Non-Stop ***

A suspenseful, satisfying popcorn thriller with Liam Neeson as the flawed protagonist we've come to expect, "Non-Stop" delivers enough surprises to keep even jaded fans taken in. Neeson plays Bill Marks, a weary air marshall on yet another trans-Atlantic flight. He starts getting threatening messages on his secure phone demanding payment to an off-shore account, or else passengers will start to die. Sure enough, the body count starts, but again, not in the way you, or he, might have expected.

Marks' seat mate, Jen Summers (a somewhat mysterious Julianne Moore), is by turns helpful and under suspicion. As his efforts hit one obstacle after another, the plane hurtles through a countdown toward doom. Marks employs more and more desperate tactics, and in large part the film lives up to its name, never flagging or pausing.

While this is above all Neeson's movie, the supporting roles are solid, anchored by fine work as usual from Julianne Moore. Recent Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o has a small role as a flight attendant, alongside Michelle Dockery as the other business class attendant with a history. Director Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Neeson in the thriller "Unknown" (2011), again delivers a workmanlike production.