Bullet Train
Shockingly well-shot, with great sets and costumes, pretty good editing (save for the Holding out for a Hero scene, which feels like they made a great scene and then added the song in by demand of a studio), and pretty well-acted across the board, but somehow, Bullet Train is still one step away from being a good, even great movie.
That’s very much due to the script, it’s obvious that they needed to sell this movie to wide audiences, so they took the very bankable <PERSON> and made him the lead. When from watching it’s pretty clear that <PERSON> works much better as another cameo. If they really wanted to do an outsider’s perspective, then the narrative focus should’ve been on scenestealers <PERSON> and <PERSON>, who are not only giving two of the best performances, but also have a great character dynamic and most of the best lines. With how much of the film is dedicated to those two, and how often <PERSON>’s scenes kill the pacing and move very little of the plot forward, one would think they were the main characters in the first few drafts.
It’s a fun time, but could’ve been much better. 796