THB #196: Bullet Train (spoiler-free)

There are multiple ways to focus on Bullet Train.

You can take it as a wild ride… a live-action anime, in which you just enjoy each segment of the journey for all its worth, not seeking real connectivity. (I know that some will see this as an insult to anime, but bear with me, please.)

You can take it as a mixture of Hitchcock and Buster Keaton, in which a man has a clear desire that will be challenged over and over by the choices of others, which perhaps have more to do with him than he understands.

You can take it as a new variation on Tarantino’s new variations of kill movies - as seen in the Kill Bills, which was shot to be one movie (like Wicked) and broken up for financial reasons - with one central figure with a deadly, but surprisingly positive goal, challenged by character after character, all of whom are connected… and not.

Or you can film critic it, which is definitely one of my instincts, and ask for it to be more than the sum of its parts, while appreciating the parts along the way.

My clearest feeling about the film is that the film does a lot of things well, a few things less well, and that the reasons it isn’t one of the great films of this summer or any summer can be found in one more layer of self-reflection in the filmmaking.

The movie really couldn’t be more David Leitch. He is nothing if not consistent. Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and Hobbs & Shaw all have the same strengths and weaknesses. He’s kind of the Rob Marshall of action, doing interesting, sometimes great work on individual sections, but seemingly directorially-handicapped by any expectation of telling the bigger story with equal effect.

One of the things that is really apparent in Bullet Train - almost making me want to go back through his other films - is that he knows how challenging his sometimes-near-ADD can be to the audience. There are at least 2 clear hat tips to the idea of creating clarity in the hysteria. In one case, he creates a sidebar in the movie for 2 characters to clarify their history to themselves, including a literal countdown. But even in that very literal countdown, Leitch fails to turn the trick with the final beat, which is the theoretical point of the whole exercise. And that is the moment that should take the “gag” focus to a more complex idea… which it clearly is for the characters. (Challenging to discuss this without spoiling.) This may be the defining sequence of the movie.

Last year, there was a Nic Cage movie called Prisoners of the Ghostland from director Sion Sono that premiered at Sundance. It is a movie with a 5-day mission in SamuraiTown. In many ways, it is the cheap version of Bullet Train. The difference is that it’s low-budget, international Cage and you go in without any expectations of internal coherence.

This is why the masterworks of filmmakers of massive style over substance are almost always the films where they slow down enough to find coherence and emotion. Blake Edwards’ Days of Wine and Roses, 10, S.O.B. and Victor/Victoria. Miike’s Audition. Luhrmann’s Elvis (for me, at least). Tony Scott’s Top Gun, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, and Unstoppable.

There is great joy to be found in the movies where filmmakers bounce against the walls. The choice is, conscious or not, is whether the audience demands more.

Martin Brest is the great example of the opposite, in a way. Amongst his 7 films, he worked in genre a lot… but slowed it down instead of ratcheted it up. Midnight Run has never been matched because Brest was making an intimate character comedy inside of a genre chase film. That line is too easily crossed. Going in Style had an intimate restraint that development executives hate. Beverly Hills Cop is never about its hero increasing his power… it’s a Bugs Bunny movie with completely real people. I was around for the war over Meet Joe Black and I wonder how whether Brest was right and needed it to go even slower or if he was a little nuts. Gigli is a battle of the sexes cartoon that didn’t satisfy more because of the cast than the movie… which certainly has flaws, but was likely pushed against what Brest really wanted.

But I digress…

Leitch is a director who is a producer whose taste and insights into script he respects away from making a truly great movie.

Leitch really takes care of the star talent. They seem loose and focused, which is usually the best way to show off a movie star. Pitt at center is the Pitt audiences love. Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as brothers Lemon and Tangerine are a classic comedy team, though might have been even better for audiences if they went with Henry’s accent instead of Taylor-Johnson’s. Logan Lerman is unrecognizable and underused as The Son. Joey King, who has pushed perceptions of her in both this film and in the all-action The Princess, does all they ask of her, but her character needed a bit more help in the screenplay for clarity. Bad Bunny and Zazie Beetz aren’t asked to do much, which is really a loss in the case of Beetz. BB has a complete arc in his mostly silent performance. But Beetz promises much more than the movie allows her to deliver.

But the outside forces, driving the action of the movie, are father and son, Kimura and The Elder and The White Death, played by the ever-great Michael Shannon. All are gloriously photographed by Leitch and dp Jonathan Sela. None of them are really well built into the overall storytelling.

In fact, one of the major failures of the film overall is the lack of skill making the international feel of the story and its characters connect. It’s a layer to the film that needed to either be dropped - no fake accents, even if they are well done - or highlighted. The train is in Japan. There are 3 from the U.K., with 2 of those 3 being actual Americans. Shannon is supposed to be a “giant” Russian… a white guy in the Japanese mob would have been conflict enough, no? Bad Bunny is from Puerto Rico and he fronts a Spanish-language section of the film. Okay. 6 one way, half dozen the other. I instinctively wish Leitch & Co were more interested in the American vs Asian style conflict. Maybe add the Brits. But it really doesn’t play much except as a visual motif.

This is one of those movies where choices seem to often be made to offer up surprises later… but when the surprises don’t really surprise - it’s a movie… audiences aren’t dumb - then those choices become frustrations of lost clarity instead of wins.

All that said…

The ride is basically fun.

You really don’t have to spend time worrying about all those details that distracted me.

My 12-year-old loved it. Loved. Fast moving. Fun characters. Cartoon violence. Aggressive comedy. He mostly watches anime - Crunchyroll and YouTube share his daily focus for hours and hours every day - and he had a great time. One of his favorite movies ever.

Super smart kid with all the sophistication of a 12-year-old who hasn’t watched movies the way his father did.

This is the kind of movie that will stop you so you can watch sequences if you catch it flipping channels. (For those of you under 30, that is what we used to do when there were only 350 channels to watch… flip channels… I know… barbaric.)

Does the film elevate like Everything Everywhere All At Once? No.

Is this film better than the sum of its pieces? No, not really.

But is this film wildly enjoyable for action fans who want beautifully designed action and mayhem with plenty of f-bombs and penetrative violence? Yeah.

Movie like this frustrate the hell out of me, because they are, in my view, one really solid story rewrite from being a generation’s The Wizard of Oz or, for another generation, Grease, or, for another group, Indiana Jones.

I want that for every movie. But when they get close and just aren’t strict enough with themselves to get over that wall… man…

But I would happily go see the film again today. And maybe that says even more.

Until tomorrow…