Monday, January 15, 2018

THE COMMUTER

THE COMMUTER may not be the best of the Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson collaborations, but it sure is a lot of fun for a second week in January release. I have only seen 2 out of the 4 films they've made together so far, the other one being UNKNOWN, which I remember liking. I am more of a fan of their separate work. I like tough guy Liam Neeson (THE GREY is probably my favorite), and I love Jaume Collet-Serra. He is one of the best genre directors working today.

I'll admit THE COMMUTER to me felt like something I'd wait to see on Netfilx, or rent at Redbox. But now with using Movie Pass why wait?

My first thoughts after seeing THE COMMUTER were pretty lukewarm. After the film my friend and I discussed it over some pizza and fellowship. We debated back and forth resting on the conclusion that the movie was good entertainment. And it was good entertainment; however, the script could have been a little better?

One reason that I am such a fan of a filmmaker like Collet-Serra is because I can tell he is a fan of film. While watching THE COMMUTER I kept thinking about classic Thrillers that take place on trains. And no, I wasn't thinking of better movies. There's a difference.

Very early on the film has a cool homage to STRANGERS ON A TRAIN involving black and white shoes. Two other train movies came to mind, THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE and SLIVER STREAK.

This time around Neeson plays Michael, an ex-cop who has quit the force to settle down as a insurance salesman. For ten years or maybe more he has taken a commuter train to work. One the day he and his wife are planing on paying for their son to go to college, Michael gets fired.

Before catching the train back home he goes to the bar and has a few beers with his old buddy who's still on the police force. Micheal gets some friendly advice from his cop friend then boards the train home.

Not even one page into his book he took for the trip a mysterious woman sits down next to him and starts an odd conversation. If Michael can find and identify someone on the train who doesn't belong, he gets $100,000.

$100,000 isn't a lot of money to change someones life, but it sure as heck can help Micheal right about now. With the clock ticking Micheal takes the money. Trying to be the cop he once was, Micheal's early heroics costs someone their life thus kicking off trying to find the individual who doesn't belong.

SPOILERS!!!

My biggest and only complaint about THE COMMUTER was the big reveal of who the bad guy was in the movie. And I have to blame that blunder on the films script.

FINAL WARNING, SPOILERS!!

So the bad guy in the film is Micheal's cop friend. Big shocker. But the confusion for me and what I blame as sloppy screenwriting is the fact that their should have been two corrupt cops? Instead the audience is given a weak red herring. This is one thing that my friend and I debated on for several minutes. My conclusion is that there must have been some last minute rewrites or reshoots, which explain the lazy acting from the so called "red herring".

If you're a fan of these Liam Neeson action films then I give THE COMMUTER a solid matinee recommendation. Other than that, it's a rainy day Redbox rental.

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