Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Bullet Train

 

Bullet Train

The film is disheveled. It is one long stream of fights, stabbing, gun shots and an occasional snake bite. The story in convoluted and a Wikipedia cheat sheet is advised. Characters get killed or you think they get killed. There are divergent story lines of different periods. Revenge is an undercurrent of the film. Flashbacks strain to give the movie coherence. Mayhem is the main ingredient.

The film is packed with stars, some long lived other not. Brad Pitt is Ladybug an unlucky mercenary. Brad Pitt is his usual cool self but a bit neurotic. His character wants be easy going but he is also constantly attacked and has to brutally kill a few people. The supporting cast are innumerable. There are feature actors and actors with brief appearances. Bad Bunny (for the Medicare crowd that is his stage name) a Mexican assassin with a stained white suit. Lemon and Tangerine are brothers from a different mother (one black the other white) who are Brad Pitt’s main nemesis. There are other nemesis. One is a faux schoolgirl, the Prince, played by Joey King who has more longevity than the other killers and lasts to the end. Then there are the quickies. Ryan Reynolds shows up for five seconds. Channon Tatum is a train passenger with three short scenes. Sandra Bullock is Pitt’s handler and before her brief appearance was the voice on his phone. Michael Shannon is White Death and hard to recognize wearing a mop of hair.

Some of the scenes are incredulous . You can not hang on to the outside of a speeding bullet train unless you have a big S on your chest. With train cars packed like sardines in Japan it is difficult to believe they found two empty cars. There was some levity in the movie but not enough to validate the advertisements. The script tried to mesh various story lines but it tied itself in a knot.

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