Synopsis
Lives are on the line
A businessman, on his daily commute home, gets unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that threatens not only his life but the lives of those around him.
2018 Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
A businessman, on his daily commute home, gets unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that threatens not only his life but the lives of those around him.
Liam Neeson Vera Farmiga Patrick Wilson Sam Neill Florence Pugh Clara Lago Roland Møller Ella-Rae Smith Andy Nyman Adam Nagaitis Colin McFarlane Shazad Latif Jonathan Banks Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Killian Scott Nila Aalia Elizabeth McGovern Dean-Charles Chapman Kingsley Ben-Adir Damson Idris Ben Caplan Letitia Wright Andy Lucas Simon Hibbs Zaak Conway Jamie Beamish John Alastair Aoife Hinds Alana Maria Show All…
Adam Rowland Stephane Paris Marco Lee Steven Begg Audrey Boivin Ciarán Keenan Linda Luong Fiona Foster Rupert Smith Sohrab Esfehani Ami Yamauchi Stuart Gardiner Jonty Smith
StudioCanal Ombra Films TF1 Films Production The Picture Company Canal+ Ciné+ Amazon Prime Video China Film Group Corporation Bona Film Group Pinewood Studios Canadian Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC)
通勤營救, L'uomo sul treno, Cudzinec vo vlaku, O Passageiro, The Passenger, Пассажир, The Commuter - Die Fremde im Zug, นรกใช้มาเกิด
liam neeson's agent: i have a movie for you
liam neeson:
liam neeson's agent: your family's life is on the line
liam neeson: i'll do it
collet-serra brings his usual lean visual economy and tight, rhythmic cutting to another exciting, claustrophobic hitchcockian pulp thriller (dude gets his shit kicked in with a lefty guitar!!!), the way the camera moves around the train is fantastic and i appreciate the subtle way it doubles formally as an attempt to depict the communal language of the working class. best title sequence this side of fincher's Dragon Tattoo. fuck you goldman sachs. "if you wanna know what god thinks about money... look at the people he gives it to."
the opening sequence (one of the best in years) starts the film out as this optimistic of synecdoche new york, and then quickly becomes a wild conspiracy thriller, all while maintaining its fun and b-movie trashiness.
a total surprise.
Sturdy but unsurprising. If you're looking for an impeccable formal exercise featuring a train as an analog for runaway capitalism do yourself a favor and re-watch UNSTOPPABLE.
Liam Neeson Gets Blackmailed On Public Transport: Part 2
Can't wait for part 3.
I'd suggest a tram.
Economic anxiety and our mechanized life. The Hollywood and late capitalist machinery at work, one and the same, with police state conspiracy as mediator. The American working class might not go to heaven, but has a meeting with a derailed train. Jaume Collet-Serra, Hollywood de facto #1 working man, is no Tony Scott, he will punch the clocks and keep the engines running (give or take the occasional dodgy CG and plot mechanics), but he will also see everything.
There's something reassuring about seeing a very silly thriller made with legit craft that understands exactly how silly it is.
The silliest of the low-rent, high-impact thrillers that Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson have made together (“Unknown,” “Non-Stop,” and “Run All Night” being the previous three), “The Commuter” may not match the potent charge of their earlier collaborations, but this amusingly ridiculous ride is still a few cuts above the kind of swill you’d expect to arrive in theaters on the second weekend of January.
This may be a forgettable movie about the forgotten man — a blue-collar morality play disguised as a very contrived hostage crisis — but at least it’s shlock with something on its mind. It’s the kind of action vehicle that Barton Fink might have written if he arrived in Hollywood during the mid-’90s.
Neeson plays…
Jaume Collet-Serra’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, flipping the bird to Trump’s economy and then proceeding to engage in ostentatious one take fight scenes, and total chaos during the final reel. No one’s making mid-level action movies like he is right now; as he’s Tony Scott and Renny Harlin, wearing this rather gaudy DTV Brian De Palma dress. A total fucking blast.
If I had a nickel for every time Vera Farmiga played a significant role in a film where a male protagonist is stuck in an active train, then I’d have... 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s wierd it’s happened twice