David Leitch is one of the names that move up the ladder faster than anyone in terms of career. He continues his career, which he started as a stuntman, by evolving into one of the notable directors of the “action.” A genuinely admirable transition. Today, only 3 or maybe 5 directors can manage to make action cinema effectively without clichés. One of their flag bearers is David Leitch. I want to dedicate this paragraph to him because half of the 10 movies that come to my mind in the last 10 years when it comes to action movies belong to him. His development deserves all the praise. I hope he will come up with many more films and impress us again.
Let’s briefly touch on the subject… The agent codenamed Ladybug, played by Brad Pitt, has a straightforward task: Get on the train and steal the bag. That is it. Ladybug, who started his journey to steal the bag from the Bullet Train in Japan, known as the fastest train ever built, is unaware of it, but he is in the same train with many assassin agents at the same time. When the simple task of stealing bag conflicts with the existing tasks of the others, a corner snatch begins on the train. Because everyone wants to fulfill their own duty, and their interests interfere with each other’s business.
As my dear friend summed it up, Bullet Train is like a child born of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie making love. Along with the action, there is also a mouth fight. As good as the movie’s action is, the characters’ quarrel with each other is also beautiful. The whole film is based on fighting and conversation. Many action movies, such as Netflix’s most expensive The Gray Man, prefer to fill the movie with action to the brim by cutting down on the dialogues. However, such choices often lead to rather noisy boring film. Bullet Train balances dialogue and action on the scales so well that you can enjoy almost every second of the film.
However, the dialogues also owe their success to the magnificent cast in the film. The movie is a portfolio job. All the actors in it can show their characters in this movie in their future projects. Almost all of them have managed to become the character themselves. Actually, I was ready to watch the movie for Brad Pitt and Joey King, but I enjoyed all of them equally. As Brad Pitt gets older, he has become more like Robert Downey Jr, and he shows this attitude at every point throughout the movie. I want to repeat what I’ve always said about Joey King: She’s going to be a megastar in the future. However, I think someone is stealing the main role from Brad Pitt in the movie: Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Everything from the character’s personality to his clothing takes over the screen. He is absolutely amazing in this movie.
I always liken David Leitch’s approach to action to Michael Mann’s. Including the camera at the moment of action makes the audience part of the fight. Almost every fight scene in Bullet Train is a pleasure to watch. It is very successful, especially in the fighting sequences that are dragged into chaos. From John Wick to Atomic Blonde, he manages to bring the action to the top towards the end. However, I can say that Bullet Train is the first movie where it crosses borders and goes overboard. The director, who has always stayed within the limits of logic in his films, is pushing the heights of absurdity in the finale this time. And I won’t lie, I had a lot of fun in the final moments.
To sum it up… Bullet Train is a colorful, action-packed, fun-filled film that takes David Leitch to another level in action cinema and proves that he will continue to be one of the pioneers of the genre for a long time. The fun of the movie, with the wonderful harmony and performance of its actors, never ends from the moment it starts to the end. We can call Bullet Train a quality popcorn movie. While many movies are just popcorn and go-to movies, Bullet Train is a remarkable job worth watching again someday.
Cast & Crew
director: David Leitch
writers: Zak Olkewicz (screenplay by) Kôtarô Isaka (based on the book by)
starring: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Sandra Bullock, Bad Bunny, Zazie Beetz
USA | 2022 | 127 MINUTES |