On movie The Commuter (2018)

Watched Liam Neeson's latest thriller The Commuter. It's a good movie and worth watching.

The story is intriguing. My standard of being a good thriller is the story has to capture me in the first 5 minutes. The Commuter is such a movie. In a time of inundation of entertainment, it's not worth the time if a story fails to grip the audience in the first glimpse. In a certain sense, this movie reminds me of another one whose story was set on a galloping train, Train to Busan. As the train speeds, the audience is firmly attached to the people and events inside.

The milieu is down to the earth. I've been to NYC a couple of times and taken New York trains before. Clanking cars, hopeless commuters, unnerving ambient, I saw exactly the same in the movie as if I were right on that same train. This is the power of cinematic art, I guess. I used to fly into EWR from Europe around 5am. As the plane was approaching the airport, I saw on the already jammed freeway leading to Manhattan, cars with headlight on queued as a giant serpent. Those are the people fighting for a living, or even survival and I saw exactly the same on the commuter train in the movie. Beneath the facade of a kaleidoscopic prosperity is the everybody's hard life.

It is a good movie.