FILM
BULLET TRAIN
The Pulp Fiction prop sale had turned nasty.
★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 126 MINS
DIRECTOR David Leitch
CAST Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, Sandra Bullock, Zazie Beetz
PLOT Assassin ‘Ladybug’ (Pitt) is sent by his handler (Bullock) on a seemingly simple mission: get on a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train, retrieve a briefcase, and get off at the next stop. Except, the train is packed with other assassins — including ‘Tangerine’ (Taylor-Johnson), ‘Lemon’ (Henry), ‘The Wolf’ (Bad Bunny) and ‘Hornet’ (Beetz) — tangled in a web of vengeful violence.
WHEN JOHN WICK’S co-director boards a film about a high-speed train packed with assassins, certain things are expected. Bullet-spraying brawls? Check. Creatively choreographed set-pieces, shot with precision and clarity? Check. A charismatic A-lister’s action comeback? Check. But if Bullet Train’s set-up sounds like ‘John Wick on rails’, David Leitch’s latest surprisingly isn’t that movie — instead, it continues his post-Wick trajectory into bigger, splashier, more cartoonish territory.