For Air Marshals, Bill Marks, has got a puzzle to solve and hundreds of lives to save on board. With all of the suspense and puzzles that “Non-Stop” has going on, it makes me want to learn more about the secure networks of security and see how they got the ideas of puzzling everything together in this thriller. “Non-Stop” shows Marks to be a framed hijacker, an overworked, air marshal, and a man who is dealing with trying to figure out the puzzle before every twenty minutes is up. Those twenty minutes being each time those amount of minutes is up, a passenger dies.

The film is centered on Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) an air marshal who wants a break and who is on a plane to London. Marks smokes, drinks, and does anything he can to stay relaxed. However, it seems that his time to relaxed comes to an end as soon as he receives a text from someone anonymous and that is a passenger saying that he wants him to convince the airline to transfer $150 million dollars in an offshore account. Otherwise the longer the wait, the more passengers that die. Only question is how can someone plan to take lives in a crowded plane and not getaway with it? That is a question that everyone on the plane wonders about, but as the film passes by matters get worse as soon as Marks realizes the account number that is given to him is in his own name. Now he is targeted as a terrorist, losing lives, onboard, and is everyone’s last chance of survival.

The movie’s suspense comes from Neeson’s performance as a responsible, yet ruthless air marshal. His talent over the years in action films like “Taken” and “The Grey” led suspense movies to be his mark. Especially with the fact that he is sixty-one years old, has lost his wife, and has two boys, he has still got the talent to perform to the fullest.

I want to go more into detail of the outline of the film and how Neeson handles it. In most films where ransom is involved, generally the ending is predictable. The body language of the characters and their actions make it obvious and then the movie ends how we expected it to. In “Non-Stop,” Neeson’s character follows all the right procedures of safety on a plane and plays the situation with seriousness: He knows that once he is targeted as a terrorist, all hope is lost for his help, and passengers will not want to assist him to figure out the hijacking situation. There are times when he knows he is right and the audience knows it as well, what is anticipated though is the expected moment of who is going to be the next targeted passenger with no time being focused on the money to be deposited.

As the film reaches the climax, Neeson’s skills are ferocious. His plans are sorted out conflict by conflict. He does what all air marshals should do, because he knows he may be framed but also knows that he must save everyone on board. He cannot be a terrorist, he makes his points clear to his passengers, that he is not the hijacker. So either he can be part of the the evil plan or someone is really doing a great job at making him the framed target so they can get away with it.

“Non-Stop” is not a typical action movie. Yes there have been movies where something that carries passengers have been hijacked. But this one is done with so many twists that leave you thinking and it is not predictable. If you want to see a good film in February “Non-Stop” is a must-see film. Three and a half stars.

The most disturbing thing with Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Hunt” is that matters get out of hand. “The Hunt” tells a story based off of actual events  about a teacher who is divorced and struggles for his son’s custody along with suffering through a series of rumors that he assaulted a young girl (a complete lie). However, it is not the details of the lying victims that are causing this issue to get out of hand, it is the fact that the main character himself does not seek what is going on. It is easy to see how in real-life events that one thing said can spread through a variety of people and sources. The situation does spread negatively through other families and other sources, but it is brilliant with honesty and suffrage.

The star of this thriller Mads Mikkelsen, that plays Lucas, a divorced father and a school-teacher in a small town of Sweden. The character is very quiet, but Mikkelsen builds force and loneliness slowly where he should have earlier to prevent letting the false situation get more out of hand than it already has been. Viewers believe he did not assault a young girl. In the movie a lot of the characters talk about how Lucas is so involved with being good to children and good at his job. Mikkelsen portrays a lonely, yet quiet school teacher that is not confrontational nor perverted. He is not a bad guy at all.

Klara (Annika Wedderkop) makes a false statement to a staff member of the school about Lucas. That she claims that he was doing naughty things with her and she is like five or six years old. Lucas tries to understand why Klara would say such things. Especially with the fact that her father and him are good friends and that he has known Klara since she was born. But Klara has a wild imagination and is confused so she will not admit that she is just making things up.

Klara probably just wanted a reaction from everyone who is listening to her–but they could could not just be harsh on Lucas. Yet when other children start making up lies, Lucas loses his job. But Lucas is quiet, kind, comforting, losing lots of opportunities, becoming hated by everyone. Mikkelsen is really devoted in the dramatic moments.

“The Hunt” is not really an uplifting film. Lucas is alright, but has been heartbroken more by the lies of Klara than by what was told itself. The film is forward in depicting the rudeness of how cruel people are without even realizing it; Lucas is the innocent protagonist. However, today’s world is lacking in evidence and not realizing all that much that someone could be innocent. Wedderkop does a dark, unexpected job of having a twisted imagination, but it is out of hand–to the point where her own father literally just wants to beat up his best friend Lucas.

The whole film is dark and enthralling. Mads Mikkelsen does such a vague performance just proving how this false assault story is just making his life a train wreck. There are numerous moments where Lucas is just losing all hope. They are all just so depressing and thought-provoking. This is one of the year’s best foreign films. David Vinterberg’s “The Hunt” is a sensation. Three and a half stars.