iTunes Exclusive Episode The Commuter

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Greetings Empire member and or members.
If you are hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met.
At least once in your life you have checked out the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, 7 Eastern 4 Pacific.
You are one stop shop for all things pop culture.
But it also means you check us out on your favorite podcast app.
It's what the kids are calling it these days.
Because it's time for iTunes exclusive 342.
Welcome.
My name is Rob I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast and man my commute is rough every day.
30 miles can take me an hour and a half.
It's just the way Dolls traffic is.
But I'm not alone for this episode because I rarely am.
Joining me across the desk as he tends to do from time to time is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who's commute changes all the time because he works at like three different offices depending on the day.
You may know him is fondongo but his mama name I'm Don Ford. I'm going to call him Don Ford. Welcome sir.
I can be by the zoo in South Dallas starting next week.
Oh really?
I've never been to Dallas.
I need to fix that.
Probably not a great time.
A year to do it because all the animals are trying to stay warm.
But whenever we do one of these it is to record something in this particular episode is no exception.
Director.
Yamaiko Lesara directs the Liam Neeson's for the fourth time in the commuter.
For when we start this whole thing.
Yes sir.
Got to think Julie nearby it's live box.
Zinini.
Zinini.
Zinini.
Zinini.
We're so thankful for them.
They let us see movies ahead of time so that we get the chance to talk about them with you so you can have the best spending of your entertainment dollar.
So here's what you need to know.
Liam Neeson plays a retired New York City cop by the name of Michael McCauley.
He retired about 10 years ago and in that time he's decided he's going to be a life insurance salesman.
Was that a good move?
You know it takes a commuter train to and from work of it because it's New York.
You kind of have to.
And so one day he gets laid off and commiserates with his old partner in a bar before heading on his commuter train home.
And when he gets on the train he sees some of the people that he sees every day.
Yeah but he's been having financial troubles because they're trying to put his kid into Syracuse.
Syracuse.
You know.
And a strange lady sits down with him and I played by the Vera Farmiga.
Farmiga.
And she claims that she is a some form of a sociologist and poses a question to him.
If somebody wanted you to do one small favor that didn't affect you for a hundred grand would you do it.
And what he finds out this favor actually is is he has to find somebody on the train that has allegedly stolen something from someone that they mean back.
And just put a tracker on them and they'll take it from there.
Right. And they'll take it from there.
What he thought was an innocent errand turns out to be much more than that.
This thing runs about an hour forty five.
And I'd like to say the following.
Uh oh.
Uh oh.
The current rotten tomatoes rating on this is fifty two percent.
That's generous.
I'm with you.
I think that might be a little aggressive.
I read a review that the highlight of the review said.
Sometimes you just want to watch the Liam Nees and punch people on the face.
And I get that.
I love the taken films.
Yeah.
But he only does that for like five minutes of this entire movie.
This film is bad.
Like bad.
It it's slow.
It takes forever.
Like I think the train itself moved faster than this movie did.
Well, yeah.
Train is move fast.
But I mean the thing is it's it's got a paper thin premise that really doesn't flesh itself out.
The reveal towards the end.
And let's just maybe I said this in my written review currently located at www dot the clubhousepodcast.com.
Which is our website.
Maybe I'm getting cynical in my old age.
No, not in this one.
But there were moments in the screening that we attended.
Yeah.
Where the audience like gasped at a reveal.
And I was like, how did you not see that coming a mile away?
There's just there's not even a moment in this film where I kind of went, I'll give you that.
Are you kept talking that suspension of disbelief with Halle Berry again?
This is not as bad as kid now.
I can say that.
This is not as bad as that.
I can see it from there.
But it's not that bad.
There is a certain level of suspension of disbelief in this.
Yeah.
But not to that extent.
The fight choreography what there is of it is terrible.
Liam Neeson.
He's Liam Neeson.
Yeah.
Like he's Liam Neeson in this film.
That's all you can say.
He's a Liam Neeson that you've come to know and love over the last decade.
He's kind of worked himself into an action movie Neesh.
And we're good with that.
Except for this.
Except, you know, Shindler's list.
