The Commuter (2018)

Former New York cop Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson) has taken the same daily train in and out of the city, morning and evening, for 10 years. On the day he loses his insurance job, he is approached by a stranger (Vera Farmiga), who recruits him to commit a crime in exchange for money. 

This is a taut action thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also made 2014’s Non-Stop. In fact, it’s quite similar in many ways: Neeson confined to a speeding vehicle while needing to solve a mystery to save his own life – and the lives of others. 

It’s both silly and exciting, and it keeps you guessing to the end. Sam Neill is underused as a police chief, and Elizabeth McGovern is underused as MacCauley’s wife.

 Neeson looks really old. He was about 65 at the time, and seems increasingly unlikely as an action hero by this point. But he does have charisma and there’s something compelling about watching him yet again work his way out of a fix.