The Commuter

High-pressure thrillers are definitely a crowd pleaser type of film, and Hollywood has certainly capitalized on this concept. Ever since the 1970's with all the disaster films, people have been fascinated with this whole genre. Since then, we've seen many more thrillers to keep the audience on their proverbial seats. So when "The Commuter" came along, it shouldn't be surprising that this film will make a profit.

In this action-packed thriller, Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson), an insurance salesman, whose daily commute home quickly becomes anything but routine. After being confronted by a mysterious stranger, Joanna (Vera Farmiga), Michael is blackmailed into finding the identity of a passenger on his train before the last stop. As he works against the clock to solve the puzzle, Michael is unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that carries life and death stakes for himself and his fellow passengers including Walt (Jonathan Banks), Vince (Shazad Latif), Tony (Andy Nyman) and Eva (Clara Lago). Will Michael beat the clock or succumb to the consequences for making the wrong choices?

Others to round out the cast are Patrick Wilson as Alex Murphy, Sam Neill as Captain Hawthorne, Elizabeth McGovern as Karen MacCauley, Michael's wife, Killian Scott as Dylan, Roland Moller as Jackson, Florence Pugh as Gwen, Ella-Rae Smith as Sofia, Colin McFarlane as Conductor Sam, Adam Nagaitis as Conductor Jimmy, Nila Aalia as Sherri and Dean-Charles Chapman as Danny MacCauley, Michael and Karen's son. 

This was directed by Juame Collet-Serra ("House of Wax" '05, "Goal II: Living the Dream" '07, "Orphan" '09, "Unknown" '11, "Non-Stop" '14, "Run All Night" '15, "The Shallows" '16) plus TV. By his very resume, this filmmaker certainly knows the timing, the pacing and the intensity of what makes an effective thriller. Neeson started as this typical every man insurance salesman taking his routine commute he has for the last ten years only to be thrown into a gripping situation and he did this with such realism. Now Neeson is no stranger to these types of films, however this takes talented direction to really pull this off. If you like this filmmaker's brand of direction, his "Jungle Cruise" is in pre-production for a 2018 release. It was grippingly written by virtual newcomers Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle ("On a Clear Day" '05, "Non-Stop" '14) plus a short. The first two writers have no other experience whether feature film or TV and the latter has minimal experience, so considering their limited experience, this script was amazingly tight, fast-paced and gripping. This seemed like a cross between "Speed" '94 and "Unstoppable" '10. One area this might have lacked in is the fact that it needed to be a bit more cohesive and sequential. There were spots that had a problem following itself, but in most places it wasn't an issue. All in all, this was a rollicking and moving script that gave its audience that rush that the writers were obviously looking to convey. Engle certainly has gotten more experience since both "Rampage" and "Breaking In" are in post production and will be released this year. The visual effects by Cinesite, Iloura and Nvizible were seamless especially when it came to the work on what happened to the train throughout the film.

Certainly if you're an adrenaline, action-packed junkie, you will be in heaven, because this rapidly turns a corner and takes off to give you that roller coaster ride of a lifetime. It creates a tone in a subtle way at the beginning, but then goes for the juggler and with the different twists, it will have you wondering what's going to happen next.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                    Rated: PG-13                                     105mins.