Bullet Train Review: A Stylish & Blood-Soaked Parade Of Crowd-Pleasing Payoffs
Bullet Train is a laugh-a-minute action romp, packed with fun characters, electric fight choreography, and (on occasion) surprisingly earnest emotion. It's what happens when you cram a dozen of Hollywood's most charming performers into a tight space and arm them with the co-director of John Wick, a biting script, quirky roles, and an array of random objects that double as impromptu weapons. While the movie never debuts a particularly profound message, despite spending significant time ruminating on the nature of luck, fate, and self-determinism, Bullet Train delivers where it counts most — as a stylish and blood-soaked parade of clever sets-up and crowd-pleasing payoffs.
At the center of Bullet Train, Ladybug (Brad Pitt) returns to work as a snatch-and-grab criminal-for-hire — after a lengthy sabbatical of soul-searching and anger management interventions. Filling in for a coworker, who was struck sick with a stomach bug, Ladybug is charged with boarding one of Japan's high-speed transport trains to steal a briefcase. Simple enough - until Ladybug discovers he's not the only contracted asset onboard. As the train barrels toward Kyoto, Ladybug stumbles into one altercation after another in an effort to escape and/or learn who picked him, and a cavalcade of underworld lowlifes, to board the same train — and for what purpose.
RELATED: Bullet Train's Original Plan Would've Been Much Less Exciting
Bullet Train was directed by David Leitch and is based on the 2010 novel Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka. Known for helming several of the last decade's most outrageous action films, including John Wick, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, as well as Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Leitch is at home with Bullet Train's principle
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