Bullet Train
Year: 2022
Rating: R
Length: 127 minutes / 2.11 hours
There’s something inherently exciting about being trapped on a train with a murderer. It’s why Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express has done so well for almost 100 years. In this more modern take, Bullet Train (2022) fills this titular high-speed form of transportation with a half-dozen unique killers with ties to a mob boss known as “The White Death.” Ridiculous at times, Bullet Train is fun and full of action while also being the repeated poster child for the literary concept of Chekhov’s Gun.
With Brad Pitt in the leading role as the “unlucky” assassin with the codename “Ladybug,” a lot of the comedy comes from the coincidental alignment of particular circumstances that pull Ladybug further into the conflict. There are almost Mr. Bean levels of close calls for Pitt’s character as he finds himself tangled up in the parallel plans of his fellow assassins. Of course, the number of mistaken identity tropes in this film almost qualifies it to be Hitchcockian in nature. Because what good story on a train doesn’t have at least a little mystery involved?
Where Bullet Train excels is in the way it shows the audience things that become important later in the story. Sure, there are a lot of little things that might not seem important, but it wasted none of these moments. This may also be with the way this movie was filmed, with the hand-to-hand combat being John Wick (2014)-like and the big action set pieces focusing on those Chekhov’s Guns just before it used them for their ultimate purpose. Granted, with so many unique characters, it was a little difficult to keep everything straight at times. But when things lined up, the result was often satisfying.
Fun action with dozens of telegraphed moments, I give Bullet Train 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
