User reviews

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

SPOILER: The Commuter delivers what it promises, a Liam Neeson action movie that relies on tension and a little bit of mystery to fill out its runtime. It begins very well with minimal exposition for the set up, using images or short conversations to explain what most movies would carve out five minutes of dialogue for. From there it evolves more like a mystery with an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation searching for someone on the train. As it enters the third act, it goes full action movie with explosions, fight scenes, and massive stakes. While this was to be expected from Jaume Collet-Serra, it undermines what had been a more contained thriller up to that point.

It is shot well enough and uses an ensemble cast well, but no one besides Liam Neeson really has too much to do. Vera Farmiga and Jonathan Banks are both talented actors that are really underutilized. All in all, The Commuter is another Liam Neeson action movie that could be best described as "Nonstop on a train."

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.

If you've seen one Neeson film, you've probably seen them all. Despite having already mastered the art of playing the grizzled, independant tough-guy, Neeson is back with The Commuter, in which he plays an unsuspecting ... well ... commuter, who is drawn into a criminal conspiracy which could kill everyone on-board.

It's a familiar sounding plot, but it's one that Neeson excels in, in fact, he may be too good at it by now. With all that said, The Commuter, much like Taken, Taken 2, Taken 3, Non-Stop, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Run All Night and Schindlers List, is another fun Neeson film which you'll probably enjoy much more than you'd be willing to admit.

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")

I admit that Neeson's films are a bit formulaic, but it can still be a fun time to while away some time. He certainly doesn't break any new ground and his nemesis doesn't break much ground, either.

Perhaps someone can clear something up for me regarding normal MTA -vs- commuter rail. Is it safe to assume that a commuter rail train leaving Penn Station would not be stopping at MTA stops in Manhattan? I'm not even from NYC, but I was fairly certain commuter rail lines wouldn't have their first stop until they were at least out of Manhattan. That really bugged me in this move.

Neeson creates a likable, sympathetic character. This is necessary for the heightening of tension, which screws on inexorably until you just don't see any way out for him.

The camera-work was particularly masterful - creative, meticulous, thought out to a granular level. There are two particular action-pieces towards the climax that are breathtaking, at least one of which looks like (but surely isn't) a single, extended take. The camera defines space and gravity, and is part of the expeience.

Yes, there are some credibility straining factors. But it is after all a movie, not a procedural. On the other hand, there are some very neat surprises.

Glad we saw it!

This is a decent action-thriller movie.

A long time train commuter is surprised by a stranger on a train with an enticing offer; after a bad day at the office the commuter is dragged into an ever spiraling dangerous ride.

There is danger, suspense and intrigue.

Ok so parts of the story may be far fetched but all the players give first rate convincing performances and aided by a distinct feel of realism during the train journey, these factors convinces me the movie deserves a solid:

7/10.

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.

Hard to believe that it has been 10 years since Liam Neeson became an unexpected action star with the lean, spare but brutally effective thriller 'Taken', and in the decade that's passed cemented his late renaissance with well-executed B-movie fare like 'The A-Team', 'The Grey', 'Unknown', 'Non-Stop' and 'Run All Night'. The last three were also notable for being collaborations with director Jaume Collet-Serra, and the now 65-year-old has extended their team-up with 'The Commuter', which sees Serra further lay claim to a modern-day Alfred Hitchcock with a couple of high-wire scenes that would certainly make the latter proud.

As with before, there is a high-concept scenario at the heart of this deliberately old-fashioned thriller: an everyday insurance salesman Michael McCauley (Neeson) finds his routine evening commute back home from work disrupted by the enigmatic stranger Joanna (Vera Farmiga), who sits opposite him on the Metro-North train and offers him a hefty financial reward if he is able to spot someone on the train who isn't a familiar face. In order for Michael to be tempted in the first place, first-time screenwriters Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi set him up to lose his job on that same day, leaving him floundering over his two mortgages as well as tuition fees for his college-bound son - although because this is Neeson we're talking about, you know Michael will eventually do the right, honorable and even heroic thing.

To up the ante, Michael is only given slightly more than half an hour before the train reaches Cold Spring to find the individual he is told later on goes by the name of Prynne; and to raise the stakes, it turns out that Joanna has also held his wife and son hostage, both of whom she threatens to kill if Michael fails to complete his mission. True to his Hitchcockian ambition, Serra spins an intriguing web of mystery over most of the middle act, and there are at least three riveting questions that are teased. Who is Prynne? Who is Joanna and/or the people she is working with or for? And finally, what does Joanna want with Prynne? These in turn translate into solid character work for the proverbial strangers on the train whom Michael probes to locate his mark - among them a feisty college student (Florence Pugh), an arrogant Wall Street banker (Shazad Latif), an emotionally distraught nurse (Clara Lago), a tattooed bruiser (Roland Moller) and a taciturn teenager (Ella-Rae Smith).

