Brad Pitt plays an assassin on interconnected missions in David Leitch’s comedy action-thriller set aboard the Japanese high-speed train.
Leitch has served as Pitt’s stunt double, so there’s logic in him helming a movie that relies so extensively on the star’s looks and charisma.
But Pitt can’t rescue this laborious adaptation of Kôtarô Isaka’s 2010 novel Maria Beetle, scripted by Zak Olkewicz.
Unlike the book, in which all the assassins are Japanese, most of this film’s characters are diverse in their nationality.
This is a thriller about family and fate in which the stakes are neutralized by the comic-book extremes of the storytelling.
Bullet Train begins with distraught father Kimura (Andrew Koji), a criminal, standing over the hospital bed where his young son lies on life support after being pushed from the roof.
Sanada plays the boy’s grandfather, The Elder, a disapproving man who commands his boozing son to take revenge in order to restore the family’s honor.
Known by the operative name Ladybug, Pitt’s character has had terrible luck, leading to frequent unintended deaths on his assignments.
Ladybug is a recent therapy convert determined to resolve conflicts peacefully. But his handler (Sandra Bullock) persuades him to go back to work, retrieving a briefcase from the bullet train.
His mission proves more complicated than expected when it overlaps with the job of two British assassins, Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry), who bicker but are clearly lifelong friends.
Also on board is The Prince (Joey King), a second-generation killer who makes use of her innocent schoolgirl appearance to disarm her foes.
The Hornet (Zazie Beetz) is an expert in poisons who is incognito. One of her victims, The Wolf (Benito A Martinez Ocasio, aka rapper Bad Bunny), boards the train to avenge the loss of his wife at their wedding in Mexico. There’s also a deadly snake, stolen from a zoo.
Ladybug keeps working on his personal growth, empathizing with lethal adversaries by offering pop-psych maxims.
He is en route to Kyoto, where the feared Russian underworld kingpin, The White Death (Michael Shannon) awaits them all with his hitmen.
