Movie Review: Bullet Train

Bullet Train

Directed by David Leitch.

Written by Zak Olkewicz.

Based on Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka.

Alright, like everything I’ve ever reviewed on this blog, Bullet Train has been out for a while now. In that time I’ve gone to see it twice, which means a lot more now that I don’t work at a movie theater like I used to (R.I.P. ArcLight. Hate it had to be you).

Side note, have y’all noticed how many movie theaters have shut down since Covid? I live in Pasadena, where for some reason, we had four movie theaters on one street. But half of those are gone now. And I just read somewhere that Regal is going down too. Is AMC killing off the competition? I’m just picturing AMC as Galactus, devouring other theaters and sending Nicole Kidman to go forth as their herald of destruction. She shows up in the lobby of other theaters and the last thing they hear before it all goes dark is “Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”

Anyway, back to Bullet Train! I saw the trailer who knows how long ago and spent however long that was being super hyped. Then the movie came out and…it was everything I wanted it to be! This movie is amazing. Tell all your friends. And if they tell you otherwise, cease communication. Or respect their opinions; you can go either way.

Bullet Train is about a recently enlightened and therapized (if that’s not a word, yes it is) mercenary who has to go onto a bullet train, retrieve a briefcase, and get off of said train. Sounds simple, right? Well of course it isn’t.

Like our protagonist, Ladybug (played wonderfully by Brad Pitt), pretty much everyone we meet on the train has the skill set, capacity, and temperament for violence. And pretty much everyone is GREAT. The cast of characters in this movie is fantastic, starting with and especially because of Lemon and Tangerine, played by Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, respectively. Brian can do no wrong in my eyes, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how well he portrayed a silly British hitman with a penchant for reading people, but I was impressed. And Aaron Taylor-Johnson gives what turned out to be my favorite performance of his. His character feels like he could have been straight out of The Gentlemen, and if you know me, you know I love that movie. I’d watch a Lemon & Tangerine spin-off in a heartbeat.

There’s no shortage of colorful characters here, from Joey King’s the Prince (whom I hated, which is a testament to the writing and acting skills), to Hiroyuki Sanada’s the Elder (whom I loved, which is a testament to the same skills). I can already tell this review is gonna be too long, so I won’t dive deep into the rest of the cast, but just know everyone did a great job, there are a couple of great cameos, and Zazie Beetz should have gotten more screen time, but she used what she had fantastically.

This is the kind of movie that intimidates me, from a writing standpoint. Not as a viewer, but as a writer. I think about the idea of writing something with this many story elements, and I just sit there in awe of those who can do it. There are SO MANY moving parts to this story, and they’re all woven in so smoothly that by the end, pretty much all of my questions were answered, even some I didn’t realize I had. “Why is this guy here?” “Why does he hate this other guy?” “WHAT is up with this snake?!” All answered. Shout out to Leitch and Olkewicz for this storytelling. I imagine the most credit should go to Isaka for writing the novel, but I haven’t read it, so I can’t comment on how much was the excellent source material, and how much was adaptive skill. But hey, shout outs all around.

I LOVE the style of this movie! The on-screen display of code names, the fact that everyone has code names in the first place, the aesthetics, the action (of course), it’s all delightful. The way characters are introduced let me know I’d have a fun time from the jump. And with each character we meet, we get a backstory, which goes back to the movie having a bunch of moving parts. However, flashbacks and callbacks are used so effectively that not only do they add to the comedic element, but they make it easier to keep up with the story. There’s one flashback in particular that I HATED, but that’s because it involves people violently vomiting, and seeing people vomit on screen is one of my least favorite things. But even that scene, which I was forced to see repeatedly, works well narratively speaking. But for real, y’all gotta stop making us see people throw up. I hate it, and I’d bring the Hays Code back if it meant y’all would have to stop it.

But let’s talk about violence, which I’m surprisingly cool with. In movies, I mean. Not in real life. I’m not a monster. Anyway, David Leitch is a fight scene genius, and I’m sure that’s due in no small part to him being a stuntman and stunt coordinator for some time in his career. He even used to be Brad Pitt’s stunt double. There’s your fun fact for today. Being a part of that world allowed him to understand fight choreography and stunts in a way that many directors probably can’t, and I think that’s why David Leitch movies (John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2) have some of the best action we’ve seen in a long time.

