BULLET TRAIN

I went into Bullet Train with relatively low expectations. A bog standard summer blockbuster, which the studio didn’t particularly know what to do with, and a money grab from Brad Pitt who could just phone it in and coast through.

What I got however, was a rip roaring, stylish, action film, with laugh out loud jokes, inventive fight scenes and some great performances.

Its plot is convoluted, but ultimately holds together, which is a feat in itself considering how many moving parts it encompasses, with a number of separate groups all working their own jobs on said Bullet Train, and, inevitably colliding into each other.

Leading the cast is Brad Pitt as Ladybug, an experienced bagman, hung up on his own levels of bad luck, and whose apparently simple job is to enter the train, locate a briefcase, and leave the train with it at the next stop.

Next up we have Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry as Tangerine and Lemon respectively. The former an unpredictable and irritable assassin and the latter is calmer, Thomas the Tank Engine obsessed brother. These two have been tasked with rescuing and safely escorting the son of Michael Shannons White Death, leader of the largest, and most feared criminal organisation in Japan.

We then have Joey King as The Prince, whose motivations don’t become clear until towards the end of the movie, but who, early on kidnaps Andrew Koji’s Yuichi to aid her. This, a volatile relationship which feels as though it could explode at any moment.

The cast are, to a man, excellent. The Guy Ritchie-esque dialogue is as fast paced as the action, but each more than hold their own, and the supporting cast, including a brief appearance from Zazie Beetz, all add something to proceedings.

Even the ever increasing number of cameos never feel out of place. I won’t spoil these here, but even if it does at times feel like the film makers are winking at the audience directly down the camera, Bullet Train is self referential and self aware enough to make it work. It knows what it is, and embraces every single aspect of it.

At its heart Bullet Train is a farce, and like the best farces it is over the top and ridiculous, but manages to be true to its own internal logic to such a degree that the excessiveness works.

There is a lot going on, and it is rarely clear how anything links together. A seemingly minor decision by one character, can have huge ramifications for another half an hour later. Our cast of players get into each others way, interrupt each other carefully set out plans, and Leitch manages to eke out every bit of comedy possible for this.

It is, in a way, a violent, gory version of Frasiers Ski Lodge episode, which is itself, a high watermark for the farce genre.

Each decision made by each character makes sense for them in that moment, at least in the universe of the film, and each fit together like a jigsaw, albeit a jigsaw with no picture on the box. The image of what you are building not immediately apparent, but as we approach the end things begin to become clearer.

In what has been, in my opinion, quite a poor year for cinema so far, Bullet Train is a welcome breath of fresh air, blowing away the cobwebs with fast paced action, smart plotting, and clever dialogue.

It may not be high brow, is certainly a quarter of an hour too long, and might not be to everyones taste, but if you’re looking for a fun, bloody, action comedy, Bullet Train will tick all of your boxes.

And any film that has the temerity to set a gory fight scene to Engelbert Humperdinck is worth two hours of anyones time.