Yet Serra is all too aware that a whodunnit in and of itself is unlikely to satiate a good proportion of his audience, who are here to watch Neeson engage in the sort of close-quarter fisticuffs a la 'Taken'. So in between playing detective, Michael also gets a couple of well-choregraphed brawls - one of them takes place in the confines between carriages, while another that is impressively done in a single take plays out over an entire carriage with everything from a gun, an ax, a guitar and seat cushions used as weapons. There is visibly concerted effort to keep these fight sequences real, so even though Neeson's character is revealed earlier on to be an ex-cop, the film doesn't (thankfully) use that as an excuse to gift him with "a very particular set of skills" to take down his opponents too easily, skilfully or neatly.

Like other locomotive-set thrillers, this one doesn't escape without the train in question going out of control and then literally off the rails. That it is well-staged is undeniable - not even some subpar CGI in some shots can detract from the sheer white-knuckle tension of seeing almost the whole train flip into the air - but this spectacle-fuelled conclusion arguably strains the credibility of the high-concept movie even further, and is therefore both better and worse off for it. Notwithstanding, Neeson remains through and through the film's emotional centre, conveying the frustration, helplessness and resolve of a regular guy who is trying to get his life back in control from those that have snatched it away from him. Lest we forget, this is a role that the thespian can easily do in his sleep, but Neeson still brings his considerable gravitas to bear.

Mind you, not all the gaps in the narrative will be filled in by the end (which seems to set up the possibility of a sequel) nor will some of the explanations pass muster under closer scrutiny. Still, a film like this isn't meant to be held up under such examination or intended to offer any more than solid B-movie guilty pleasures; on the latter count though, it does succeed brilliantly and beautifully by mixing classic Hitchcockian tension with adrenaline-pumping action. We dare say that it ranks among one of Neeson's best in his action oeuvre, and if you're in the mood for some pulpy thrills and suspense, then you'll definitely want to get on this train.

From the trailer we know that Michael (Liam Neeson) is an ordinary commuter who one day is given a vague task by a mysterious woman to identify a passenger who "doesn't belong" on the train. And there is going to be action involved.

Since others have reviewed pretty much everything about this movie, I will tell you 3 positive aspects that most reviewers have missed:

• There is deduction. More importantly, the process of deduction. Besides making observations of his own, Michael leverages on his personal connections with other frequent commuters to help solve the mystery in a believable way.
• The action sequences have far fewer cuts than something like the Taken trilogy, especially the second fight (granted, there are hidden cuts). Hence the fights are much easier to follow.
• More realistic injuries. People can get injured in a fight and do get injured, and not every side-character who got injured suffers instant death.

If you already like action thrillers, then this one is certainly above average in that category. Worth watching!

Oh btw the producers definitely lost a lot of money during the subprime crisis. ;)

The Commuter's cast is better than its workmanlike script - which helps make this reasonably diverting Liam Neeson action thriller worth the price of a matinee ticket or rental, if not a full-price ticket.

Another enjoyable Liam Neeson action thriller. It's directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who also helmed other Neeson movies like Run all night and Unknown so if you liked those movies then you're in good hands. Liam Neeson is reliable as always as the weathered tough hard man who gets things done and although the plot gets pretty silly at points this is still a good time. It's engaging and has a good cast including the hot as hell Florence Pugh and the always good Sam Neil and also Patrick Wilson.

I like it when a thriller ups the stakes and makes the situation worse for the hero so they are stuck thinking "Ok, what the hell do i do now?" and this movie does that multiple times. A good time. A decent 7/10 movie.

Fun popcorn flick with Liam Neeson giving it his all as usual. Here's hoping we can see Liam Neeson be the right guy in the wrong place at the wrong time on a boat to complete the Liam Neeson transportation trifecta. LIAM NEESON WINS AT TRAVELING!

The character development scene showing Neeson's humdrum existence is very well done. Also noteworthy is the amount of tension created. I found the twist predictable but there r lots of other twists and turns. It is a solid entertainment n Neeson's fans like me will not b disappointed. I hav become a fan of this director. Jaume Collet-Serra has given some solid thrillers: House of Wax, Orphan, Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Shallows. And as far as Neeson is concerned he is d new king of action films. Although he has turned into a deja vu, but it is always solid fun to c him in action n thriller films. I missed seeing this on a big screen. Saw this on a pirated hd dvd copy.

Usual comments about Liam Neeson playing Liam Neeson again. Another one of his simple action movies etc etc. But I disagree. You know why? This man never disappoints. I have yet to see the day when I'm coming out of a cinema (or my living room) saying to myself "nahh, that was bad...". Because - even when his movies does suck, Neeson himself always brings it to the table and saves the day. Never halfa$$sed day at work. And so sympathetic it always shines through in his characters. Okay. That being said. This movie has a decent storyline. Everything's not good in it -- far from it -- but he's just bringing us to the finish line one more time and I'm amazed. The guy is 66 or 67, and looks ripped for a 35 year old. Clapping hands from Sweden!