapped out of his self-loathing funk by a series of spooky anonymous text messages on his mobile phone.

If 150 million bucks isn’t transferred into a bank account in 20 minutes’ time, passengers will start getting killed at regular intervals. It’s a catchy enough twist to sell a movie like this, but Non-Stop is only getting started with the high-stakes high-jinks.

That bank account where the money will be going? It belongs to Bill himself. Uh-oh.

Not surprisingly, Bill’s superiors down on the ground think their man in the sky is pulling a swifty on ’em.

He is ordered to hand in his gun to the crew, and then sit tight until he can be hauled over the coals at Heathrow.

Bill’s desperate ploys to save selected passengers from certain death — sorry, the laws of spoilers prevent me from going anywhere near this aspect of the film — are also hampered by a kid uploading videos to social media from on-board the aircraft.

Confusion reigns and credibility goes out the window as Non-Stop throws everything but the kitchen sink at Neeson.

While he keeps an admirably straight face — an amazing feat considering the gargantuan goofiness of the finale — you may not be able to wipe the smile off yours.

Yep, this might be nothing more than a D-list Die Hard, but it is a hefty chunk of big, dumb fun nonetheless.