Bullet Train: Brad Pitt as a Ladybug
BULLET TRAIN (Cert 15, 126 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Action/Comedy/Thriller, available from October 3 on Amazon/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from 24 October on DVD £19.99 / Blu-ray £24.99 / 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray £36.99)
Starring: Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Bad Bunny, Joey King, Zazie Beetz, Sandra Bullock.
Notoriously unlucky American assassin Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is keen to return to the killing game.
His mistress Maria (Sandra Bullock) brings him back to work with a simple mission: retrieve a metal briefcase from a high-speed train departing from Tokyo.
Ladybug acquires the trump but as he finds, the pick up is too easy.
Hitmen including twins Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry), The Wolf (Bad Bunny), The Prince (Joey King) and The Hornet (Zazie Beetz) are also on board with evil motives linked to the same briefcase.
A poisonous stolen snake and a vengeful father (Andrew Koji) become entangled in chaos as bullets, knives and other weapons smash through blood-stained cars.
Based on the novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka, Bullet Train is an outlandish comedic thriller, which exploits director David Leitch’s strengths as a stunt coordinator and performer.
He exploits every nook and cranny inside an increasingly wrecked Shinkansen locomotive as a prop-laden backdrop for frantic punches.
Pitt oozes open-leg indestructibility on a neon-lit street while Taylor-Johnson and Tyree Henry are an effervescent double act (the latter’s hesitant cockney accent works on its own timeline.)
Over the course of two hours, the hyperkinetic mayhem is exhausting, exacerbated by a fragmented timeline that zigzags between background stories.
On the rare occasions when Leitch indulges in slow motion during a melee, he fetishizes swordplay or extracts humor from bruised passengers flying helplessly through the air, colliding with luggage and the overhead contents of a food cart. .
Our refreshes are a few tongue-in-cheek cameos and the laid-back brightness of Pitt.
Rating: 3/5
Jeremy Allen White as Carmen in The Bear
THE BEAR (8 episodes, broadcast from October 5 exclusively on Disney+, Comedy/Drama)
DISNEY+ has a full portion of the comedy-drama created by Christopher Storer, which has been ordered for a second series.
Award-winning New York chef Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is devastated when her older brother Michael (Jon Bernthal) commits suicide, leaving behind a failing family business, The Original Beef Of Chicagoland, and mounting debts.
Carmen returns to Windy City to reunite with her younger sister Natalie (Abby Elliott), who is a reluctant co-owner of the sandwich shop and has no idea how to turn the business around.
Faced with discord in the kitchen and an unruly staff, Carmen takes charge of day-to-day operations alongside her best friend Richard (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who is supposed to be the manager.