The Commuter

Liam Neeson and Jaume Collet-Serra have met on the screen for the fourth time already and yet again, I can’t get enough of it. A perfect small-scale film with an inventive script that uses a train the good old Agatha Christie way and offers a gripping plot with a solid unravelling. And since Liam is a champ for his age and Jaume can work well with CGI, you’re up for a rollercoaster full of adrenaline. It might reek of special effects, but I didn’t mind that one bit. Great camera angles brilliantly capture the action scenes and doesn’t start shaking as soon as Liam look at it the wrong way. It created so much adrenaline that it was hard for me to lower my blood pressure back to normal after watching the movie. (09/13/2018)

The standard Liam Neeson reunites with director Jaume Collet-Serra in a suspenseful thriller that is fun to watch but unfortunately doesn't bring much new to the table. It bothers me a bit that every new Liam film, is actually exactly the same as the previous one. Non-Stop was set on a plane, The Commuter takes place on a train, and the plot is more or less similar, except that I found Non-Stop more entertaining and its denouement more surprising, whereas here I found out all too soon. Too many similarities for my taste, as if they didn't know how to handle the script. That said, the train derailment is solid and Liam still manages the smaller fights, so it's still above average, but it could have been more creative. 70% (02/08/2018)

Liam Neeson is still badass, but in Commuter he looks like he’s tired of that. His hero has adapted a bit to the situation, he is no longer the unwavering killing machine he was in Taken, but a panting 60 year old son of a bitch who can hardly make it to the wild, digital finale. The finale of an action thriller that is cruelly predictable with its last twist, but nevertheless has some decent pacing and one or two really dramatic and imaginative scenes. Jaume Collet-Serra is still doing his thing and holds the trilogy to a higher standard than Liam did in, say, the severely degraded Taken trilogy. Still, it's quite a lot for the third time, and while it manages to build up tension from the edge and Vera Farmiga seems like an apparition from another planet in those femme fatale 5 minutes, by the second half it’s already running on fumes. Towards the end, only those seemingly inconspicuous characters obediently squeak onto the stage to break up the screenwriter's misery. It is watchable, because the train setting is attractive – Steven Seagal could tell you a thing or two about it. (02/15/2018)

NON-STOP 2. Again, initially a promisingly mysterious film, which gradually drowns in the strange behavior of probably all the characters, and which Liam Neeson probably didn't enjoy much, either. The big plus was ensured by an absolutely amazing “guitarist" brawl, whilst big minus for the digital finale that wasn't really the finale. (01/19/2018)

This is already the fourth collaboration between Liam Neeson and Jaume Collet-Serra (which had previously worked flawlessly), but it didn’t turn out as I had hoped. I didn’t let the mixed reviews sway me, but the result was not particularly impressive. The idea with the train is fine; the first half can be considered successful, with the viewer unsure of what might happen, and Neeson still manages to convey his worried expression of a man whose wife and son have been abducted. But then, what I feared happened. It turned into a bit of a farce, with logic going out the window, and the plot kept twisting in various directions. I wouldn’t have minded that if it had been presented more reasonably and slowly, allowing the viewer to keep up. Even the fights didn’t manage to save it in the end, which I don’t understand at all. They felt very staged, lacking realism. And the final scene with the train derailment? The digital effects didn’t come across as well as they probably intended. The minor plot twist at the end could have been predicted an hour earlier. I don’t mind happy endings, but here it was over the top. Next time, I’d prefer a proper thriller that plays with suspense rather than a digital train and a convoluted story. I give it 56%. (06/02/2018)