Bullet Train

David Leitch and an incredibly awesome ride. I was really looking forward to Bullet Train from the first announcement, it's right down my alley, but my expectations were even exceeded. Leitch hasn't just made a straightforward action ride this time, he's taken something from Tarantino and something from Ritchie, and together he mixed a genre-complex cocktail, one that reminds me of my favorite Kingsman, which the film comes damn close to in its stylishness, over-the-top intelligence, and fierce nature. Brad Pitt is a great choice, and as he's winding down his career, he's picked a terrific film for one of his final projects. He is a hired assassin suffering from bad luck, a very interesting element itself. He is tasked with stealing a briefcase on the world's fastest train, the Shinkanzen – the modern setting of the train itself is also a great asset to the film. But there are other dangerous people on the train, each with different but similar intentions, and their clash is royal fun. Bullet Train has incredible style, insane pacing, well-dosed black humor, a bunch of crazy but original and clever ideas, great actors – every single character here has plenty of room to show off and most of the time has a very impressive flashback background, which I appreciate, and the viewer can form a relationship, both the good and the bad, with each character. The soundtrack is also good, there are a couple of unexpected cameos that are meta. Plot-wise, the film is unexpectedly mature, there are a bunch of solid twists and turns, each better than the previous one; the whole thing is incredibly cleverly interwoven and everything fits together nicely in the end – I have a soft spot for this kind of stuff and on top of that there's great fun R-rated action – the finale is pretty brutal (a train derailment scene that even Emmerich would approve). The last time I had this much fun was with Suicide Squad and Kingsman, all three films have R-rating, proper fun and tremendous style in common. I look forward to going again. Ps: I was really blown away by the water bottle scene – which has its own story here!!! Story 5/5. Action 5/5, Humor 4/5, Violence 4/5, Fun 5/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 5/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 4/5, Actors 5/5. 10/10. (07/08/2022)

This will be an evergreen. This loud-mouthed and extremely entertaining Guy Ritchie-style gangster comedy combines with inventive Wick-style action with OTT humor. This time Leitch shows his best, not just as a great action director, but also as a good storyteller who doesn’t forget the point and somebody capable of alternating genres very naturally. The cast is wonderful. Pitt is clearly enjoying himself immensely as Ladybug, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Tangerine does his best at hogging the spotlight. Bullet Train is a potential cult movie which has come under greater scrutiny and been played at movie theaters only thanks to Brad Pitt’s aura. Thanks for that, Brad! (04/08/2022)

Overly verbose, long and overly complicated mess... Unbelievable even in the context of wacky comedies. It's nothing like a Guy Ritchie movie, though it wants to be, and it's a shame, mostly because of the impeccable cast, the good directorial ideas, and some really unexpected and funny moments that didn't go to waste or get lost in all that mess. (20/09/2022)

Rather than Tarantino, this is closer to a shabby Ritchie, unfortunately after a slight lobotomy. Too bad about the dumb explanation at the end, too bad about the repetitive dialogues between Tangerine and Lemon, which often weren't actually very funny, even though they tried to be very cool. Ritchie wouldn’t make those mistakes. But, given the director's name, you shouldn’t expect a new John Wick, the full-contact fights don't have that much juice and idea, and I could certainly do without the overdone conclusion with the shinkansen, where I just expected Tom and Jerry to come out of somewhere and start hitting each other with frying pans. But otherwise, the story was brilliantly conceived, it had a surprising twist, it all made sense by the end, and some of the scenes were so incredibly absurd and absurdly plotted that they were actually fine. Interesting postmodernism, which I wouldn't expect from a former stuntman. Of the actors, Aaron Taylor-Johnson shone the brightest, he's walking masculinity with acting talent. (22/08/2022)

Bullet Train is a good action flick without much ambition, where the disparate cast of peculiar characters have fun and Brad Pitt in particular pulls it off well with his "substitute". Just the reveal of both the main villain and his motivations was like something out of a movie, like, three quality levels down. It's a bit too cluttered and unfocused at times with the exuberant wannabe cool style and numerous flashbacks, but that was probably the intention, and what the hell, it's entertaining anyway. (08/08/2022)