I could talk/write about this movie all day because I adore it. However, I don’t even know if people READ movie reviews anymore. Everybody’s on YouTube or a podcast speaking their thoughts now, instead of writing them down like it’s the 90s. It’s me, I’m everybody. But sometimes I feel like writing, so here we are. If you made it to the end, I appreciate you more than you know! Go see Bullet Train.

Tl;dr: Everything about Bullet Train was done well. The cast? Fire. The action? Fire. The writing? Fire. It just needed more Zazie.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Creative Differences Episode 195 | Bullet Train, Prey, and the Death of Batgirl (2022)

Bullet Train was the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater all year! Listen to me talk about it!

Creative Differences Episode 162: Favorite Actors of 2021

We’re talkin’ about actors! And I’m mostly talkin’ about actors from The Harder They Fall!

Movie Review: The Harder They Fall

The Harder They Fall 

Directed by Jeymes Samuel.

Written by Jeymes Samuel and Boaz Yakin.

If you listen to my podcast, which you probably don’t, you may have heard about my long-running, completely one-sided, and mostly fabricated beef with Netflix. It stems from them constantly ending the shows I like most, and teasing David Fincher projects that aren’t Mindhunter season three. I say all that to say, I can’t stay mad at Netflix, because this is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. This is gonna be a long review, y’all. There’s just so much to praise.

In case you haven’t heard people raving about it, The Harder They Fall is a new western movie from Jeymes Samuel aka The Bullitts aka Seal’s brother. The concept is pretty much “what if we took a staggering amount of amazing actors and had them play historical figures in a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen style western movie?” And it works! It really works!

There are so many great characters in this movie, on both sides. From the endearing Nat Love Gang to the impressively imposing Rufus Buck Gang, to the surprising yet impressive Deon Cole appearance. It’s not surprising that he was good in the movie. I was just surprised to see him there at all.  There are so many characters to talk about! I’m gonna have to resort to my old way of going through characters for this one.

The Nat Love Gang:

Nat Love: Nat Love is one of the most charming characters I’ve seen all year, due in no small part to Jonathan Majors’ impeccable handling of both drama and comedy in this role. There’s a reason Jeymes Samuel saw Jonathan in an interview years ago and said “That’s Nat Love.”

Jim Beckwourth: Mr. “Lightning with the blam blams”. From his first line, I knew I’d love him, and he’s the most fun aspect of the movie throughout the journey. RJ killed this performance and I need to see him in more roles like this.

Bill Pickett: The straight man to Jim’s nonsense. Their one-two punch comedy is probably the best thing about either character, but Edi Gathegi gives Bill his own likability.

Stagecoach Mary: Rounding out the original gang is Stagecoach Mary, played wonderfully by the always stunning and often intense Zazie Beetz. Every female main character in this movie is just as strong as (in some cases stronger than) their male counterparts, and that starts with Mary. The term girlboss is not nearly cool enough to describe Mary (and it evokes images of a White woman working at BuzzFeed or something). Mary is a leader, her singing is mesmerizing and she got HANDS!

Cuffee: In a cast full of heavyweights, Danielle Deadwyler more than holds her own. She gives a performance as strong as any of her costars. And the same can be said about Cuffee. Just take out costars and replace it with gunslingers, I guess? Cuffee’s intro shows she’s nothin’ to mess with, and she keeps proving it until the movie ends.

Bass Reeves: Speaking of nothin’ to mess with, Bass Reeves, man. He’s probably the most gangsta person in the whole movie. Every line he says tells you he means business, and he walks the walk (literally) in that last showdown. But hey, he’s the Lone Ranger. What do you expect? And it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Delroy Lindo is amazing. 

The Rufus Buck Gang:

Rufus Buck: I said Bass Reeves is probably the most gangsta person in the movie, and I stand by that, but he has some competition in the Rufus Buck Gang, starting with Rufus Buck himself. In a surprise to nobody, Idris gives a perfectly menacing performance as a character that instills fear while rarely having to lift a finger. The “everybody but him” moment played in my head constantly after seeing this movie.