He's kind of could do with it.
But that was before.
Like that was before he did it.
So what?
After taking he's kind of got into that thing.
And it's just like I wanted to like this movie going in.
But it just.
It falls flat for me.
Here's my thing.
If you go to my written review at www.copusbox.com.
That is still our website.
I talked about the director.
And does you saw his film previous to this one which I did not?
Which one?
The shallows.
And also non-stop.
But the shallows are right before this.
That's what I'm saying.
I rented that.
And it was done.
And I go after non-stop.
Then the shallows.
This started to worry me with this director.
And I don't get it.
I understand that people build that kind of rapport like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.
And Hankson.
Spielberg.
And Spielberg too.
And he works with him a lot.
Yeah.
And definitely run Howard.
Yeah.
I don't know why Neesh since he's in this guy because I thought non-stop was bad.
This is worse.
This is non-stop.
But just instead of a train, you got a plane.
It's that same kind of premise that somebody's going to die in this plane and all that stuff.
And you know, we...
It was the same premise as non-stop.
And that movie was okay at best.
I didn't see that one.
Don't.
Okay.
I will mark that off the list.
It's not Terence Malik, but it's...
Let me get to that.
In a world where there will be a new Terence Malik movie.
I checked it and there is one coming out this year.
Oh, I know, I know, I know.
But...
In a world where there will be a new Terence Malik film.
The suspension.
This will not be the worst film of the year.
The shadows had that same thing of that suspension of disbelief.
It was that bad.
And so then I go in and I'm kind of worried.
And then I start watching this.
It's like...
And there are some really great people in this film.
Patrick Wilson's in it for like 10 minutes.
Sam Neal from Jurassic Park.
He's in it for like 10 minutes.
The great Jonathan Banks, who's a guy that's like...
He's that guy in that thing.
I've seen him a million times.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Montgomery is in this.
Yeah.
But it goes nowhere.
And there's a cinematic device they use towards the end of this.
That I saw it coming.
And Dave Scott, for the show, was my plus one for this.
And he actually said he saw me going, please don't do this.
Please don't do this.
And then they did it.
And I was like...
Oh.
You for just a second.
Tell me.
I'll tell you after offer.
Okay.
And it's a cinematic device that...
It just...
It falls so flat.
Like, and Dave even said to me as the credits were rolling,
because if you know me, you know I said all the way through the credits all the time.
He looked at me and he said,
there's no way you can defend this film.
And I said no, you're right, because there's not.
I mean, this film is not good.
Because how often do I ask you?
Every time.
You ask me how...
What I thought every time.
Well, not every time.
A lot of times see you later next time.
But this one I specifically asked, because it kind of...
And I don't know that we can use my terminology on this show.
You give me that lucky.
You give me the eyebrow.
If you know the practical joke that you...
The people used to do to other people with a paper bag and flames...
On their front porch.
Oh yeah, that's right.
You give me that.
Yes.
Question.
Watch gauge.
20 minutes.
Not good.
For an hour and 40 minutes.
Well, I mean, there were moments that I was like...
Because at one point I looked at Dave and I go, dude.
We're at the halfway point.
And he was like, are you kidding me?
And I was like, uh-uh.
I mean, there was some good CGI by the end.
Yeah, but you got what?
Five minutes of that?
Yeah.
And it was in the last 15?
Yeah.
But I'm trying to get some positives out of you.
And it was another one of those moments, too, where it was just like, hey, I bet this is going to happen.
And then it did.
You know, it's just...
They tried to be tricky and throw some red herrings in there.
But it just got annoying after a while.
Well, maybe it's this person.
Well, maybe it's this person.
Oh, but I wanted to be this person.
And it just...
I got to the point where I was like, just get there.
Just show me...
I mean, I would have rather had the movie be about...
From the time that he found the person and found out the conspiracy forward.
Okay.
Then I think that would have been a better film.
Because it would have been about her protecting the person...
Him protecting the person.
But you only got 10 minutes of that.
But you could have made that into a film.
Yeah, but you only got 10 minutes of that in this film.
That's what I'm saying.
