The Commuter — 3.5 Gavels 54% Rotten Tomatoes

He may be 65, there may be holes in the plot (hint: there are), the close combat scenes are beyond believable, but Liam Neeson still knows how to deliver in an action movie.  The tension and energy missing in Proud Mary is proudly found in this flick.  Is it a great movie?  No, but for January, this is about as good as it gets.  I am still not sure how he got on the train when it was cold and snowy but the rest of the movie was at 60-70 degrees.  Either I missed something or they have Ohio weather in New York City.

Michael MacCauley, an ex-NYC police officer, has been selling insurance for the last 10 years.  Already short on the money necessary to send his son to Syracuse University, he is fired.  Unable to tell his wife, he boards the commuter train home.  There, he meets Joanna, who knows all about him, including his need for money.  She offers him $100,000 to find the person who doesn’t belong on the train and put a GPS locator on him/her.  Quickly, Michael deduces that this person will be killed if he does as requested.  When he tries to refuse, his wife’s wedding ring is delivered to him.  Either he follows orders, or his wife and son will be killed.

Liam Neeson is MacCauley and is the same character as on Taken, Taken 2, Taken 3 . . . ; well, you get the picture.  Joanna is played by Vera Farmiga, and she is on the screen for far too short a time.  You do get to hear her ominous voice from time to time as she threatens Michael.  Patrick Wilson is Michael’s former partner at the NYPD and is miscast.  Elizabeth McGovern is Michael’s wife and Sam Neill is a NYPD police captain, both with very small parts, so small one wonders why they bothered.

This is a movie worth seeing, if not necessarily worth paying for.  If you like Liam and his Taken-style action flicks, then head to the theater.  If you can take him or leave him, my recommendation is to wait for Netflix.  It will be a good movie to watch at home when there is nothing better on TV.  For me, this movie is about on par with Unstoppable with Denzel Washington.  Maybe it’s the train thing.
With a budget of only $30 million (it looks like it), it has already made $22 million so we may see Liam, the action star, again.  Hopefully. they allow him his rocking chair some day.