BULLET TRAIN (15)
HHIII
THRILL RIDE:
LAUNCHED in 1964, the Shinkansen or bullet train has become an enduring symbol of sleek, efficient Japanese design, accelerating to operating speeds approaching 200mph on highspeed railway lines that snake across the islands.
Deadpool 2 director David Leitch’s outlandish comedy thriller, based on Kotaro Isaka’s novel Maria Beetle, gleefully appropriates the locomotive’s key feature – speed – before it reaches the end of the line with an orgy of cartoon violence.
Brad Pitt portrays unlucky American assassin Ladybug, who is keen to return to the killing game. His handler Maria (Sandra Bullock) eases him back into the job with a simple mission: retrieve a metal briefcase on a high-speed train departing from Tokyo.
Killers for hire including the twins Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry), The Wolf (Bad Bunny), The Prince (Joey King) and The Hornet (Zazie Beetz) are also on board with diabolical motives linked to the same briefcase and a shadowy kingpin called The White Death (Michael Shannon).
One venomous stolen snake and a vengeful father (Andrew Koji), whose young son is in hospital after a nearfatal tumble from a roof, become entangled in the bedlam as bullets, knives and other weaponry arc through blood-smeared carriages.
Action set pieces, including bonecrunching brawls, are breathlessly choreographed to deliver lurid bloodletting
and dismemberment.
“Let this be a lesson in the toxicity of anger,” growls Pitt’s circumspect hit man, channelling the deadpan, dudeish energy of The Big Lebowski as costars perish around him.
The rough and tumble is fitfully entertaining, however, over the course of two hours, the hyperkinetic mayhem is exhausting, exacerbated by a fragmented chronology that zigzags between back stories and forcibly interconnects thinly sketched characters.
Our refreshments are a couple of tongue-in-cheek cameos and Pitt’s laidback luminosity.
Bullet Train plays to conductor Leitch’s strengths as a stunt coordinator and performer, exploiting every nook and cranny inside an increasingly wrecked Shinkansen as prop-laden backdrops to the frenzied fisticuffs.
Pitt oozes indestructibility from an opening strut down a neon-lit street while Taylor-johnson and Tyree Henry are an effervescent double-act.
Our ticket to ride on this express service takes us in dizzying circles with nowhere to sit quietly and draw breath.