For every ingenuity there is a multitude of corny stuff in Bullet Train

Fate is once again ill-disposed for hit man Ladybug (Brad Pitt in a bucket hat) aboard the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Kyoto. In this crazy action film, the Japanese high-speed train contains hardly any passengers who are not trying to kill each other. Almost everyone, certainly not for the first time in film history, wants the briefcase with money.

bullet train is one of those movies you saw a lot around the turn of the century, in Guy Ritchies’ slipstream Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and associates. Complicated story, gangsters orating in ironic tile wisdom, pop-cultural references, grotesque action. Such a film in which every relevant character with a nickname is introduced into the picture, including the poisonous snake that makes its victims bleed from all body orifices. A playing time of more than two hours turns out to be a lot. For every successful sophistication (the whole film is quickly retold from the perspective of a water bottle) there is a multitude of caricatured and corny stuff.