A solid, entertaining film. Movies like this have to walk a line between delivering the expected beats of the action/thriller genre and being original enough so that it doesn't feel like a pointless retread. It's harder than it sounds--juggling the familiar with the unfamiliar. Give the audience exactly what they expect and there's no real drama. Change things up too much, and the film might not even fit its supposed genre anymore, making the viewer feel cheated. There's never really any doubt as to where the story will go in "Non-Stop", at least in a general sense. But it has a few nice twists and turns along the way that breathe life into the premise. That's really all one can ask from a movie like this: Give us what we're expecting, but throw in a few surprises before we get there.
This film also continues the "action star" phase of Liam Neeson's career. Neeson is such a good actor in general that he has the gravitas to elevate typical action fare above its genre. Having honed his dramatic acting for decades, he delivers characters who are more grounded than those typically seen in this type of film. He depends on his earnestness and stoic determination to defeat the bad guys, and doesn't need cheesy one-liners to do it. This makes all of his characters more realistic and relatable.
Forest Whitaker delivers a very good, unsettling performance in this film. He is filled with manic energy in his first appearance, but keeps it bottled in, giving the impression that the could (and the expectation that eventually he will) explode. His character has several layers that are gradually revealed throughout the film, and his performance hints at them in advance, but never spoils them.
Unfortunately, his performance is the only good thing about the film. The plot, although it does progress, has no sense of progression. Some events seem to occur based on the whim of the screenwriter, not because they would logically follow the preceding events. The film's other major problem is that none of the characters are particularly likeable. I didn't care about them, and didn't care what happened to them. In a film that derives much of its drama from putting its characters in dangerous situations, that is unacceptable. Whitaker was often fun to watch, but the film itself was not.
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