“I have a train to catch.”
-Leon Kauffman
Directed by: Ryuhei Kitamura...wait, the same Ryuhei Kitamura that directed the 2014 Lupin the Third movie? Huh.
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields, Roger Bart, Ted Raimi, Vinnie Jones
Trailer/Video: Considering how badly the studio screwed the advertising, I'm surprised it got a trailer at all!
The premise: A photographer goes to investigate a serial killer known as the “Subway Butcher”, and finds more than he bargained for.
My Familiarity With the Movie: I seem to remember seeing some ads for it online in the summer of 2008.
Random thoughts as I watch it:
- The Midnight Meat Train, starring Rocket Raccoon and the Juggernaut!
- Clive Barker’s a vegetarian who hates New York, right? I’m just guessing here, because it certainly doesn’t show in his work.
- ...that was sarcasm, by the way.
- This is the second movie based on a Clive Barker story that I’ve seen that features Ted Raimi being killed by the villain. Does Barker have something against the guy?
- I do like how, while Maya doesn’t believe Leon at first, she doesn’t dismiss him immediately and actually starts to investigate herself.
- I kinda like how Mahogany is always sharply dressed and professional as he goes about killing people. Kinda reminds me of Yael Okuzaki from “Jigen’s Gravestone”.
- A nice little lock-and-load montage.
- Some action!
- And the genre of movie has changed.
- That explains why Mahogany was always so quiet. He had no tongue!
- And we’re back at the first scene, so the whole thing was a flashback giving us context for this opening.
The Good:
- Solid all around.
- Great directing, with grimy visuals that bring to mind movies like “Se7en”.
- Great acting. Vinnie Jones in particular was very stoic and menacing, but the scene with the kids selling candy shows us that he’s not all bad. And Brooke Shields as the art gallery director is fun.
- LOTS of blood and gore and unsettling imagery (especially anything involving eyes)
- The plot takes some interesting twists, and the swerve from slasher film to cosmic horror story is carefully foreshadowed in hindsight.
The Bad:
- The sex scene in the diner was entirely pointless. Seriously, why did that happen?
- Jurgis, I feel, wasn’t much of a character, and barely even a plot device.
- The ending doesn’t explain as much as it probably should...but again, that might not be so bad, since the mystery does kinda add to the horror, but the big reveal does feel a bit underdeveloped.
Best Scare: Probably Ted Raimi getting his eyes knocked out of their sockets due to a hammer to the cranium.
What Did We Learn Today? That “The Midnight Meat Train” sounds a lot like a euphemism for a penis when you try to tell your friend about the movie.
Recommended? Yes. Definitely moreso than his Lupin movie, which was boring. The Midnight Meat Train was great!
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