Bullet Train

Bullet Train

Unlucky assassin Ladybug is determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs gone off the rails. Fate, however, may have other plans, as Ladybug's latest mission puts him on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe—all with connected, yet conflicting, objectives—on the world's fastest train.

  • Released: 2022-06-22
  • Runtime: 126 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Mystery, Thrillers
  • Stars: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Bad Bunny, Zazie Beetz, Sandra Bullock, Logan Lerman, Karen Fukuhara, Masi Oka, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, Miraj Grbić, Yoshi Sudarso, Julio Gabay, Jason Matthew Smith, Emelina Adams, Johanna Watts, Nancy Daly
  • Director: David Leitch
 Comments
  • elsiebobek - 2 July 2024
    Lengthy poor man's Matthew Vaughn/Guy Ritchie mix, inuding mental health shaming of women
    "Bullet Train" starts out similar to "Argylle," not just because of the train scene but because of the obvious tongue-in-cheek approach and humor.

    I'm always glad when the rare occasion is being given for Pitt to show his range instead of playing the same old tedious version of the public's perception of who he is. He was terrifying in Kalifornia, hilarious in Snatch, and his character here adds accident-prone, oblivious quirkster to the list.

    There are excellent performances all around and many fun cameos: Masi Oka from Heroes, Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock (PLEASE stop forcing women to use botox and lifts until their faces resemble Michel Myers!) and Channing Tatum, for instance. Although they only had small roles, my favorite were Hiroyuki Sanada and Michael Shannen. In my view, Joey King was outperformed by miles and was a bad fit, although I enjoyed her in other roles (The Lie, The Act, Wish Upon).

    I could have done without the obligatory train derails destroying half a city à la Speed scene, and it felt like a forced and unnecessary crescendo.

    And now comes the one thing that absolutely ruined the movie for me: the mental health shaming. Of COURSE, a young woman (King) has to be armchair diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder by Pitt, a fact that leads to her death and contained a very uncomfortable and outdated message. The men all are just fine killing each other, weaving odd schemes, beating each other into bloody pulps. But the one female doing the same just has to have a serious cluster B personality disorder that includes psychosis.

    The soundtrack and score were great at least. Japanese versions of "Waiting for a hero" and "Stayin' alive" perfected it and vastly enhanced the action scenes.

    The overall feel this movie had was a poor man's Matthew Vaughn meets Guy Ritchie. The Asian element was really just backdrop, plotwise.

    The movie could (and should) easily have been AT LEAST half an hour shorter. You could really feel the lengths and I kept checking the time a bit too often. Extensive dialoging and monologing really messed up the pace for me.
  • mcgowanm-102-225605 - 2 June 2024
    Decent movie - lots of laughs and some great action scenes
    The blurb for this movie provides an interesting-sounding plot with multiple assassins on a train, travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto, from which professonal thief Brad Pitt must steal a briefcase.

    The characters are a mixed bag of eccentrics, all somehow connected to the Japanese mafia and all with their various foibles and insecurities which brings many of them to life in an engaging way.

    Overall, the storyline just doesn't really work but even so the movie is fun and definitely worth a look if you want a fun couple of hours just vegging out with a group of mates or even on your own, so I'd definitely recommend it.