Summary
Hyperkinetic bad bunnies and white-knuckle moments might give you whiplash — although you’d have to be a Mean Old Diesel to not have a bit of fun with it.
Japan has long been used in Hollywood as both aesthetic inspiration and a bottomless bit of remake fodder. BULLET TRAIN, based on the 2010 novel by Isaka Kōtarō, draws a little bit from each well. While it follows the basic plotting of Isaka’s book, it turns the titular shinkansen into a theme park ride that makes up in speed what it sometimes lacks in substance.
Hired assassin Ladybug (Brad Pitt) reluctantly takes on one last job, despite his newfound eastern philosophy and desire to get out of the business. The gig is a simple one: nab a briefcase and get off at the next stop. However, Ladybug is cursed with bad luck and things go wrong almost immediately.
It doesn’t help that there is a den of assassins all actively working against each other on the train. There’s Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his ‘twin’ brother Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry), a pair of British assassins responsible for keeping the briefcase safe and returning the son of White Death (Michael Shannon), the enigmatic big boss. There’s also agent of chaos Prince (Joey King), another assassin posing as a schoolgirl. Throw in a random assortment of bonus baddies, from Zazie Beetz to Bad Bunny, and you got yourself a hyperkinetic action flick.
The original novel is a self-aware thriller that could happily sit on a spinner rack in the 80s as well as it did on bestseller shelves a decade ago. Overlapping characters and chaotic threads means that Isaka landed on a bit of an inconsistent tone, something that director David Leitch (John Wick, Hobbs and Shaw) and screenwriter Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street: 1978) carry over to this adaptation. Yet gone is any of the mystery of the source material: in Leitch’s hands, it’s an action caper where characters are literally dangling off the side of the train.
From the moment we see the overlapping neon lights of the Tokyo night turned up to 11, or character title cards splashed across screen with accompanying kanji, it’s clear that Isaka’s deep cuts from Japanese pop culture will only be given a surface level nod. In between Japanese covers of 70s disco songs like ‘Stayin’ Alive,’ there’s even a Japanese automated toilet gag — the kind we stopped making for good reason at least two decades ago. (Of course, given that it is central to the character of Lemon, and crucial to a third act twist, they retain a full a robust series of Thomas the Tank Engine references).
Like the vehicle itself, BULLET TRAIN looks best when it’s at full speed. In the capable hands of Pitt, the audience is led through the cabins of the train — conveniently empty for hitherto unrevealed reasons — via a raft of brutal, violent and often hilariously fun action set-pieces. Highlights include a fight in which a knife-wielding Bad Bunny goes toe-to-toe with Pitt’s briefcase. Later, similar scenes play out against Beetz and Tyalor-Johnson respectively.
Yet it’s a film that’s almost tripping over itself to showcase a particular style, wrapping the plotting inside a parade of cameos, cutaways and endless flashbacks. So. Many. Flashbacks. It gets so convoluted at one point, even a snake and a bottle of water get their own side-stories. As the film goes on, the surface sheen shows a few more cracks. The genuinely white-knuckle of a climax culminates in everyone landing in a city that looks artificial and computer generated.
Of course, in a film like this, the sheer weight of the cast manages to propel the film forward. When Hiroyuki Sanada arrives to add some gravitas to the film, professional crazy guy Michael Shannon matches him with a scenery devouring turn. We would have happily welcomed more screen time for both of them.
BULLET TRAIN may not break any new ground, but it is precisely the film that it sets out to be. Fast and frenetic, it takes all the content of Isaka’s book and runs them through the last decade’s worth of action movie boot camps. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect thing to watch on your next train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto?
2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: David Leitch | WRITERS: Zak Olkewicz (based on a story by Isaka Kōtarō) | CAST: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito A Martínez Ocasio, Sandra Bullock | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Releasing | RUNNING TIME: 126 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4 August 2022 (AUS), 5 August 2022 (US)
