Bullet Train

A blast... The film works because Brad Pitt is a really funny and engaging guy.

It’s not fatal that Leitch and company have no evident goal other than to amuse audiences with two hours of spiffy nonsense, but there’s a whiff of try-hard desperation behind the film’s bravado.

It’s a shame that the filmmakers didn’t trust the spatial and dramatic tensions provided by the train journey, and opted instead for seen-it-all-before spectacle.

While Bullet Train’s basic premise is a recipe for fun and does succeed in entertaining with pleasing action choreography, it’s never as clever as it thinks it is nor as exhilarating as it ought to be.

The largely entertaining action flick Bullet Train rolls along on the power of Brad Pitt’s megawatt charisma – and sometimes on that alone.

Bullet Train certainly serves the Brad Pitt brand, but it’s too weak to deliver him to a new destination.

Bullet Train’s driving engine quickly loses steam. Its runtime is never justified, especially when it chooses to prioritize odd tangents over cogent and streamlined storytelling. 



Bullet Train is bombastic and silly, but it rarely pretends to be anything else. Is it a great movie? No, not by any stretch. Is it a fun movie? Yes, but like the rails, the bullet train goes off, mileage really may vary.

And let's just say with all these stunts, gore and adrenaline-inducing sequences, it is hard to be bored.

As it poorly emulates Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, the action picture ends up as a cartoonish mess and exhausting watch more than an entertaining popcorn flick.