The Commuter

The director’s stylistic obsessions (harried close-ups of cell-service signal bars) and thematic integrity (witness the overworked 9-to-5 crowd banding together in solidarity) elevate the cheap-paperback plot without tipping the movie over into pomposity.

The Commuter isn’t a tough puzzle to solve, and it veers closely to being obvious at times. But easy, unsubtle, unabashedly masculine action films don’t need nuance as long as they’re this much of a goofy pleasure to watch.

It’s just sad to see the always interesting Farmiga wasted in such a hackneyed role.

Yet the nonsense content, being pure, is liberating, and allows us to savor all the machinery as machinery: the train, the plot, the pitch-imperfect dialogue, the huffing-puffing fights, the ridiculous stunts and, yes, the climactic train wreck. Here’s how filmmakers can fill screens when they don’t have a film to make.

Liam Neeson is back with The Commuter, though viewers may wind up wishing they bought a ticket to a different train.

What The Commuter lacks in nuance, depth, surprises, logic and serviceable dialogue...it can’t make up for in its effective single-location tension or well-choreographed action, though both rank among the film’s modest highlights.

The story (by Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle) does not exist to serve the needs of logic, but those of Neeson, who, as has become his habit in this sort of thing, delivers, at minimum, a modicum of guilty pleasure as the middle-aged, tender-but-tough Everyman in a tight spot.

Liam Neeson continues his streak as the mature action hero. He plays an insurance salesman who commutes to NYC. When a mysterious woman asks him to perform a seemingly simple task, it unfolds a maze of lethal encounters, most of which take place on the train. The machinations of the plot are sometimes baffling, but there are regular action beats to keep up interest (the highlight is the spectacular train derailment). The film is adequately made and mildly involving, but the sometimes confusing story strains credibility and undermines the potential tension.

This movie felt like it was trying hard to be a 1 location-shot epic movie, which it turned up that it failed at it. Liam Neeson was the only one who delivered their character in style and with passion the other actors did not show enough interest and didn't gave depth to their roles. Although it is arguable that this was the point. Also immersion with the viewer was non existent. There is no humor which just makes a movie like this feel like a chore and totally dull. Sadly the plot is very shallow and has no entertainment value to it. The CGI was average at best within the action scenes. Sadly all the elements with the combined ending of the movie and the message it delivered, which was painfully cliche - are the exact reason this movie is just and above average.

Another action movie by Liam Neeson, exciting and intriguing like others; but without leaving a cliché that has maintained since the trilogy of Taken (2007, 2012, 2015) and Non-Stop (2014). The action unfolds very well, and the mystery can be felt. But finally it ends up being another action blockbuster. 6.1 / 10

How many times have I seen this movie. A powerful shadowy conspiracy forces an innocent average man into impossible moral choices. They have people everywhere, watching everything, but they need him to do their dirty work? Who can he trust? Of course there is a lot of action - where our hero takes beatings that would put the average person in the hospital for 10 months and leave them with permanent problems - but hey, our guy comes through and doesn't even need to go to the hospital - he is good to go home. Just the same old tired formula.

Overall the same movie as "Non-Stop", but in a train and not a plane. Liam Neeson is playing the same boring character as always, but, as always, the action is good.