FILM

Stop This Train, Brad Wants To Get Off

Twisty Thriller “Bullet Train” Never Jumps The Tracks By Bryan VanCampen

David Leitch’s “Bullet Train” (Sony Pictures Releasing-Columbia Pictures-Fuqua Films-87North Productions, 2022, 126 min.) is aptly titled. An assassin, code-named “Ladybug”, played by Brad Pitt, boards the title transport to pull o a simple snatch-and-run assignment involving a particular suitcase. But once the train starts moving, you and Ladybug are in for 126 minutes of crazed killers with their own agendas, more complications than can be calculated until you and yours are walking to your car, comedy colliding with blackly bloody funny violence, and an escaped poisonous snake, just to keep everyone on their toes. is is my kind of travelogue - an action projectile, if you will.

Clad in nondescript, oppy clothes, white sneakers and a goofy Gilligan hat, Pitt is the serene comic centerpiece here, underplaying in a very Monsieur Hulot fashion. He starts the job in, as they say, a great head space, and as the double-crosses and problems come ying at him, he’s always trying to talk thing out as opposed to ghting, usually capping every nutso action sequence with platitudes that sound like the kind of Zen koans you’d nd in a lame gi shop. He has a very Eastern way of saying “What a week I’m having!” Meanwhile, every goon he runs into is ready to rumble.

Zak Olkewicz’s screenplay, adapting a Japanese novel by Kōtarō Isaka unread by me, has a cool Tarantino vibe, in that each of the oddball killers that Ladybug has to squash also have “Reservoir Dogs”esque aliases and each one lives according to some pop culture code. Joey King (“Ramona and Beezus”) is dressed like an animé character in shades of red and pink, like she wandered in from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse” (2018). Aaron Taylor Johnson, Kick-Ass and young John Lennon himself, plays half of a brother killer team, clad in a sharp 70’s style blue three-piece suit. His partner, played by Brian Tyree Henry, lives his entire life according to the teachings of the “ omas the Tank Engine”.

Leitch and his team clearly learned a lot from the elevator brawl in “Diamonds Are Forever” (1971): ght scenes are much more impactful in smaller con ned settings. In one scene, Pitt and Henry are forced to go at it while stuck in a “quiet car” on the train. It’s like trying to kill someone in a library. e characters also have to deal with the other passengers on the train, and the train’s sta and vending employees; Pitt and Johnson have a terri c punch-up while trying to negotiate for a bottle of sparkling water. ere’s a handful of celebrity cameos too cool to spoil. Check the cast lists of this year’s “ e Lost City” and “Deadpool 2” (2019), Leitch’s previous lm, and you’ll get a clue who might show up during this crazy voyage.

Leitch has been working as a stunt man, stunt coordinator and director for the last 20 years; look at his resumé and you’ll see his work in two decades of the most successful action lms. He co-directed “John Wick” (2014) without credit, and then went on to helm “Atomic Blonde” (2017) and the aforementioned “Deadpool 2”. ere’s plenty of journeyman stunt guys-turned-directors out there, dudes like Rowdy Herrington (1990’s “Roadhouse”) and the late Hal Needham (1977’s “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Hooper” in 1978), but I think Leitch has higher aspirations. It’s too soon to tell, but I think we should keep our eyes on this guy.

RIP Olivia Newton-John (“Grease”)

RIP Mary Alice (“ e Matrix Revolutions”, “Malcolm X”, “Sparkle”)

RIP Taurean Blaque (“House Calls”, “Rocky II’, “Oliver & Company”, “Deepstar Six”)

The fight scenes in “Bullet Train” are more impactful because they’re staged in smaller, confined settings. (Photo: Provided)

“Bullet Train” is playing at Regal Ithaca Mall located in the Shops at Ithaca, 40 Catherwood Road. Check online at https://www.regmovies.com/movies or call (844) 462-7342 for show times.