Brad Pitt – CaptainJLS.com

REVIEW – Bullet Train

David Leitch (ATOMIC BLONDE, DEADPOOL 2)’s Guy Ritchie-esque film version of Kotaro Isaka’s novel of mercs & assassins riding the Shinkansen is a perfectly diverting time at the cinema, though a bit slow-going at the outset. Having thought the trailer, which covers Brad Pitt‘s bad-luck assassin who doesn’t want to kill anymore taking a mission to hop on a train outta Tokyo and snatch a silver suitcase, looked like a lot of fun I wasn’t prepared for quite so much setup; the film opens with Andrew Koji‘s Yuichi Kimura hovering over his son’s hospital bed, then taking off in search of revenge on whoever pushed him off a roof. The culprit is the Prince (Joey King), a vicious master manipulator hiding behind an oh-so-innocent-girl act, who wants to use Yuichi against a terrifying Russian criminal who swooped into Japan and seized the Yakuza. Also aboard the train: the double-act of Tangerine & Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Brian Tyree Henry), whose banter makes them probably the most fun characters to spend time with aboard the train. The action’s damn good (Leitch co-directed the first JOHN WICK, and the tremendous dragged-out staircase fight in ATOMIC BLONDE is one of THE points in its favor) and Pitt’s character’s loopy reluctant fighter/fortune cookie aphorisms schtick is charming enough, but the characters with the real stakes are never really presented as compelling, and past a certain point the film seems to be working a bit too conspicuously hard to center so many non-Japanese in a flick set in Japan. Entertaining enough, but maybe wait ’til it’s streaming somewhere? (More polished and fun, to be sure, than similar stuff made FOR streaming; I’d say it’s more worth your time than, oh, Netflix’s Gosling-Evans face-off THE GRAY MAN.)

REVIEW – The Lost City

The short version is, I was expecting it to be funnier, but it’s still amiably charming. Aaron & Adam Nee’s film is reminiscent of ROMANCING THE STONE in the broad strokes, but sillier. Sandra Bullock is romantic adventure novelist Loretta Sage, a recluse in a bad place in her life who’s been dragged kicking & screaming out on a book tour to promote “The Lost City of D,” which is a gag deemed too obvious for them to use as the title of the film. After the first stop goes disasterously sideways, she winds up nabbed by goons in the employ of rich scumbag Abigail Fairfax (an intense, manic-grinning Daniel Radcliffe), who can tell from the well-researched bits in Sage’s latest steamy tome that she’s the only one who can lead him to a long-lost treasure located in the REAL titular lost city. Blaming himself for her storming off and winding up in this mess, her seemingly vapid book cover model Alan (Channing Tatum) forces himself into the rescue party. As they say, hijinks ensue, the majority of which you’ll have seen in the trailers. Yes, Brad Pitt is here as the real rescuer, and he’s a hoot. Bullock is doing a very fine job doing the sort of romantic comedy lead work she’s been doing for decades, with the sort of coming-out-of-her-shell, warming-to-her-costar arc you can set your watch by. Tatum’s character starts in a broad comedy himbo mode and then, like a switch was thrown, suddenly has to function as a viable romantic lead so he gets huffy about being treaded as a broad comedy himbo. Doesn’t quite work. The gags that weren’t spoiled by the trailer, many of which are found in a subplot about the misadventures of Sage’s publicist (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) making her OWN attempt at rescue, keep the film’s head above water. Radcliffe’s wild energy doesn’t help the flick’s general feeling of mismatched tones; I like what he’s doing here, but I also feel like the way he’s playing this he DEFINITELY would have shot our heroes dead at the end. Probably wait for rental or streaming unless you’re really jonesing for a trip to the cinema, but ultimately I think still worth a watch.