Bullet Train

David Leitch’s  Bullet Train has divided critical opinion into two opposed camps: one regarding it as a hollow exercise in Tarantino-esque pop cultural hipness saved by a winning comedic turn from Brad Pitt; the other, a snappily inventive rollercoaster ride topped off by a winning comedic turn from Brad Pitt. You choose.

Pitt is indeed charming as a good-natured contract killer nick-named Ladybug by his handler who after some time out of action is easing his way back into his profession with a new “woke” perspective on himself, his job and his relations with other people. He has been assigned to retrieve a briefcase from a bullet train travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto. Sounds easy enough but he finds himself amidst a clutch of ruthless assassins who also want the briefcase but who, unlike Ladybug, have no interest in self-reflection.

Adapted from a Japanese novel by Kōtarō Isaka which I have not read but, as the film is pretty much non-stop repartee punctuated by a series of choreographed fights enhanced by kandy-koloured CGI, I found it hard to imagine that the script, credited to Zak Olkewicz is very close to it  Originally it was to be directed by Antoine Fuqua who wanted to make a film much less flippant and with all Japanese characters. We are probably lucky. Do we really need another dark action film from Fuqua? (E.g The Equalizer , 2014, and The Magnificent 7, (2016).

Bullet Train, with its eye-catching visuals and existentialist riffing and counter-riffing by a handful of cartoonish characters is, as intended, a lot of fun. Yes, there’s a debt to Tarantino, particularly Kill Bill (2003/4) and and his regular use of stylish graphics but the principal debt is to the laddish carryings-on provided here by two hitmen, Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson ) who are straight out of Guy Ritchie of Lock, Stock &Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), the latter which starred Pitt, vintage.

Leitch has had a long career as an A-list stuntman (he is the go-to stunt double for Pitt) and stunt coordinator. You can see his often uncredited work in top-end action franchises like the John Wick and Bourne films as well as the not-so-inspired 2017 Charlize Theron vehicle Atomic Blonde which he also directed). He does not disappoint here and the fight sequences which are set almost entirely on the bullet train (well, really in front of a green screen) will be a treat for those looking for some inventive hand-to-hand mayhem.

The other big tick is for the principal characters and the performances: Lemon and Tangerine who have been tasked with protecting the briefcase and escorting the loser son (Logan Lerman) of a Russian crime boss known as the White Death (a brilliant Michael Shannon) squabble like brothers (but are obviously not. Their paths cross with a couple of Yakuza (Hiroyuki Sanada is and Andrew Koji looking for revenge) and an apparently innocent (but, of course, far from it, school girl calling herself The Prince (Joey King). And there’s also a deadly poisonous snake on the loose.

If there is one let-down it is the rather heavily but perfunctorily CGI’d ending. There really needed to be a more inventive finish or if not that, less of what there is.

Still, what do people want? Bullet Train entertains in an absurdist, carnivalesque way and in our times of disappointment that is a good thing isn’t it?

 

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