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It was an interesting idea to tell this story with the real people who lived it. However, it was more an idea for a 30 minute TV special than a feature length movie. The movie is about them stopping a terrorist attack on a train, but that only takes 5 minutes so Clint Eastwood fills it out with a lot of very uninteresting backstory on the characters. They are ordinary people with ordinary lives, and that makes for very dull movies. I don't care about when they were in middle school or if they were clubbing in Amsterdam two days before the attack.

As for casting the actual people to play themselves, it serves as a reminder of how difficult acting is. No offense to Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos, but they can't act. Almost every line sounds awkward and unrealistic because they aren't sure how to behave in front of the camera. The child actors are just as bad, which is typical of most child actors. The only people who feel natural in their roles are Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer, the professional actors.

There were also several anachronisms that are minor complaints, but are mistakes that shouldn't be made. First, in the scenes from their childhood, set in 2005, there is a poster for Letters from Iwo Jima on Spencer's wall. The movie didn't come out until the end of 2006, given that it is Clint Eastwood's movie, he should get that right. Also, when Spencer decides to get in shape for the military (sometime in 2011 or 2012) they are watching a Cal football game from 2006. I wouldn't have noticed, except they mention Marshawn Lynch by name and have a shot of the game itself and the announcers can be easily heard during the scene. They had to go and find video of that game to show, so why didn't they pick a game that was from the year the scene was taking place.

Den of Thieves is essentially a remake of Michael Mann's Heat, only Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are replaced by Gerard Butler and Pablo Schreiber. Round out the cast with a rapper and the son of a rapper and you have a tailor made B-movie that shouldn't take itself too seriously. At first, that is pretty much what you get, but then it slowly becomes clear that Den of Thieves is blissfully unaware that it is bad. There are several subplots that belong in a more serious movie that bloat the runtime up to a lengthy 2 hours and 20 minutes when it should be a full hour shorter. The script tries to get way too clever for its own good adding twists and turns that feel more ridiculous than enjoyable. First time director Christian Gudegast clearly demonstrates that his talents unfortunately lie elsewhere as he incorporates several shots that would feel heavy handed in even the most serious dramas.

On a positive note, the action sequences are fairly exciting even if it took an odd route to get there. The heist itself was the highlight of the movie and despite a few plot holes it played on screen about as well as any movie heists this side of the Ocean's trilogy. They were also able to recapture Heat's ambiguity as to who is the protagonist, though it was less through making both sides appealing and more through just wedging in that they all love their families.

If you are looking for a fun heist movie, then check out Netflix, because there are a lot of better ones out there than this.

SPOILER: The Commuter delivers what it promises, a Liam Neeson action movie that relies on tension and a little bit of mystery to fill out its runtime. It begins very well with minimal exposition for the set up, using images or short conversations to explain what most movies would carve out five minutes of dialogue for. From there it evolves more like a mystery with an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation searching for someone on the train. As it enters the third act, it goes full action movie with explosions, fight scenes, and massive stakes. While this was to be expected from Jaume Collet-Serra, it undermines what had been a more contained thriller up to that point.

It is shot well enough and uses an ensemble cast well, but no one besides Liam Neeson really has too much to do. Vera Farmiga and Jonathan Banks are both talented actors that are really underutilized. All in all, The Commuter is another Liam Neeson action movie that could be best described as "Nonstop on a train."