Bullet Train (2022)

**By: Louisa Moore / www.ScreenZealots.com**
It takes a lot for a film to surprise me, and I love it when one does. “Bullet Train” is chocked full of so much stylish, bloody, violent fun that it reminds me why I love movies in the first place. Director David Leitch brings a confident, creative vision to his Guy Ritchie-meets-Gareth Evans-meets Matthew Vaughn-meets Quentin Tarantino style that’s rambunctious, frenzied, and in your face. While some will detest this sort of mayhem, many fans of the genre will join me in enthusiastically screaming, “shoot this into my veins!“
Unlucky assassin Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is tired of the brutality. He’s back for another job, but has pledged to work peacefully and without a weapon. Ladybug has been tasked with retrieving a silver briefcase from a high-speed train in Japan, which seems simple enough. Fate steps in, naturally, putting a damper on his well-intentioned plans. The train is filled with the most lethal adversaries (and one deadly snake) from around the globe, and they all want the same thing. Chaos ensues in what may be a literal last man standing scenario.
Based on the book by Kôtarô Isaka, the film takes place almost solely onboard a train, but it never feels claustrophobic. Despite tight close-ups and many dialogue-heavy scenes with questionable writing, the cast (including Joey King, Andrew Koji, Michael Shannon, and Hiroyuki Sanada) keeps things engaging. Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a pair of professional criminals are particularly entertaining, and Pitt exercises his movie star chops with great aplomb. The storytelling is terrific (one of my favorite bits is the tale of Wolf, which is wonderfully executed), even if everything doesn’t quite come together as well as it could.
This is also a gorgeous looking film. Jonathan Sela‘s colorful cinematography is alluring, with a richness that elevates every scene. Leitch is skilled at directing action scenes that are thrilling, and fights that are well choreographed. Even the CGI is exciting.
The film reaches just the right balance between action, violence, and humor, and it’s one that I cannot wait to revisit. From the killer soundtrack to the rapid-fire visual storytelling, there’s a lot going on at all times. If you’re not paying attention, you’re guaranteed to miss something. I feel this one could benefit from subsequent viewings. Plus, it’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to rush back to re-watch a movie the second it ended.
“Bullet Train” is a film that will prove to be an acquired taste. It’s the type of movie that you’ll either love or loathe, with very few landing somewhere in between. It’s illogical, confrontational, and it’s sometimes evident that the film trying too hard, but I found it easy to overlook the flaws because it’s just so damn entertaining. Talk about a nonstop thrill ride.

“Snatch” On A Train
It should not be a coincidence that Bullet Train and the movie Snatch both feature Brad Pitt. This kind of offbeat storytelling appeals to Pitt. I get a flashback of Pitt in “Twelve Monkeys”, embracing the lunacy. One might also see Tarantino in the storytelling as well. Most of the critics get it right though, the execution is a little flat. What works however are the montages of the other assassins and their backstory. The entire production, and I mean every single shot, feels like it is from a graphic novel. Careful attention to glowing backlights from buttons or tv screens or fancy lighting in general makes this bristle with Japanese cityscape. In fact every shot of the Bullet train that goes from Tokyo to Kyoto (which I have taken myself) shows it as (CGI) cityscape. So the slick feel is done by using cutaway shots of the bullet train never leaving the city (believe it our not in reality the train does go through some countryside) as a punch point as some stunning event happens with the plot.
So this is a thriller, and it tries to throw in some whodunnit of who killed who. It also adds tension as our protagonist does not know he is in possible danger while the audience has been clued in. I like the attempt to go against stereotypes with our main characters. That includes the rich adolescent daughter. Dressed innocently, she actually has a cold heart. As for Brad Pitt, he is a little too “this all for fun”, and becomes a little too relaxed in a movie star going through the motions kind of way. Which I guarantee is not what Pitt is actually doing. I think he takes any role seriously and is acting out his character to the fullest. It's just that his character feels a but thin here.
I felt the movie started off on the wrong foot with the banter between Pitt and his handler. As an editor, I would trusted the audience to let Pitt enter the story without the on the nose exposition. I also think that a slightly more serious tone would not make the gratuitous violence feel so comic book. Therein lies the reason this movie exists in the first place, John Wick. Audiences are expecting creative action sequences, and there are many set pieces that take advantage of being stuck on a train. Two other main characters are a lower class set of English assassins, straight from “Snatch”. That movie depicted a good number of lower class criminals in England speaking goofy dialogue and taking part in some Three Stooges style of mishaps. The duo here spend the entire movie bickering, finding their personal problems more interesting than our caper. I felt their schtick was pushed (their names are Tangerine and Lemon), and the expected humour didn't really connect with the audience. Which is too bad, because they are essentially the main characters, probably getting more screen time than Pitt.
The Japan setting worked very well, although I expect that none of the film was actually shot in Japan, except maybe one of the early establishing shots. The stylish production design necessitated lots of embellishments to the slick backgrounds that the real world can't match. That's OK, I appreciated how cool the movie looked as this convoluted world of Japanese but not Japanese criminals go after the Macguffin. That is, although this a Japanese crime movie, many of the key characters are not Japanese.
As for the action scenes, they are serviceable with a mix of weapons and hand to hand fighting. However there is an annoying habit of victims dying and not dying. Those type of one twist too many issues prevent this movie from being a James Bond kind of generic thriller that delivers the goods. I just recently saw “Gray Man”, and took note that although the story had nothing original to say, it stayed to it's core action tenets and didn't try to confuse the audience with any real twists. So even though both of these films are losers for the critics, there still is a level of roller coaster ride mentality that makes a well made action yarn enjoyable. So I enjoyed this more than those recent lazy Fast and Furious films, but found the story too convoluted, even more than “Gray Man”. 6 out of 10.