Bullet Train
released 2022
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“Bullet Train” is an American, action, comedy film produced by Antoine Fuqua, David Leitch, Kelly McCormick, Brittany Morrissey, Brent O’Connor, Ryosuke Saegusa, Kat Samick and Yuma Terada. It was directed by David Leitch and the screenplay was written by Zak Olkewicz and it was based on the book by Kotaro Isaka named “Maria Beetle”. It stars Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Sandra Bullock, Bad Bunny, Logan Lerman, Zazie Beetz, Masi Oka, Karen Fukuhara, Kevin Akiyoshi Ching, Minchi Murakami, Kaori Taketani, Toshitaka Katsumi, Jim Garrety, Emelina Adams and many more. The cast is huge.

Bullet Train IMDb webpage

“Bullet Train” is the story of assassins, murder, revenge and bounty retrievals among a shady bunch of people on a train. Basically five assassins are on missions on the same train with paths that cross and fights that ensue. The main character is a man who code by the code name Ladybug, played by Brad Pitt. He is given a mission on a train heading to Kyoto. The mission sounds so simple and is to retrieve a briefcase on a high speed train ride to Kyoto. Two assassins with the code names Lemon and Tangerine, played by Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson respectively, are guarding the case. What happens and not to give away any spoilers is a hornet’s nest of chaos as among the assassins who all have their motives and missions.

I liked this movie because of the talented people who took part in it. Less talented actors would have ruined this film with its chaotic story that winds in all kinds of directions and takes us the viewer with it. It must have been a hard project to pull off. Brad Pitt is such a good Ladybug and it is hilarious how he got the job because the assassin who was first offered the job called in sick. It’s funny how everything is just up in the air. When you always have these kinds of films with well structured stories and clear plots this is definitely a different kind of assassin story. And such a different kind of story really demands the most talented actors to pull it off.

Another original element that worked was to have the entire story on a high speed train ride to a major city. And as it turns out, a train ride where all the seats were bought which explains the reason for all the empty seats. Otherwise there would have been far more civilian casualties. It would have been a blood bath, literarily.

I also liked the way this film avoided becoming a drama. You have a powerful, dangerous man whose son was killed, several assassins either guarding a briefcase or trying to get it. All these elements could have easily tilted the film in the direction of a gloomy drama. But catastrophe was avoided and a better film was made as a result. This story is definitely outside the realm of reality and is a better film because of it.

And if you get lost in the twists and turns of the story well then go see it again and catch all the things you missed. Movies like these have a lot of hidden things to find in its images.

So, go take a risk and see a film that is outside of your genre. And see it for no other reason than to tell people that you saw a good Assassin film that was a comedy… that just came out too.

John Ink2Quill

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