Liam Neeson is evidently in a rough patch when it comes to movie titles. Just a few weeks ago he entered theaters with Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House -- which is a double dose of lame and long; and now we have the trailer for The Commuter, which is a name somehow even duller than last year's The Girl On The Train. Check out the preview for the new thriller below.
Frankly, this trailer isn't half bad, and actually makes The Commuter look half decent. It's the fourth collaboration between Liam Neeson and Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop, Run All Night, Unknown), and it looks like they're bringing what could be a tense, twisty thriller together with a talented ensemble cast. It's just admittedly hard to get past that title, which really feels like rock bottom in a time when Hollywood titles are getting less and less ambitious and interesting. We can't do better than "Article-Noun?"
Based on an original screenplay by newcomers Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi, The Commuter stars Liam Neeson as Michael, a married, ordinary businessman who takes the commuter train every day into the city for his job. It's a normal routine, but one that gets interrupted one day when he meets a fellow passenger named Joanna (Vera Farmiga) -- a woman who seems very friendly at first, but is actually carefully luring him into a trap. Before he has any idea of what's going on, Michael finds himself right square in the middle of a criminal conspiracy involving the assassination of a witness in a courtroom case, and the possibility of walking away with $75,000.
There are a few warning signs, including the fact that this film is set to come out in January, and the fact that not all of Liam Neeson's movies with Jaume Collet-Serra have turned out that great -- but I enjoyed this trailer enough to at least give it a chance. If there was anything that seriously disappointed me other than the name of The Commuter, however, it's the STUPID SPOILER THAT THEY INCLUDE (that's my way of warning you in case you didn't notice it yourself). The trailer offers a brief moment with the awesome Jonathan Banks (a.k.a. Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul):
But then next shows him dramatically getting pushed in front of a bus:
I probably would have been disappointed watching that moment on the big screen anyway, but I'm still not crazy happy about it being spoiled in the trailer.
The Commuter, which stars Sam Neill, Elizabeth McGovern and Patrick Wilson in addition to all the names mentioned above, will arrive in theaters January 12, 2018.