I would have been more enjoyable about that story than what they thought was going to be a mental chess game
and it turned into a mental checker's game.
Well, that's what this is.
It's non-stop part two.
Imagine...
See, I haven't seen non-stop, so I can't say that.
Well, imagine if you have Apollo 13 and Ron Howard comes out with a film called
The Sub that gets lost in...
It's U571.
Yeah, U571, okay.
Which is a good film.
Which I believe also.
But yeah, but it had the same actor.
It had the same premise.
Same everything where...
The thing's about to go he-ha and we have to have to save the boat.
Okay, I mean...
Like, there's just nothing redeeming about this film.
There just isn't.
I mean, you got Nissen who's a good actor, but that doesn't save it.
This is not going to be when they do his lifetime review of his greatest films.
This is not going to be a film.
No, this will not be in the-in the AFI solid.
Yes, exactly.
Is there anything else you want to talk about before we get to the final analysis on this thing?
No.
The way we do the final analysis on this show, we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down.
We're not going to give you things like letter grades, numbers, train cars, anything like that.
We're going to ask two questions.
Question number one is, would we see this film again?
If the answer's no, then we're done here.
If the answer's yes and it's going to be, how far are you willing to go to see it?
From the best of the best of the worst of the best, here's the spectrum.
We start with full price at a theater, then we go down to a twilight showing, then down to a matinee,
then to early morning on a weekend, then the second one at the dollar theater,
then actually leaving your house to get it from red box, streaming it on Netflix, and then cable.
Don, would you see the commuter again?
This is going to be kind of tricky.
Okay.
Only under one condition.
Okay.
It's on HBO, which is the lowest.
Okay, there are no.
And just be able to watch it knowing that the end to look for those clues from that's the only reason I would watch it.
See, you put this in your written review, currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Which is a guest on our website.
And when I read that, I was like, my initial reaction was like, you know what, that's a fair point.
That's the only reason I do.
And then five minutes later, I went, no.
I can't put myself.
I can't put myself through this again.
That would be the only reason I could possibly want to see it.
And the reason I went back on that opinion was the more I thought about it, they told you everything at the end.
True.
But it was just, it's one of those things that I was just like, it's not going to be like, oh my God, it's Steve here.
Please, please end, please end, please end.
Like it, and I was really worried when you get to the end that they were going to do something to try to franchise it.
But they do kind of tie it up.
Now what, we have the official to you.
Would you see this film again?
I'm going to go with the big.
So you're not going to buy this.
That's a hard pass.
You're not going to buy it on Blu-ray.
You might know when you and Christmas gifts.
Oh, you already got one coming.
It's already bought.
It's, it's ready.
I've already had one meltdown about that.
I'm not going to do another one.
Just listen to our last episode.
You'll think.
You won't Christmas.
Oh, Lord, I'm mercy on my soul.
It is the commuter.
You mean, you know it's not their fault.
We got to thank Julie.
Everybody, it's live box.
We do love live box.
We love live box.
This is CNN.
This is CNN.
This is CNN.
This is CNN.
It was consistently.
We love those guys so much.
And they know that, you know, not every day is going to be your birthday.
And that's why we love our vendors because they encourage us to give our honest opinions
when we review films.
And that's why we do this for the empire.
So you can spend your entertainment dollar in the best possible.
The fantastic pre-fort kind of felt the same.
Yeah.
Fair enough.
Let's do the plugs.
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I mentioned it like 114 times.
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I appreciate it.
Everything is yes to that Rob Irvin that has spelled E-R-V-I-N.
My normal co-host for this show is Chad Womack.
You can follow him at ChadNPG69.
And I'm at Fawn, Dongo, two A's at the beginning, three O's at the end on Twitter.
And you can email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Email Don for information on how we can come do a live show for you.
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Tell me to go pound sand.
I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Chad is Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com.
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Our normal show every Sunday night, seven Eastern Four Pacific is your one stop shop for all things pop culture.
Or just keep subscribing on your favorite podcast app and you get the cool stuff like this.
So until next time, for Don and the Empire, I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is closed.
You put Brittany Palmer in that train.
I might watch it again. I'm just saying.