Going to the movies should give you all the feels you’re looking for. When seated in a darkened theater, it should be exciting, and a source of entertainment you can’t get anywhere else. These days, with new content at your fingertips any day of the week, a narrative really needs to move the mercury to grab your attention. Well, look no further than David Leitch’s Bullet Train.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Kōtarō Isaka tells a story of a group of assassins who find themselves on the titular locomotive. Little by little (and dead body after dead body) we find out the who, the why and the WTF. The movie, having heavy doses of action and hand-to-hand combat, is a surefire knockout, and the action is top-notch. It’s thoroughly exciting to see because everything is done with a very visible comedic underbelly. Leitch’s film is a competent blend of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, but with an added dose of Jackie Chan-style martial arts comedy inventiveness.
Brad Pitt leads a very small and eclectic cast and carries so much of the story. Actually, it’s amazing to think of how far he’s come in his career. This is miles from Legends of the Fall and Interview with the Vampire where his portrayals were equally wooden. But soon after, his career took a true turn between 1999 and 2009 when a series of films turned him into a legitimate star, namely Ritchie‘s crime classic Snatch (where he played the sweet-talking, tattoo-sporting pikey), Ocean’s Eleven, David Fincher’s Fight Club (and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as well as Inglourious Basterds.
Anyway he plays, to a large degree, the audience surrogate trying to figure out what’s going on, all the while the other assassins are laser focused and on their job. Yet somehow with the clock ticking they still take time to swap some witty dialogue. Imagine a Bond movie on mescaline. Other films have attempted this Tarantino/Richie style, and many just don’t get the tone right: something like Smokin’ Aces had potential but just didn’t fit all the pieces together. The humor is the toughest to nail, but it goes deeper than that.
There’s actually something kind of charming about the relationship between these characters, funny or not, especially Lemon & Tangerine (Brian Tyree Henry & Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Those two are crowd-pleasers and come across like watching ‘A Bit of Fry and Laurie’ or, better, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. But Pitt – playing an assassin looking to find inner peace and, at the same time, trying to come to grips with whether or not his bad luck is causing turmoil has surprising depth even though most of the story is surface level tropes and archetypes.
To go along with the madcap fun, there’s an incredible amount of source music that really ramps up the tension. Some of the standouts are Engelbert Humperdinck’s “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”, a wonderful Japanese version of “Holding Out for a Hero” and others in including “Stayin Alive” which was produced by the film’s talented composer, Dominic Lewis.
Little by little, as the story unfolds, it’s a lot of fun to see the connections to the characters and their placement on the train – much like any Agatha Christie movie – is anything but random. And the other great thing about this film is that it never tries to be something like The Raid. but is actually more in line with Zombieland. Still, the team gets action right, and in a very comprehensible way. It’s also the best train-based actioner in a long time (be it an A Train, Shinkansen, or Tank engine)…take that The Wolverine and The Matrix Resurrections.
G-S-T RULING:
It might be going out on a limb here saying this is superb. It’s not, but this rivals this year’s Top Gun: Maverick for the entertainment factor. And so what if it’s overlong? It’s exactly what it advertised. All of that (including some really well-placed cameos) create a roller coaster of hysterical and epic action proportions. Bullet Train is a perfect cheesy and delightful popcorn movie for this or any Summer.
