Bullet Train

This will be an evergreen. This loud-mouthed and extremely entertaining Guy Ritchie-style gangster comedy combines with inventive Wick-style action with OTT humor. This time Leitch shows his best, not just as a great action director, but also as a good storyteller who doesn’t forget the point and somebody capable of alternating genres very naturally. The cast is wonderful. Pitt is clearly enjoying himself immensely as Ladybug, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Tangerine does his best at hogging the spotlight. Bullet Train is a potential cult movie which has come under greater scrutiny and been played at movie theaters only thanks to Brad Pitt’s aura. Thanks for that, Brad! (08/04/2022)

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. (10/01/2022)

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. (08/22/2022)

Bullet Train is a good action flick without much ambition, where the disparate cast of peculiar characters have fun and Brad Pitt in particular pulls it off well with his "substitute". Just the reveal of both the main villain and his motivations was like something out of a movie, like, three quality levels down. It's a bit too cluttered and unfocused at times with the exuberant wannabe cool style and numerous flashbacks, but that was probably the intention, and what the hell, it's entertaining anyway. (08/08/2022)

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. (08/04/2022)