Movie Reviews

SUMMARY REVIEWS: The Commuter..... half-decent action flick starring Liam Neeson as a regular guy dragged into a conspiracy involving a mysterious passenger on a train. The story has shades of Hitchcock, most noticeably Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest. It has some good action sequences and Neeson is good as usual. It's predictable and characters are underdeveloped. It falters when it tries to make a serious statement about the failing economy pushing ordinary people to resort to desperate measures. It's a good not great matinee flick.

Proud Mary...... if Pam Grier starred in the 1980 John Cassavetes film Gloria, it would probably be something like this. Taraji P. Henson, who's great in it, stars as a hitwoman who takes a young boy into her care and ends up having to protect him from the people she works for. I wish it had more of a retro 70s feel to it. Very often, it's too slick for its own good. Also, it has a few pacing issues. Danny Glover is very good as the bad guy. The action scenes are well-choreographed. The thinly drawn characters make it hard to get emotionally invested. Despite its flaws, I liked it. -George Rother, FB.