Bullet Train
2022
**½
Director: David Leitch
Cast: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, Sandra Bullock
A number of gangsters and assassins come together on board a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Some of them are seeking revenge while others are looking for a briefcase, which belongs to a famously ruthless crime boss. This action comedy feels like one of Guy Ritchie's cockney gangster flicks set onboard Snowpiercer. Zak Olkewicz adapted Kōtarō Isaka's novel to the screen, but he has replaced almost all of the Japanese characters with American, English, Russian or Mexican ones. In fact, the locals don't seem to feature even as passengers on the train, which runs empty through Japan. This is a light, brisk, and easily digestible movie, but I didn't find it funny or really care about any of its lowlife characters. David Leitch relies heavily on CGI effects, which look surprisingly poor.
