My Review of "Bullet Train"

Bullet Train is a new blockbuster movie that came out in 2022. The best way to describe it is a mystery action film. Don't pay too much attention to details and you will be able to have fun with this movie. However it isn't with its shortcomings either. For cinephiles out there, you'll recognize a lot of movies this movie takes inspiration from.

The movie starts out with the introduction to a ton of characters. There are a ton of characters to keep track of as well. Each one deriving from some sort of nick name. Each of their introductions give us the viewer of the montage of how they came to be.

To start off the introductions we have the Father. Everything catalyzes with him as his son was pushed off a building and sent to the hospital. He so happens to be the son of the Elder who is some sort of Japanese kingpin of sorts.

Stricken with grief of his son's accident and the shame bestowed upon him by his father he's out to seek out revenge. He gets lured to a bullet train by someone named the Prince. This is actually a girl that had masterminded the pushing of the Father's son.

Meanwhile our main character Ladybug gets tasked to retrieve a mysterious suitcase on that very same bullet train. The catch with him is that he's an enlightened hired hand. He's trying to seek peace due to his propensity for bad luck. The irony of his name is that the Ladybug is supposed to represent good luck.

What was supposed to turn out as an easy job quickly becomes very difficult. New characters are all over the train and they all seem to be hitmen and hitwomen aimed at killing everyone on the train. They all have their own vendettas as well.

Oddly enough all of their stories somehow intermingle and as the story goes on it's later revealed the significance each of these characters have with one another. There are twists and turns. Some of twists closer to the end made me groan a little. For the most part it is fun.

This is a very stylized film but if you've seen a lot movies you can see that this movie took influences from anime, Guy Ritchie directed movies and John Wick styled movies. There are a lot of special cameos throughout this movie as well. These cameos can make you feel that Hollywood is very incestuous.

This year there was a movie called The Lost City where Brad Pitt was a guest star and I guess in this movie there was some reciprocation from that movie to this one. Same goes for Deadpool 2 and the list goes on. I guess there's a you scratch my back I scratch yours thing going on over there.

There are a lot of jokes in this movie to keep the dialogue pretty light. They play on topics and words with what's goin on with the movie. Obviously if you're on a train you're going to talk about Thomas the tank engine right? At certain times it feels like there's some inside jokes that are being played throughout the movie that the audience aren't aware of though. Not all of the jokes work really well but for the most part there is a lot of comedy in this movie.

Overall, if you haven't seen a lot of movies you will be mesmerized by a lot that this movie has accomplished. Those of us that have seen a lot of movies will recognize a lot of the stuff that was borrowed from older movies and shows. That's not to say you can't have a fun time with this movie. I did but not to the extent that I was hoping to. Still the characters were charismatic and amicable enough for me to keep interest. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. It would be hard for me to justify watching it again.