Directed by:
Jaume Collet-SerraCinematography:
Paul CameronComposer:
Roque BañosCast:
Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, Sam Neill, Elizabeth McGovern, Killian Scott, Shazad Latif, Andy Nyman, Clara Lago, Roland Møller (more)Plots(1)
In this action-packed thriller, Liam Neeson stars as Michael, an insurance salesman whose commute home suddenly takes a dangerous turn. After being confronted by a mysterious stranger (Vera Farmiga), Michael must race against time to uncover the identity of a passenger on his train, as he's swept into a conspiracy with life-and-death stakes for himself and his fellow passengers. (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (9)
A movie so moronic I'm embarrassed to look down on it. Collet-Serra is one of the best genre directors working today, and with his ideas and dynamism he practically always wrestles at least a mediocre experience out of utterly terrible screenplays. The same is true here, though I daresay he hasn't held such a monstrosity in his hand yet. My secret theory is that Collet-Serra doesn't read the scripts, but to save time he transcribes them image by image into technical scripts, and by extension storyboards. On page 109 he definitely no longer knows what page nine was about, or rather he probably doesn't even know what page 107 was about, but instead he's making up stuff about how people are going to be cutting themselves with axes and guitars in long digital shots, assisted by a flying camera, and I love him for that.
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Liam Neeson gets on the train in a pretty bad mood, and it's about to get worse when he finds out that Vera Farmiga has manipulated him into a conspiracy in which his neck is on the line. And not just him. The Commuter is a solid action flick, and exactly what you'd expect from the makers of Unknown and Non-Stop. But you can tell they're running out of ideas. It still paces pretty well and you get exactly what you expect in the cinema, but not a tad more. I quite enjoyed it, but I would have liked to see Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra move on to other projects and maybe even genres. They don't have much to offer here anymore.
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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.
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Let me put it mildly and say that the filmmakers didn't do a very good job of making the film. I’ll keep all the curse words to myself. I've never had anything against Liam Neeson. I was there with him when he was rescuing his daughter and wife, or walking over tombstones, and I’ve always been quite satisfied, but I shouldn't have gotten on that train with him. I think an honest tagline for this film could be: How an Aging Insurance Guy Gets Lucky. At least that would have been a red flag for me. Liam Neeson really wasn't up to the role, the plot was stupid and predictable, the ending was incredibly dumb, and I didn’t enjoy this at all. I'm giving it two stars because no trains were harmed during the making of the film.
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I’m surprised that Jaume Collet-Serra keeps on choosing such bad screenplays and then he and Neeson have to hone something sort of watchable out of them. It’s basically a weaker version of Non-Stop when the beginning flirts with Hitchcock-style twist and then makes illogical detours right up to the over the top action finale. Here and there he comes out with an interesting idea, on the other hand, the whole thing seems awfully artificial and digital. Baños’s music is great, however.
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