The Commuter

The former cop and insurance agent Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson) loses his job when the company where he works is downsizing. He goes to a bar where he meets his former partner and friend Alex Murphy (Patrick Wilson) and tells that he has not told the news to his wife Karen (Elizabeth McGovern). While commuting home, a mysterious woman called Joanna (Vera Farmiga) offers a game to Michael where he would locate a commuter in the train and receive a large amount. When Michael finds the money hidden in a wagon, the woman informs that he has accepted the offer and need to find the person in a few moments; otherwise his beloved family will suffer the consequences. What will Michael do?

"The Commuter" is another entertaining Liam Neeson´s action film. The unlikely story has promising beginning but the conclusion is absurd and funny. Despite the clichés, the non-stop action does not let the viewer think and in the end, "The Commuter" is a decent film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Passageiro" ("The Passenger")

The movie started off good, showing the daily routine, introducing the characters and setting up the mystery. The editing was interesting and even a little artsy, yet it got me hooked. I really enjoyed the first 30 minutes.

It was setting itself up to look like an intelligent mystery action. Having Neeson in this kind of movie spoils a lot, yet I thought this would be something different from his typical movies since he's getting older. I haven't seen the trailer though, just went to see the movie straight away.

After everything is set up, it just turns into a totally divorced from reality generic conspiracy action. The premise was indeed as silly as it gets. The ending was as unsurprising as possible. Omnipresent supervillains who can plan and predict everything by the smallest detail, control the situation without even being close yet fail at the most obvious things. The plot just plays itself, at times Neeson is not even doing anything to change the situation, it just changes by itself to adapt to his needs. This is not a well written movie. The ending had me saying "oh, no, you're not doing this...oh God".

Seeing Neeson perform ridiculous stunts was also a little confusing. No one should see an old man getting beaten like that. This just looks wrong.

Overall, next time I'll want to see a cop/witness drama routine, I'd better go re-watch 16 Blocks. At least it had characters instead of comic book villains.

The first half of this was a gripping, highly entertaining action movie in a similar vein to Neeson's previous "Non-Stop". I really enjoyed that movie and I'm a huge Vera Farmiga fan. In fact, "The Commuter" has a phenomenal cast - it's just a shame their talents aren't put to better use.

At times, it seemed very tongue-in-cheek and self-aware of its stupidity, as jokes and one-liners would randomly appear in scenes where you werne't expecting it. Things just became so unbelievable though that I started to tune-out. It all just seemed to be Liam Neeson pacing up and down a train while random phones rang.

The insanity reached a peak once a major train derailment took place and all the passengers casually started doing a spot of interior decorating like nothing happened.

If you have seen "The Taking of Pelham 123", "Unstoppable" or "Under Siege 2", then you have seen better versions of this.

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library. It is the right length, just over 90 minutes, and kept our interest the whole.

Yet this is a throw-away movie, the story is highly contrived to create suspense. For example he is told to look for a passenger "who doesn't belong" yet the people manipulating him know exactly who the passenger is.

My other issue with it are the fights, hand-to-hand combat in a moving train, they are shown to hit each other so hard, sometimes with devices (guitar!) that would kill them yet they recover very quickly. It definitely subtracts from the believability.

Yet overall I found it suitable entertainment because I like Liam Neeson, he is perfect for this type of role. He is Michael MacCauley, an insurance salesman, who commutes by train along the Hudson River and into NYC each day. After 10 years he pretty well knows all the usual commuters. But this day he is laid off, he has two mortgages, his son is about to start college, so when he is tempted with $100,000 cash to perform a task it gives him the motive to accept it. As a former cop he has the investigative instincts.

The DVD extras are interesting, except for brief NYC scenes the whole movie was shot on sets at Pinewood Studios in England. They say 90% of the actors are British but I didn't try to verify that number.

There are certain actors in Hollywood that are so one-dimensional, but they play that one-dimension spot on. Liam Neeson is one of those guys. Another example is Jason Statham. Their roles are all the same, scripts slightly tweaked, yet the movie passes of as decent-to-good almost every time (except for the Taken sequels, but that isn't on Liam).

Bottom line is, it's basically the movie non-stop, but on a commute instead of a plane. Liam Neeson plasy his same old self and plays his usual one-dimensional badass role. He did his job once again. This movie will bring in okay-enough numbers, and we will be presented with Liam Neeson's next challenge in about another year.

Same old, decent-enough action movie.

6/10