Review: 'Bullet Train' is a ridiculously fun ride, action-packed to the point of absurdity

Exciting, action-packed and just the other side of ridiculous, “Bullet Train” is a movie that rewards viewers for paying attention to its labyrinthine plot mechanics and not thinking too much about everything else.

The train is a super-fast vehicle headed from Tokyo to Kyoto, and it seems nearly everybody on board is a contract killer or otherwise bent on violence. In the middle of it all is a luckless gun for hire, given the code name Ladybug (played by Brad Pitt), who is told by his unseen handler that he’s got an easy job: Get on the train, pick up a particular briefcase, and get off the train. Simple, right?

Wrong. For starters, the guys overseeing the case — called Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) — have to deliver it to a shadowy mob boss called The White Death, along with the boss’s son (Logan Lerman). Then there’s The Prince (Joey King), a coldblooded assassin in a bubblegum-colored schoolgirl outfit, who’s manipulating a junior-level mobster (Andrew Koji) with a sage warrior father (Hiroyuki Sanada). Then there’s the Mexican killer, The Wolf (played by Benito A Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny), who starts stabbing the second he lays eyes on Ladybug.

There’s a lot more happening, and more surprising faces, but I don’t want to reveal any spoilers. Besides, this is more than enough information to tide you over until you get to the theater. 

Blessed with a talented supporting cast — particularly Taylor-Johnson and Henry, who have a smart, spiky chemistry — Pitt gives a more casual performance than a bonkers action movie should have, but it works. It’s as if Pitt saw how much crazy was coming at him and decided the best way to counter was to ride it like a surfer, loose and laid back. (By the way, avoid the most recent trailers for the movie, which give away too much.)

Director David Leitch, who gave us “Atomic Blonde” and “Deadpool 2,” knows how to stage a dynamic fight scene in three dimensions, and some of the action sequences here explode with surprise. The script by Zak Olkewicz, adapting a Kôtarô Isaka novel, is a cleverly worked affair, a puzzle box of flashbacks and flash-forwards that reveals its secrets at all the proper times. It may all fall apart a day after viewing, but in the moment, “Bullet Train” is a fun ride.

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‘Bullet Train’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, August 5, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong and bloody violence, pervasive language, and brief sexuality. Running time: 126 minutes.