Rock-em-Sock-em Movie Stars

By Mark Fields

The jokes and the fight scenes all fly as fast as the Bullet Train of the title in this rollicking if empty cinematic folic. Star Brad Pitt and a talented array of co-stars gamely commit to the comic mayhem. It’s captured in a gleaming, glossy Hollywood vehicle that rarely stops long to take a breath, let alone explain its convoluted plot about a mysterious briefcase and all the people who want their hands on it. The movie is extremely funny and the action sequences are intricate and inventive in the hands of director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, John Wick). But the violence of the film is staggering; it’s played for laughs, but is cartoon violence any less horrifying than violence played straight? Maybe, maybe not. A thrill a minute but check your moral compass at the door.