The Commuter Review
PG13: some intense action/violence, and language
Lionsgate, StudioCanal, The Picture Company
1 Hr and 45 Min
Dir: Jaume Collet-Serra | Writers: Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi, Ryan Engle
Cast: Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, Elizabeth McGovern, Sam Neill, Florence Pugh
INTRO: Are we just going to have Liam Neeson starring in action thrillers depending on which transportation vehicle he’s in cause I feel like this where he is now in his career. I just I can’t wait to see Liam Neeson to star in “Stop Requested” where he plays a bus driver who has to diffuse a bomb and find out who hid it under the bus before it explodes when it reaches its last stop.
Tell me that doesn’t sound like a plausible action movie Neeson would star in. At this point it's inevitable. Complete the Neeson “Speed” action trilogy, and everything will be fine. Shit, just remake "Speed" with Liam Neeson and call it a day. You got two stupid movies down, and now you got one more to go. Oh did I say that this was stupid? Sorry, THIS IS FRIGGIN STUPID!
Michael McCauley (Liam Neeson) is an insurance salesman who is on his daily commute home. A mysterious stranger contacts him and offers him $100,000 if he identifies a hidden passenger on his train before the last stop. As he works against the clock to solve the puzzle, he realizes he is caught in the midst of a deadly criminal conspiracy and that his life and the lives of his fellow passengers are at risk.
THE GOOD
HEY I'M WALKING HERE!
I don’t wanna be biased with this movie because I’m a resident of this state but the thing that makes some of the premise works is the people of New York. This is a film set in a New York Metro-North train (though it makes stops in the city-bound stations that you wouldn’t find on the Metro North, but that's just a nitpick which is neither here nor there) and everyone is their own type of asshole. Neeson is seen to be a hell of a nice guy, but everyone else on this train is just terrible people. The film captures how terrible us New York passengers really are. We’re all assholes deep down, and the train is usually where it comes out. We’re loud, grumpy, self-centered, and don’t respect anyone else’s personal bubble. It helps build up the ante by showing how any one of these passengers can be the murderer.
THE BAD
NEW YEAR, SAME OL' NEESON FLICK
If this were a Taken film, this would’ve been a decent sequel, but every beat is more of the same to other action films Neeson has starred in. It doesn’t matter how good his performance is or his capability to carry the movie because he does. But at this point what should matter if his material is good or not. While “Non-Stop” was Taken: The Plane, “The Commuter” is Taken: The Train. This is now just routine for Neeson and his audience.
Vera Farmiga might as well be the Jigsaw of the film because when she pops in, she practically says to Michael,
She gives Micheal this mission that involves life and death which sets this story off into midlevel gear. After her three minutes of screen time, Farmiga's performance just becomes phoned in. Literally the remainder of the time that she’s present, she is on the phone with Neeson.
At that point, you’re just waiting to see who is the culprit to these string of deaths on this train, especially with a predictable plot twist. Seriously don’t cast a big name alongside another big name because most likely they’re going to be the criminal mastermind. The movie follows so many similar beats to “Non-stop” that it's hard to get invested with this action thriller that boasts how much it's trying to be its own thing. BUT HEY WE GET TO SEE LIAM NEESON KICK SOMEONE’S ASS WITH A GUITAR!
WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY?
If the story isn’t good because of the predictability, then I don’t know what else to say. Even from a technical aspect, the movie is poorly stitched together. The ADR is terrible and incredibly noticeable, the visual effects are pretty cheap especially when it comes to the penultimate action sequence in the third act, and the extras just look lost some of the time. There is a moment where Neeson pulls a gun on everyone in one car, and then there is this black woman in the background in her seat with no expression to anything that is going on at all. Why? Cause she’s asleep. While the movie tries to incorporate humor which usually tends to fall flat on its face, that was the biggest laugh I’ve had in the film.
LAST STATEMENT
“The Commuter” feels as if it was made off a dare at a producer’s party where a bunch of people of high power pitched it while intoxicated, and yet somehow they followed through. Hey, you guys made an action thriller with Liam Neeson on a train and a plane. Just give us the bus movie, and we can keep moving in our lives. “The Commuter” may be entertaining and has sporadic moments of intensity but in the end its just a forgettably stupid action thriller.
Rating: 1.5/5 | 39%
Super Scene: Michael V. Guy with Guitar.