Treacherous Trudy Smith: Rufus’ right hand is Treacherous Trudy Smith, played by my favorite actress and certified goddess Regina King, who gives my favorite performance in the film. You have no idea how hard it was to narrow that down. Trudy spends most of the run time speaking to people who tower over her, and she never feels like she’s on the wrong side of the power dynamic. Because Regina King is the best. Also, “any one of ‘em say somethin’ that even start with N, they gon meet the same fate” might be my favorite movie line of the year.

Cherokee Bill: On the other side of Rufus Buck is Cherokee Bill, brought to life by what might be LaKeith Stanfield’s best performance? I can’t say that confidently, because dude is consistently killin’ it, and Judas and the Black Messiah came out this year. Bill is unique in his flavor of menacing. He’s surprisingly well-spoken, calm, and polite for most of the movie. And even when taking a life he has a look on his face like he just rolled out of bed. Terrifying. One of his first lines is “Let it be known that I don’t particularly enjoy violence. That being said, you are currently in the company of extremely violent individuals.” By the end of the movie I hated Cherokee Bill, but he never stops being fascinating.

In terms of story, this is a good ol’ Western revenge tale. Round up the posse and go after the bad guy. Well, that’s reductive. We get story beats from the perspective of both sides and that really helps make the antagonists feel like fully realized characters, as opposed to just obstacles for our heroes. That’s one of my favorite things about the movie. Rufus Buck has his own set of goals that have nothing to do with Nat Love. Also, the story has more twists and turns than I expected, which was a nice little treat. 

While I’d argue that the characters and performances are the highlights of the movie, the visuals are nothing to sleep on. Jeymes Samuel went OFF! The fact that this is his feature film debut astonishes me. From the comedy of the “white town” to the intensity of literal fire reflected in Rufus Buck’s eyes, the shots enhance the movie at every opportunity. And I love the shout out to Chadwick Boseman. Also, it’s more of a sound thing than a visual thing, but I love how LOUD the gunshots are in the moments of tension. Whenever a shot is isolated (not part of a whole gunfight), you feel the impact of it.

Speaking of sound, a movie directed by The Bullitts and produced by Jay-Z is bound to do some dope things with music. From the moment I heard Kid Cudi start singing on “Guns Go Bang” in the opening credits, I knew the music would be fire for this one. Then Jay-Z started rapping and that was all the confirmation I needed. Not only is the soundtrack fire (they got Ms. Lauryn Hill!), but the songs are used perfectly to fit the narrative. Dennis Brown’s “Promised Land” playing over the intro to Redwood City is such a moment. 

I could write about this movie for days, but nobody is tryna read all that, so I’ll cut myself off. I love this movie, and I’m grateful to everyone involved. Shout out Jeymes Samuel for bringing this together. I definitely recommend it, unless you’re heavily averse to violence. This movie has a whole lot of that. But everyone else, go see it. 

Tl;dr: This movie’s best strength is the exquisite cast bringing fascinating characters to life, but it shines in a list of other categories as well. Best movie of the year for me so far. 

Rating: 10 out of 10

P.S.: If you know me, you know that Remember the Titans is one of my favorite movies of all time. So the fact that Boaz Yakin (the director of Remember the Titans) co-wrote this movie makes me SO HAPPY!

Creative Differences Episode 149: Last Night in Soho, The Harder They Fall, and To Infinity and Beyond

I’ve got a new favorite movie of the year!

Movie Review: Joker

I was really excited when I first heard about this movie. Then as we got closer to the release date, my excitement waned a bit. I never stopped wanting to see it, but all of the discourse surrounding it gave me negative feelings. “Todd Phillips said this”, “Joaquin Phoenix did that”, pretentious people wanna act like it’s not a comic book movie. But at the end of the day, none of that changes how good or not good the movie was gonna be. And it is great.

Joker is the story of Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man with a terrible life living in Gotham City. The story shows how such a life eventually leads him to becoming the Joker. As you can imagine, this movie goes to some dark places. But this isn’t your average, every day darkness. This is…advanced darkness.

Let’s talk about Arthur (and some other characters, maybe. The other people don’t do a whole lot).

Arthur Fleck: First off, Joaquin Phoenix deserves a best actor nomination at all those awards shows I don’t care enough about to actually watch. He was incredible in this movie. The times when he forces a smile on his face are heartbreakingly convincing. And he’s just about playing two different characters given how much he changes over the course of the movie.

Arthur is an interesting character, mostly because of his progression. Considering this is a Joker movie, I don’t mean progression as a term of improvement. But the way he changes as the movie goes on is very captivating.

