Bullet Train Review

 

Bullet Train is an action-comedy movie based on the Japanese novel Maria Beetle (which was later published in English as Bullet Train). The film is produced by Columbia Pictures, Fuqua Films, and 87North Productions and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Bullet Train is written by Zak Olkewicz and directed by David Leitch.

The story is a trained assassin named Ladybug has been assigned to handle a briefcase on a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Kyoto with only a few stops in between. He soon discovers that onboard this train there are other highly skilled assassins with him and they also want the briefcase. Now Ladybug must fight his way through these skilled killers and try to make it off the train alive.

Initial Reaction

The reason why I wanted to see Bullet Train was because of David Leitch. The guy's been on a roll with the action films. Atomic Blonde is awesome, I really enjoyed Deadpool 2, and me and my dad had a blast with Hobbs & Shaw. So naturally it felt right to go and see this movie.

Cons

I've got nothing here. So let's move forward.

Middle Ground

The only gray area was the pacing. The beginning is kind of cluttered. I can kind of forgive that, because they needed to introduce the characters. And the ending is kinda slow. But despite that, what really made me almost forgive the movie for this was the middle section of the film. That middle half is just violent action and laughs, and it's perfect.

Pros

One pro for Bullet Train was David Leitch's very stylized directing. This guy has officially become one of my favorite directors when it comes to the action genre. His action scenes are awesome. He's got a great use of color, and I really dug what he does with neon lights. Like I said it's a very stylized film, and we owe that to David. Now I brought up the action, so let me tell you about it. Those scenes really made this flick earn it's R rating. They're seriously brutal. But not only that, but whether it's hand-to-hand combat, gun fights, or people with swords. The action is just a work of art. Whether it was humor or not, the action are one of the four greatest things about this. Which now brings me to the humor. This film's dark sense of humor had me laughing throughout the whole film. Now this isn't a dark comedic aspect, but we also got a pretty good running gag with one character's love for Thomas the Tank Engine of all things. Then we have the performances. Brad Pitt was excellent throughout, and I really loved of "unlucky" his character was. He nailed this more comedic side of him. I also loved Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry. Those two had chemistry, and their banter was really funny. Then we also have the performances from Andrew Koji and Hiroyuki Sanada. While their characters do have some humorous scenes, looking back, they actually have far more emotional/dramatic moments. Which makes sense considering their characters have a huge backstory with another character that comes full circle by the time the movie ends. I really liked a lot of their scenes, because even though their characters have to get VERY violent, it really added some sort of heart to the movie, even though we really just want to see some action.

Guys it's no secret, I had an absolute blast with this one. While the pacing is off in the beginning and end and it's really only the middle part that was well done, the film more than makes up with that slight weakness with a great director at the helm, some bloody action, greatly done dark humor, and a lot of really good acting.

My final rating is Good.

So if you're looking for one last summer film to watch before the season is over, go see Bullet Train. Anyhow, that's going to do it with me. Come back on Monday, Aug 8th for my review of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.