DVD Review: Bullet Train

Bullet Train
(DVD Bullet)

This 2022 action/comedy film is based on a 2010 novel by Japanese author Kotaro Isaka, previously untranslated but subsequently translated into English based on the success of the film.

 

Brad Pitt headlines an eclectic cast of oddballs and misfits. He plays an assassin, codenamed Ladybug, who just wants to be left alone because he feels like he's been beset by bad luck on all of his recent assignments. He reluctantly agrees to a quick job -- board a Japanese bullet train, steal a briefcase, and leave at the next stop. Unfortunately, his mission forces him to cross paths with a series of other assassins on the train, whose stories all criss-cross and become enmeshed.

 

Everyone in the cast does a tremendous job, particularly Pitt as Ladybug, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Tangerine and Brian Tyree Henry as Lemon (two bickering British brothers, one of whom constantly quotes lines from the TV series Thomas the Tank Engine), Joey King as "Prince", and many more. The humor is quirky, the dialog is snappy (though frequently laced with profanity) and the action is close to non-stop! The setting aboard a high-speed Japanese bullet train is unique and challenging for all the stunt work.

 

As long as you have a tolerance for foul language and extreme bloodshed, I strongly recommend this one. I didn't know anything about it before seeing it and ended up quite impressed. The DVD available from the libraries has a couple of special features, including a "making of" documentary.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the action films of Quentin Tarantino, like Kill Bill.)

 

(Also available in traditional print format.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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Super

Super
by Jim Lehrer

In this novel, author and PBS anchor, Jim Lehrer, turns back the pages of the calendar back to 1956. Train travel has not yet given way to air travel. Lehrer sets this story on the luxury train called the Super Chief, nicknamed "The Train of Stars" because it carried many celebrities from Los Angeles to Chicago. Passengers are pampered on the 39-hour journey between the two cities. On this fateful journey people die under questionable circumstances. Jack Pryor, a detective for the Santa Fe railroad, must find out the facts, while keeping noted passengers such as Clark Gable and Harry Truman alive. Readers who enjoy nostalgic visits to a simpler time will find this book an enjoyable read. Travel was more leisurely, some might even say more civilized. Passengers dined in elegant dining cars as they rolled across the countryside and they stretched out for the night in sleeping cars. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie and Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith.] -- recommended by Donna G. - Virtual Services Department

[ publisher's official Super web site ] | [ Wikipedia page for Jim Lehrer ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.