There is little that can motivate me to write a review and, as a rule, this happens in two cases: either the film is too good or the film is too bad... Judging by the ratings on IMDB и Kinopoisk, the film was enjoyed by the vast majority, which surprised me on the one hand, but not on the other hand. And undoubtedly - most of the highest rated reviews are manipulated just to promote the film. And apparently, this is exactly the case.
One of the most anticipated action films of 2022 "Faster than bullet" was expected for a reason: here you will David Leitch as a director ("John Wick", "Atomic Blonde", "Deadpool 2", "Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw") and quite a stellar cast: Bred Pitt ("Troy"), Andrew Koji ("Warrior"), Hiroyuki Sanada ("Rush Hour 3", "Mortal Kombat"), Logan Lerman ("Train to Yuma", "Fury"), Zazie Beetz (“Joker”), Channing Tatum (“Throw of Cobra”), Sandra Bullock (“Speed”) and many others. And especially hopes began to be placed on this film against the backdrop of postponements "John Wick 4" и "Tyler Rake 2" for 2023. Another personal reason for waiting for this particular action movie was that I like the concept of a movie shot 90% on a train, like in "Siege 2" with Steven Seagal or "Passenger" with Liam Neeson.
But when the trailer came out, I was a little disappointed. I personally expected a slightly more serious action movie, but in the trailer they showed me some kind of clowning where there was not a hint of seriousness. And this despite the fact that I always advocate a balance between seriousness and self-irony for an action film. As a result, all that was left to expect from the film was good action, which is usually present in films David Leitch.
PLOT OF THE FILM
A mercenary under the code name Ladybug is sent on a new mission: instead of a sick colleague, he must take the Tokyo-Kyoto high-speed train, steal a suitcase and get off at the intermediate station. But completing a simple task becomes very difficult when it turns out that the train is simply teeming with all kinds of killers.
REVIEW OF THE FILM "FASTER THAN A BULLET"
Without going into details, I will describe the overall impression of the film. The first thing that catches your eye is that "Faster than bullet" goes out of its way to try to be a movie Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie. He pushes, pushes, and seems to say: “Come on! I’m entertaining you, have fun! I said, HAVE FUN!” At the same time, giving out pseudo-interesting, pseudo-Tarantino, pseudo-witty conversations between the killers, which, as the authors assumed, should somehow amuse the viewer. Moreover, this lasts for almost the entire 2-hour running time. But everything, absolutely all jokes are off the mark.
And if Tarantino’s narrative pace is smooth, moderate, shot with long, thoughtful shots, atmospheric scenes that you can’t help but get used to, then in the case of "Faster than bullet" we see the opposite: the narrative goes through constant cuts, which turns the film into a music video for epileptics with a clip mentality. I got the impression that the high rhythm of the film was specially set so that people would not have time to comprehend what they saw and heard, because if they think about it, they will be surprised at what a tasteless action they are consuming. The incessant, inappropriate soundtrack, chosen according to who knows what criteria, also works for this.
There are many characters in the film, but I got the impression that most of them are the same person, the same consciousness implanted in different bodies. It is too striking that these characters came from the same pen of a not very good screenwriter who does not know how to fill the characters with individual character. All the characters, not counting the hero Koji, are just cynical killers who don’t care, who don’t care about anything except their own interests. They don’t change or develop throughout the film, which is why it’s not interesting to watch them. And to tell the truth, none of them look like a killer. They look more like actors playing killers.
And this film continues the trend of modern cinema - when all the characters are, to one degree or another, bandits and degenerates, where there is no one to sympathize with or treat with sympathy. But okay, let them all be bandits and degenerates, but at least make them interesting! But everything here is uninteresting (unless you are 16 years old, of course), including getting to know the characters. And even such a cast full of stars and half-stars makes no sense; they do not make the film better.
From the banality of the character Brad Pitt I want to yawn, his always grinning, indifferent and satisfied face is already quite tired of all the past films. Andrew Koji As in "Warrior" walks around the entire film with an extremely sad face, even in "Faster than bullet" this is somehow justified by the plot, but you still get tired of his character, he does not evoke any sympathy or interest. Although, in theory, it was he who should have seemed the most adequate here. Channing Tatum appears only for a couple of gay inappropriate remarks, Sandra Bullok only at the end of the film, and who needs it here anyway? TO Hiroyuke Sanada there are no questions, but the problem is different - against the backdrop of all the shortcomings of the film, its appearance here is meaningless. You could have taken any other Japanese. In my opinion, this appearance only tarnished his film career. I don’t even want to talk about the rest of the actors and characters.
SUMMARY
This film had absolutely all the ingredients to become a good dish for a gourmet of the genre, an attraction film where you can “turn off your brain”, which can be watched many times. But the film is like mixing all your favorite foods into one without taking into account their compatibility and expecting the most delicious dish to come out. They over-peppered the humor, over-salted the plot, over-sweetened the picture, etc.
The film is a failure in all aspects, and even the action doesn’t pull it off, because: there isn’t that much of it, it’s meaningless and is present only so that the viewer doesn’t get bored against the backdrop of a stupid, meaningless, clichéd plot. And it’s hard to enjoy the action with so many cuts when you can’t even savor the beautiful shots, and the shots here are really quite spectacular in places, if not for this flicker. And all this accompanied by absolutely inappropriate music creating a strange mood. "Faster than bullet" reminiscent of Leitch's last two films in many ways "Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw" и "Deadpool 2", which can be described as the dumbest attractions with a lot of action with continuous cuts, stupid and sometimes vulgar jokes.
All that remains is to wish the audience: stop eating American crap, don’t get caught up in advertising and other people’s opinions, think about what you’re watching, analyze and give low ratings to all movie trash.
But I'm afraid that "Faster than bullet" no matter what, will lead in the voting on FFI in summing up the results of action films for 2022 in several nominations, including best action film. I will vote in the nomination "Disappointment of the Year".
Yuri Dudin
Especially for fight-films.info
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Tags: Bullet train, Bred Pitt, David Leitch, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji
Tags: Bullet train, Bred Pitt, David Leitch, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji
I watched it twice, the best thing I've watched this year. I don’t understand why the film is being criticized, this is exactly how action films should be shot.
I looked. As expected, the film turned out to be much better than the review makes it out to be. There are walls of text to write, to prove something and to dispute, but he scores 6-6.5 points (not 7,7 from film search, of course).
I really wanted to see it.
+0,9