You made it. The spring semester is done. Maybe you are taking some time off or maybe you are keeping the train rolling like me and doing a summer semester. Either way, you’ve got lots of great movie choices at the theater. But what if you are stuck at home? What if it is Tuesday afternoon and you don’t have the cash to hit up the AMC Stonebriar? Allow me to be of service, folks.
We have two movies this month that will cover you if you have a couple of hours to kill and not much cash. Based on box office receipts, you may have seen one of these, but it is fairly unlikely you have seen both. And what’s interesting is, in some ways, these are similar stories. They both deal with people who, perhaps like you, need a little extra money. However, in these stories, the pursuit of money leads to a testing of their moral compasses.
The Commuter (2018) [PG-13]
This is a strange way to start a movie review but I have to tell you, I was excited to see this movie before it even came out because I really like the poster. It is visually interesting and does a great job of tying in to the story with its subway map style lettering. It also, sadly, was the most memorable thing about the movie for me.
That’s not to say The Commuter is bad. Liam Neeson does his usual, admirable work. There’s a good bit of tension and a couple of fun fight scenes. But there is just something missing here that makes The Commuter a little less than it could have been.
Neeson plays former cop turned insurance salesman Michael MacCauley who is in a little money trouble after getting fired the day he finds out his son has gotten into Syracuse University. MacCauley hops on the same train he has taken to and from work for 10 years and is approached by a woman he has never seen before. She offers him money if he will find a single passenger on the train before it reaches a specific station.
That’s not a bad set up. The acting is good. The pacing is good. I think the thing that got me was, I didn’t care about a single character in the movie. It feels like director Jaume Collet-Serra, much like Neeson’s MacCauley, did not have enough time to get his job done. The train is filled with people who feel like they were put there to check off boxes on a list. Jerky Wall Street trader? Check. Angsty teenage girl in a fight with her boyfriend who Neeson can give fatherly advice to? Check. That is where this train sadly goes off the tracks.
Neeson is over 65, folks. I’m not sure how many more action roles we can reasonable hope to see him in. This isn’t Taken, but it is still relatively fun even if it is a little forgettable. It won’t light your world on fire, but go ahead and give The Commuter a shot. I mean, it is already too hot to go outside anyway unless you are headed to the pool or the lake or something. Spend a little time inside with your air conditioning watching Neeson be intense.
6 paws out of 10
Molly’s Game (2017) [R]
Molly’s Game is the directorial debut of writer Aaron Sorkin. The story is based on the memoir of Molly Bloom. While attempting to qualify for the 2002 winter Olympics, Ms. Bloom had a terrible accident during one of her runs. After the accident, Molly decided to take some time before attending law school and moved to Los Angeles. While working as a cocktail waitress, she caught the eye of a Hollywood producer who hired her as his assistant. He then asked her to help him organize a poker game for himself and some of his buddies who turned out to be famous actors and business moguls. After a fallout with her boss, Molly decided to run her own poker game and quickly became a huge success even as the stakes for her rose higher and higher.
Of course, things are never that easy, right? Eventually, everyone wanted a piece of what Ms. Bloom had built and things began to fall apart. That is where the movie begins. Molly, played by Jessica Chastain, is sitting in her apartment when she receives a phone call from the FBI telling her that they are outside the door about to raid her place. The movie then tells her story in the context of setting up for her legal fight with the FBI.
As you would expect with an Aaron Sorkin script, it is full of fast-paced, tightly-scripted dialogues between characters, but it isn’t simply a word-fest. There is plenty of action, drama and suspense. This is easily in the top five of my favorite scripts from last year. And for a first-time director, Sorkin does an admirable job of keeping the viewer entertained while throwing a lot of information at them.
Jessica Chastain is her usual, reliable self as Bloom and Idris Elba does an equally fantastic job with his role as Bloom’s lawyer, even if his American accent slips a little from time to time. The film gets a little moralistic here and there but I really didn’t think about it until I started writing this review.
This wasn’t the best picture of last year but it is certainly one of the better movies I have seen from 2017. Bloom’s story is organically interesting already, but Sorkin et al do a great job bring her memoir to life on the screen. Trust your old pal Collin here. This one is a winner.
7.5 paws out of 10
As always, if you have a movie you think I should check out or you want to talk further about one of these reviews, drop me a line at collincougar@collin.edu or leave me a message on Facebook.