Review of The Commuter (2018) by Alex A — 18 Jan 2018

Neeson plays a family man who loses his job at an insurance company, and while en route back home on the train he takes on a daily basis, a mysterious, "friendly" woman tells him there's $25K in the bathroom. He's to obtain it, locate a passenger who isn't supposed to be on there, then receive another $75K after locating said passenger. Problem is, this mysterious woman is apparently in league with some "powerful people" who want said passenger dead, because said passenger witnessed a murder committed by people hired by those powerful people, attempting to cover up something shady that could cause many of these powerful people to go to jail. So now Neeson's wife and son are in danger from these powerful people if he doesn't locate this mystery passenger.

Phew. Okay, first thing's first. Neeson is always fun to see, the performances are good, the dialogue, minus some hiccups and forced one liners, is solid. Intense action is here, etc etc yada yada yada.

Now, having just seen it, I'll try my best to articulate how I feel overall about the film. Is it good? Yeah, I'd say overall it's nothing more than just good. Why's that? I mean, the first half of the film which introduces the protagonist and his daily life/family while then setting up the basic premise is actually pretty engaging. The plot in the first half is well executed and leaves you wondering what will happen next.

The second half unfortunately is where the script takes somewhat of a nose dive into over-done, "okay tone it down a bit" territory. When the real physical combat action element kicks in, that's when the film becomes somewhat cliche. It's the same kind of action we've seen in most of Neeson's films in the last decade or so. The train crashing sequence is waaaay over the top and lasts ridiculously long. The movie doesn't make it too hard for viewers to mentally connect the dots, which leaves it feeling slightly predictable in parts as well.

Maybe I'm forgetting elements of the film having just seen it, but what exactly was on that device that got that guy thrown off a building? Who was Vera Farmiga's character working with/for? And if she and whoever she's working with is so well organized, powerful and dangerous, why would they send someone to shove a potential snitch into public transit where everyone can see? Isn't that a bit risky considering it's in PUBLIC? The individual who shoved him must've gotten arrested....right? Wouldn't that individual be interrogated, eventually tracing the incident back to Farmiga? Oh hell, it's a movie, I'm thinking too hard.

Verdict: this was solid. It had a strong first half but turns into a cliche bare-knuckle action packed second half which overwelcomes its stay in terms of length, and the initially intriguing premise is stretched thin by the end. The plot twists are mildly surprising on a surface level, but predictable if you follow along well since the beginning. This is 'Non-Stop' on a train. Popcorn fun, nothing more or less, and ultimately forgettable.