I’ve heard a few people saying they couldn’t care about or feel sorry for him at any point, and I don’t know if they just can’t see past what he becomes, or they’re just incapable of sympathy (or is it empathy? I can never remember which is which). Like, Arthur gets physically and verbally abused more than once before he has done anything to anyone. If you don’t feel sorry for him at the beginning of the movie, that’s a little unsettling. Even his first act of aggression is in self defense.

But obviously, by the nature of the story being told, Arthur gets more violent (and more confident) as the movie goes on. At the end, he is definitely a true depiction of the Joker, and it’s clear as day.

Penny Fleck: Arthur’s old mom. Part of his sad life.

Murray Franklin: Robert De Niro is in this role playing basically the opposite of his role in The King of Comedy. 

Sophie Dumond: The love interest. Zazie Beetz is a treasure.

The story is heartbreaking. We’re literally watching a man’s life fall apart piece by piece. It gets so bad that it’s not even a leap in logic that a person would end up where Arthur ends up. And that’s what makes it so disturbing. The Joker is all fun and games when he’s putting cartoon smiles on Gotham’s fish supply,  but filter him through a more realistic lens and the whole thing is a lot more horrifying.

The movie has a message that feels a bit on the nose at times (Joker basically screams it in one of the later scenes), but it’s a message that needs to be heard. Take mental illness more seriously. Don’t ignore mentally ill people. Don’t cut mental health programs to save money. Don’t be dicks to people, because you never know what they’re going through. That last one is more general. Or hey, maybe this is just what I took from the movie.

In either case, neither me nor Todd Phillips (I assume) is saying “all mentally ill people will go on a violent rampage if you mistreat them”. But think about cases like Aileen Wuornos (the killer from Monster) and David Berkowitz, the latter of which literally said that he had long contemplated murder to get revenge on a world that he felt had rejected and hurt him. It sucks, but this stuff does happen.

If I do have one main critique about this movie, it’s that the way the movie ends kinda makes me think all those people were right to be worried about the effect it might have. By that I mean the panic that this movie might inspire “the kind of mind the Joker attracts”, as Batman put it in The Dark Knight. If you’ve seen the movie, I mean the scene towards the end in which he stands on the cop car.

Before I end this review, I gotta say, Hildur Guðnadóttir killed it! I wasn’t familiar with her work before this movie, but man, she really went off with this score. The first time I saw the movie, I didn’t really pay much attention until one particular scene, but then I saw it again and the score is really fantastic throughout.

Speaking of music, I was kinda distracted by the fact that Joker turned into Omarion from You Got Served every time he killed someone, but by the time he did his dance on the stairs I was like “Ayyy, get it Arthur!” He was gettin’ it on those stairs.

Anyway, this is a really good movie. Is it unsettling? Yes. Is it a fun time? Not particularly. Is it captivating? Absolutely. It’s definitely not a movie I would recommend for everyone, but everyone I’ve seen it with thought it was great. So if you haven’t seen it, be ready for an intense time.

Also, anytime I get to see Brian Tyree Henry on screen I like a movie a bit more.

tl;dr: It’s a great movie, with an important message and a very uncomfortable way of getting it across. But you shouldn’t go to this movie without expecting some discomfort.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Movie Review: Deadpool 2

Hey look, it’s my second most anticipated movie of the year! It was almost number one, but the hype to finally see a Black Panther solo movie was too great. Anyway, it goes without saying that I was dangerously excited for this movie. I had been since the end credits of Deadpool when Wade said they were gonna have Cable. And no surprise, I was not disappointed.

My reviews come out late enough that I’m sure you’ve all seen this movie, but I’m gonna break down the premise a bit in case you haven’t. Basically something happens that makes Wade wanna end it all, but he can’t. He ends up with Colossus and Negasonic and comes across a boy named Russell. Unfortunately, Cable has come from the future to take down this kid, so Deadpool has to do the hero thing again and protect him. That’s about as much as I can say without giving away more than the trailers do. I guess the trailers don’t tell you something bad kicks off Wade’s journey, but it’s Deadpool, so of course it does.

I loved the premise here, as it gives us a look at the Deadpool that has a soft spot for kids. In the comics he’s often seen trying to protect kids at all costs, and it adds some humanity to him that the movies have done well so far. He’s also more of a psycho killer in the comics, but hey, gotta have balance, right?

