Director: Jaume Collet-Serra.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson.
We’ve all seen Liam here before, in some capacity, be it a washed-up air-marshal, private investigator or hitman. In fact, this isn’t Neeson’s first thrill ride with director Collet-Serra, who’s directed him in films Unknown, Run All Night and the very similar Non-Stop. Run All Night being my personal favourite of their collaborations.
Neeson’s plays insurance salesman, Michael MacCauley who’s your everyday commuter, same train, same time, Monday to Friday. But on his return journey he encounters someone that makes him an intriguing offer, setting off a train of disastrous events. He’s asked to find someone on the train and should he find them, he’ll receive a nice cash reward. But he doesn’t know who he’s looking for, nor does he know the people who’s enlisted his services.
Neeson’s turns into usual telephone tough guy as he, and the audience try to figure out the hell is going on. I spent a lot of time wondering what was the whole point of it all as it appears to be an over elaborated plot that isn’t hard to follow, just feeling pointless throughout. However, this is enough to keep the audiences engaged only to see where this gets off.
It’s a less than interesting thriller that’s in the same vein of films like Non-Stop, Speed and even Phone Booth; and once it’s pass a certain number of stops, the film derails and becomes quickly predictable, making the film, that starts off quite serious, quite unbelievable. It’s certainly more thriller than action, and what action we do see is subpar.
There’s not much else to say about this; there’s some nice story touches but does quickly become overdramatic leading to a CGI heavy finale which isn’t so surprising compared to the rest of the film. It’s nothing more than entertainment and sadly doesn’t warrant the cinema ticket.
Running Time: 8
The Cast: 7
Performance: 7
Direction: 6
Story: 5
Script: 6
Creativity: 5
Soundtrack: 5
Job Description: 5
The Extra Bonus Point: 0
54% 5/10