Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra best known for 2016’s The Shallows and collaborating with Liam Neeson on such action thrillers as 2014’s Non-Stop, The Commuter is a fairly typical action thriller in the spirit of Liam Neeson’s Taken movie series that does not really add much to the genre. Oscar nominee Liam Neeson plays an insurance agent named Michael MacCauley who finds himself mixed up in criminal intrigue on his daily train commute back home from Manhattan. He meets a mysterious woman named Joanna, played by Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga, who promises him $100,000 if he finds a particular person she is looking for that is out of place on the train. While interacting with several other people he has gotten to know over their daily commutes, including Walt who is played by Jonathan Banks of Breaking Bad fame, Michael surreptitiously tries to uncover the person he is tasked with finding. Similar to other action movies starring Liam Neeson, he uses a particular set of skills to fight much younger men and race against time before Joanna and the secret organization she works for harms his wife and teenage son. Eventually, towards the end of the movie, he discovers a criminal conspiracy in which not everyone is as they seem, and he himself is suspected to be a criminal or terrorist by authorities, including two police officers played by Patrick Wilson and Sam Neill who Michael knew when he was a NYPD detective. Overall, I found it to be a mediocre and silly action thriller that is good to pass the time with an entertaining performance from Liam Neeson but ultimately fails to transcend the stale stereotypes of an action flick.
KEITH on Reels 