Bullet Train (2022)
The end of the line is just the beginning.
Ever wonder what would happen if someone watched John Wick and wanted it to be more funny? Well you might be in luck with tonight’s colorful adventure into the world of hitmen and crime. It’s one part mystery, one part actioneer, and a colorful mix of characters, jokes, and near-cartoonish situations. Get ready for a long ride - tonight we get on the Bullet Train.
The story for this one isn’t entirely what it seems, and is layered with so much going on it could be an ogre, onion, or really fancy cake. For our purposes, we have a few main threads though - our unlucky main, whose simply there for a snatch and grab as a stand in for the original mission taker. In another spot, a man looking for who injured his kid to exact vengeance. In another car, a pair of men sent to pull out a crime boss’s kid and return him and a case of money back home. In one long train ride, all of these stories are going to criss-cross and intertwine, weaving a far more intricate story that’s all spell out by the end.
The actors all do a good job here, which is good because there is quite a lot going on. Although they all don’t necessarily have this super-engrossing back story, most all of them do in fact get at least some level of backstory to give them a purpose in their actions and dictate how they will act. Reactions to events going on are all quite reasonable, including some of the more wacky parts to be honest. Some of the line deliveries could have made for an incredibly different movie if they were delivered differently. There’s a good amount of info-dumps that characters deliver, but the actors doing the voice-overs for these parts keep it somewhat interesting so you don’t mind it when things are getting explained.
The characters themselves all have a quirk of some type with which the actors get to play with. Maybe it’s an affinity towards using Thomas the Tank Engine as a way of classifying a persons character. Maybe it’s them fighting with their massive string of unluckiness. It’s enough to keep them entertaining on screen, while also making them interesting enough that you kind of want to see whats going on with them. With so many characters acting like mains, it’s bound that at least one will probably be less likeable to a watcher than others - but in the end they all play their own role in the large web of a story going on here. It’s a good ensemble of action going on. If any characters seem out of place here, it’s probably the rather subdued normal folks in the background - although even that plays into things in a way, helping make everything feel a bit like it’s just the way of things.
The main.
The movie can be a little breakneck with all the stuff happening - I mean, at one point it pretty much gives a side character an entire life montage in the matter of minutes to get him to the present. It’s quite efficient with telling things, and I feel that moment is a great indication of just how much you’ll be able to get out of this movie if you want to dig into it. Yes, by the end it’s elaborated on all the whys and whatnot, but it allows you to approach the movie in a different way - watching more for the details after you know the ins and outs. It’s also pretty easy going - although a lot is going on, the movie still finds times to slow down, and yet even the slow parts aren’t boring to watch as it’s always progressing something.
The action is well choreographed - not quite as intricate as the story and it’s many spins, but still great to watch. The setting of a bullet train provides plenty of claustrophobic area to play with - it might not be widely different to look at, but it is very fitting for the situation in which none of the characters can escape while their deadline slowly closes further in. It uses the space and setting very well in that regard, It also uses a lot of the setting variables to set up it’s complex machinations as it goes. It is the kind of movie that you really need to pay attention to for more than just the action if you want to, as with the cut-in history sections and the back and forth between groups I can see people really getting lost in this movie.
The audio does a lot here. Balance is great, and the background audio really helps add to the humor and action moments. Everything has a nice background audio that makes you feel like it is where you are watching everyone be. Admittedly, I won’t recall most the music afterwards as usual, but there is a song or two in here that I enjoyed for sure that goes beyond just being the standard background enhancers.
The backstory.
This is a fun movie. If you have the time to actually pay attention to it, it’s a good one on multiple accounts. It’s got some jokes, it’s got some action, it’s got some complexity but it all feels like it makes sense afterwards. The actors do a pretty top notch drive, and there’s enough Chekov’s guns that there isn’t much in this movie that feels even close to being in there just to waste time. Plenty of fun for a large number of folks I would say, and after a second watch I’d argue it’s still just as much fun.