The Commuter
Lionsgate | Release Date: January 12, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
22
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Village VoiceDanny KingJan 11, 2018
The director’s stylistic obsessions (harried close-ups of cell-service signal bars) and thematic integrity (witness the overworked 9-to-5 crowd banding together in solidarity) elevate the cheap-paperback plot without tipping the movie over into pomposity. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineCarson LundJan 12, 2018
The final optimism of the film's worldview lands with a conviction that's rare in contemporary Hollywood cinema—a resilience that's strong enough for Liam Neeson to ride out on. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 11, 2018
The man likes a scrap. But he's never had quite as ludicrous, and ludicrously entertaining, a fight as in The Commuter, which is essentially Liam Neeson versus a train. Read full review
75
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJan 10, 2018
As the latest installment in what has become its own subgenre at this point, The Commuter serves as a fine example of the kind of tightly-coiled thriller that Neeson and Collet-Serra can do together in their sleep. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 10, 2018
It weds all the winning aspects of the Neeson formula to a ticking-clock plot, full of tense moments and gripping sequences. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJan 10, 2018
The Commuter’s script may not be an exercise in fool-proof logic (the actual plot makes almost no sense in retrospect), but its politics are consistent — a rare quality for a contemporary thriller. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 10, 2018
If Collet-Serra put Neeson on a merry-go-round and added some danger, I’d gladly show up. Read full review
71
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJan 14, 2018
The Commuter isn’t a tough puzzle to solve, and it veers closely to being obvious at times. But easy, unsubtle, unabashedly masculine action films don’t need nuance as long as they’re this much of a goofy pleasure to watch. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekJan 15, 2018
As The Commuter rattles on, the plot becomes more and more implausible — though again, believability isn’t what we’ve signed on for here. Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 12, 2018
It’s almost charming watching the film find various ways to use the limited confines of a suburban commuter train in service of a nervy action thriller. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJan 11, 2018
While it doesn't pay to think too hard about the plot, after four of these films, director Collet-Serra, shooting here on a 30-ton set put together from authentic discarded railroad scrap, is an expert, so to speak, at making this kind of train run on time. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerDec 29, 2017
It's a certified B-movie without superheroes or interplanetary travel, drawing its power from a whodunit, race-against-the-clock scenario that plays as if The Lady Vanishes and Strangers on a Train were chopped up and tossed into the blender along with a slab of CGI and a full bottle of Dexedrine. Read full review
67
The PlaylistWill AshtonJan 11, 2018
With a filmography as curiously inconsistent as Collet-Serra’s, The Commuter is a wild, mostly entertaining combination of the director’s general bag of tricks. It’s over-the-top and fun, even if in its own fleeting way, and by the time you reached your location, you don’t feel swindled. Read full review
65
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 29, 2017
Collet-Serra’s fourth team-up with Neeson, The Commuter, represents neither man’s finest work, but at its best, it suggests the snap and fun they’ve brought us before. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJan 11, 2018
It’s just sad to see the always interesting Farmiga wasted in such a hackneyed role. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 11, 2018
In the doldrums of January, the movie pulls out every trick in the suspense-thriller book to keep us grinning at each new absurdity. Silly? You bet. Irresistible? Totally. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 11, 2018
One of those movies with good things going in one direction, and cheesy things going in the other. The ever-valuable Farmiga is a faceless voice after her sole on-screen appearance, and director Collet-Serra’s frantic, hand-held technique ensures that every supporting player looks as guilty as possible. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoJan 10, 2018
Neeson’s financially strapped character might vent even more convincingly if he didn’t somehow still have a BMW parked back at the depot, but we’re on board with him all the same. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 9, 2018
An action picture whose aging hero we care about and root for, a thriller with tension and style, a B-movie Hitchcock would have been happy to call his own. Read full review
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