Bullet Train - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Bullet Train



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I’m going to warn you straight out of the gate. Bullet Train is not going to be a serious action movie. In fact, it’s completely insane, ridiculous, inane, bizarre, and just a neon drenched Tokyo anime action scene brought to life in a 2 hour blood soaked version of Crash meets Murder on the Orient Express. Just with a lot more guns, quips, and over the top cameos and performances by the same director who brought us some “sane” fare as Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

Starting off innocently enough, we’re introduced to “Ladybug” (Brad Pitt), an unlucky assassin who is trying to get his life on the right track thanks to some Zen Buddhism and a therapist named Barry before being whisked away on a last minute snatch and grab assignment by his handler Maria (Sandra Bullock). However, getting on the bullet train to Kyoto and snatching a silver briefcase with a sticker of a train on it is jjuuuuuuust a bit more than he anticipated. Not only does he have to grab a brief case from an unnamed target, but Ladybug ends up dodging twin assassins named Tangerine and Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry respectively), a venomous snake roaming the train, a Mexican Assassin known as “The wolf” (Bad Bunny) who has mistaken Ladybug for someone else, a few more assassins that no one knows about yet, and general mayhem when he realizes that the briefcase belongs to the biggest mob boss in all of Japan (ironically played by Michael Shannon), known as “The White Death”). All in a day’s work.

Bullet Train is pure gonzo stupidity. It starts out with just a few quick witticisms, but as the plot unfolds and we find out that it’s a giant setup, everything goes haywire. The movie doesn’t shy away from just going full on crazy with the action, making it very clear that this is not just a scenario of style over substance, but rather style BEING the substance. The plot of who is trying to kill who, and who is trustworthy (at least enough to survive on) or not, and who has set everything up for a final confrontation is almost irrelevant. IN fact, I’d say that they pretty much wink and nod at the audience right from the beginning, using a sort of Guy Ritchie style of narrative structure that fills in the details as the movie goes along through a series of flash backs and stylistic side trails in the story. What’s really the focus of the movie is the pure gonzo action that is beyond nuts.

I actually had way more fun with Bullet Train than I expected going in. I had heard some pretty mediocre reviews from its theatrical run, but once I realized that it was best to just turn my brain off at the door and let the insanity flow over the viewer, those trepidations and fears washed away, leaving me with a big sloppy grin on my face as we watched a live action anime unfold. Everyone was obviously having a blast, with Michael Shannon hamming it up as a Russian (turned Japanense) Yakuza boss, Brad Pitt Channeling his character from The Lost City, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson just basking in the glorious spotlight of being an over the top assassin. Not to mention the clever use of flash backs, bloody fights and general style being the substance level of winking at the camera that we get to enjoy. And of course, we actually get to see Channing Tatum make a cameo ore two in the film as well.




Rating:

Rated R for strong and bloody violence, pervasive language, and brief sexuality.




Video:

While Bullet Train does look gorgeous in Blu-ray, it’s pretty obvious when comparing it to the 4K UHD disc that the Blu-ray simply has a hard time resolving all of the colors and all of the shiny details that the 4K UHD disc handles so deftly. Again, not trying to bad mouth the Blu-ray disc, but it’s one that looks really good, but never truly “great” if you know what I mean. The main culprits tend to be the soft focus that was present in the master, and the lack of HDR/Dolby Vision that keeps things looking a bit syrupy and blurred at times. Banding comes and goes (never that bad though), but fine details are still quite nice, and the colors are just loaded throughout, making this a great looking disc from stem to stern of the train.





Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix is a great sounding mix, and I would have given it a 5/5 rating had the Dolby Atmos track on the 4K disc simply outclassed it enough for me to simply downgrade the 5.1 mix a half star. It’s pure chaotic energy, with bullets popping off, trains careening down a track and the general massive chaos of assassins trying to whack each other (as Ladybug said, “I’m bringing it back”) over the course of two hours. Bass is powerful and throbbing, and dialog above reproach. It’s a simply gorgeous auditory experience and one that is only outdone by it’s 4K upgrade to Atmos.











Extras:

• Outtakes & Bloopers
• Catch What You Missed: Easter Eggs
• All Aboard the Pain Train: Stunts
• Mission Accomplished: Making of Bullet Train
• Trained Professionals: The Cast
• Select Stunt Previs
• Audio Commentary with David Leitch, Kelly McCormick & Zak Olkewicz

Final Score:
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Is Bullet Train a good movie? Absolutely not. It’s a terrible piece of throwaway fluff garbage. But it’s a very tasty piece of garbage that is pure unadulterated mindless fun if you have the foresight to not really niptick the film to death. It’s gory, violent, silly, and as I said before, pretty much a live action anime movie without actually TRYING to be an Anime adaptation. I had an absolute blast and was grinning from ear to ear knowing this was Guy Ritchie lite action with just enough flair and style to be a cheesy popcorn movie. The Blu-ray disc is a great looking disc with a KILLER audio mix, but personally if you have the equipment I would go for the bigger 4K brother for the improved video and better Atmos sound mix. Still a stupidly fun movie.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joey King, Biran Tyree-Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Channing Tatum, Sandra Bullock
Directed by: David Leitch
Written by: Zak Olkewicz
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French (Canada), Spanish, Thai DD 5.1, Portuguese DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Thai
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 126 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 18th, 2022

Recommendation: Stupidly Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I saw the trailer and thought I would skip it in theater but will check it out at home..

Will take a look.