Bullet Train

Finding a good action movie these days is like spotting an oasis in the desert — rare and refreshing. Bullet Train hits the mark as an action-packed thrill ride. Brad Pitt faces a relentless onslaught of assassins, all while trapped on a speeding bullet train slicing through the Japanese landscape. The film blends action, humor, and Japanese culture under high pressure. This is what top-notch movie entertainment should look like. (17/04/2023)

Ladybug is an assassin in need of an easy job, so she boards a Japanese express train to find and steal a seemingly ordinary suitcase. Little does she know she's walking into a trap. There are more killers on the train, and soon blood is flowing. David Leitch delivers a very wild action comedy which, apart from the great action, offers an interesting and above all very attractively told story that alternates humour with drama and lots of crazy twists. Bullet Train is reminiscent of Guy Ritchie's gangster movies peppered with lots of shootings and fights. And although it loses a bit of pace towards the end, it's definitely worth getting on this train. (04/08/2022)

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)

Overblown, epileptic postmodernism, or when the director of the most imaginative American action films of the last decade takes on a script that he wants to make into something more than action. The mix of Ritchie, Tarantino and Japanese culture can be seen at every turn, but it works at about half speed. (01/10/2022)

The operating manual from Goddard’s hotel on the California-Nevada border, something from the universe around The Bride and O-Ren Ishii (but without the precise form), action from a pissed-off Lebanese Baba Yaga, and when it comes to dialogue, a lot of Deadpool. Unfortunately. It's something Guy Ritchie probably wrote at thirteen and shoved in a drawer. After about the twelfth funny mention of Thomas the Tank Engine, I wanted to pull the emergency brake or hit Zak Olkewicz over the head with a rail. Credit to the quartet of Sanada, Taylor-Johnson, Bojga, and Shannon for trying to act, even when there’s nothing to work with. As for Pitt, stuck in therapeutic clichés, I still can’t decide whether to hit him with the rail too or form a quintet. (18/10/2022)