As always, let’s do the thing where I list the characters:

• Deadpool – The reason I love these movies so much. Deadpool is my favorite superhero (or antihero if you wanna be one of those people), and everything I loved about him in the last movie carried over to this one. He’s funny, he’s a badass, and he’s a hero, despite his reservations about it. Ryan Reynolds was born to play this role, and I’m so happy he gets to do it.
• Cable – I like the way they portrayed Cable, but it’s a bit jarring to see this character in Deadpool’s world, mostly because of the way he speaks. I can’t picture the Cable from the comics calling him a jabbering butt plug or saying “Dubstep’s for pussies”, but that’s what we get when we put X-Men in a Deadpool movie. Cable serves as an antagonist in this movie, and I’d rather see the odd couple buddy cop dynamic they often have when they have to team up. Hopefully Deadpool 3 gives us more of that. With all that being said, though, I enjoyed seeing him on screen. I loved his actions scenes and the general threatening vibe he gave off. Josh Brolin played the role extremely well.
• Vanessa – Vanessa isn’t seen a whole lot, but when she was there I loved her.
• Russell/Firefist – I liked this kid! Like many aspects of a Deadpool movie, he sometimes towed the line between genuinely entertaining and a bit too much, but it was easy to feel for him. I’m not familiar with Julian Dennison (I didn’t see the other movie he did), but I’d like to see more of him. He’s got a nice charm.
• Domino – So when I first heard that Domino was gonna be played by Zazie Beetz, I was intrigued, but not yet excited. Then I saw the pictures of her as Domino, and boom! There’s the excitement. She looked great, and this is coming from a guy who typically wants comic characters to look as close to their on page counterparts as possible. But I loved the natural hair and the way they portrayed her eye marking. But enough about her looks, the character was amazing as well! I never got tired of seeing how they showed her powers on screen, and seeing her fight was always exciting. Also, she more than keeps up with Deadpool in their banter and I loved that.
• Weasel – Weasel was pretty much what he was last time, but he had more fluctuation to me this time around. Some of his lines were hilarious, and some fell sort of flat. But hey, that can happen with comic relief.
• X-Force – All I can say about the X-Force is that the movie didn’t do what I expected with them.

A lot of people are saying this movie felt like too much going on at once, but I didn’t feel that way. I think the story works, and it works in a way that makes it easy to see how each event leads to the next. We get a bit of the flashback storytelling that we got in the first movie, but it’s not hard to follow. Of course, time travel lends itself to a bunch of questions, but I’ve already asked all the questions I had and this isn’t a spoiler review, so just don’t worry about it.

But what’s a Deadpool movie without humor? Let’s discuss the jokes. And by let’s discuss, I mean I’ll write my thoughts and then some time later, you’ll be reading them. See? Here you are, reading my thoughts. Anyway, I thought this movie was hilarious. It’s perfect Deadpool-esque humor. Load pop culture references and lewd jokes into a gun and rapid fire them at the audience. It worked for me. Of course when you do that, not all the jokes will be great, but for every joke that didn’t make me laugh, there were five to ten jokes that I found hilarious. Speaking of hilarious, this opening title sequence is amazing. Even better than the first.

Despite being a two hour joke fest, the movie has its heavy moments as well. And some of them (probably most of them) are undercut by humor, but the really heavy stuff is allowed to have its full effect.

I’m gonna talk about the music, cause why not? This movie’s soundtrack is great. The way they used the songs to support the narrative and mood of the scenes was fantastic.

But the big question is, is it better than the first? Well, I’m not sure. I think it’s on par with the first. Not better, and probably not worse, but just as good. Of course, I still wanna watch them back to back to form a more solidified opinion on the matter. But when I think about it, this movie has the same strengths and flaws as the first in my opinion. It’s hilarious, creative, and the action is great (might have been better this time around). It does feel like a bit much at times, but probably no more or less than the first.

So yeah, there ya have it. It’s a great time. If you liked the first, I can’t see how you wouldn’t like this one. If you didn’t like the first, you probably shouldn’t bother with this.

tl:dr: It flirts with the line between too much and the right amount, but pretty much everything is enjoyable.

Rating: 9 out of 10