Late To The Party - Bullet Train

Imagine hopping on a fast-paced ride of hilarity and action, surrounded by Hollywood's finest - sounds like a dream, right? Late To The Party was inspired by our desire to catch up on some of the biggest films and other media in Pop Culture that we've missed over the years, and for this episode, we talk about the movie Bullet Train!

IMDb Synopsis: Five assassins aboard a swiftly-moving bullet train find out that their missions have something in common.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Gaming. Wait for it. Anime Plus Ultra. Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered and all you gotta do is Wait for it. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Wait for it podcast. I am your co-host, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, and joining me is your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty and Eric.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Back with another exciting episode of Late to the Party and, kind of keeping with the trend of doing like newer films, we are again looking at a movie that came out just last year, and it's interesting that this one came up because I was so.

Speaker 2: 1:00

It was like it kind of reminded me a little bit of the Gran Turismo trailer. Like, leading up to this movie, we kept seeing the bullet train trailer over and over, and, over and over again and, I'm gonna be honest, I had no interest in watching it whatsoever. And then our friend Jordan, you know, had some really glowing things to say about it, and I kept seeing like clips and bloopers pop up on my Instagram algorithm. I don't know if that happened to you, but I was like I kind of want to check this out Because you know I, like Brad Pitt, love a lot of the actors and actresses that are in this movie. So I was like you know what, let's give it a shot. And you know we haven't really talked about it yet, but I feel like I'm pretty glad we got to watch this one.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Yeah, well, I think that Jordan may have hacked your algorithm, because that's possibly.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Possibly. Yeah, that would explain why you immediately got ads and clips for it. But I'm right there with you about the trailers. We brought it up constantly like we're not going to go see bullet train. Stop showing us bullet train. But it was a good time. I've been wanting to see it for quite some time and this fits kind of in that pop culture theme a little bit for the type of movie it is. And then also the just endless amount of cameos, I felt that this movie offered as well. So a lot to dive into and again just to kind of skip ahead excited. We got to watch it as well.

Speaker 2: 2:21

Yeah, it's going to be a fun episode and we are going to talk full spoilers. The movie's been out for about a year, so if you have not watched bullet train and you don't want any spoilers, you have been warned. But, eric, before we jump into this, let people know what late to the party is all about. And yeah, let's break this one down.

Speaker 1: 2:36

Yeah, so this series was inspired by our desire to catch up on some of the biggest films, shows and other media and pop culture that we missed over the years. So late to the party. We're going to be taking a trip down memory lane into bullet train, which came out, as you mentioned, about a year ago, and everybody I felt like was talking just absolute praises of this film and went right over our heads. So we're going to just rewind a little bit, go back in time and talk about this film and if you haven't seen it, you've been warned, check it out and then come back to the episode.

Speaker 2: 3:10

Yeah. So to give you guys a short synopsis for bullet train five assassins board a swiftly moving bullet train. Find out that their missions have something in common. This is directed by David Leach and it stars Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Brian Tyree, Henry a whole slew of people here. Eric and I haven't even gotten into the cameos. Here were. Yuki Sonata also deserves a shout out.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Very, very good Andrew Koji. Excellent, excellent performances in this movie and I didn't know this until after I watched the film. Eric did a little bit of research that this is actually based off of a novel by Kitaro Isaka named Maria Beatle and a very similar concept as far as what, the movie and the between the movie and the book. I'm not sure if you knew that, Eric, but it's. It has me kind of interested as I have entered this age now where I, if I like an anime, I've started purchasing the manga for it, and I just kind of piqued my interest, Like maybe I'd want to check this out. I did the same thing with the Mona. I ended up buying the book for the Mona after seeing the movie, but I thought it was pretty cool because there are quite a few anime action set pieces in this movie, so it did not surprise me that this was from a Japanese author.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Yeah, and in traditional, just kind of entertainment sense, there's also that kind of lingering mystery throughout the movie. So it's not just giving you everything all at once or just kind of regurgitating stuff. It's definitely taking its time to get through everything, which is really nice. So I'm right there with you. I think a book makes sense. I'm not surprised to hear it was a book and, yeah, let me know how that goes, because I'd be interested what they didn't do in the film, that's in the books.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Yeah, well, you know a lot to break down here with this film and you know I've always been a big fan of Brad Pitt. I've always been more in the Brad Pitt camp than Tom Cruise. I think you might like Tom Cruise a little bit more, certainly more than I do, but I've always been a big fan of him. And you and I are big fans of Troy right? We absolutely love that movie.

Speaker 1: 5:14

So we're the biggest Troy fans.

Speaker 2: 5:16

We really are. It's so good Can we watch Troy? Just not even for later.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Yeah, let's watch Troy, let's do it tomorrow.

Speaker 2: 5:22

Let's just watch that. God it's so good. But anyway, brad Pitt is has always been fantastic, of course, and he has great comedic chops. And I'll just start there, eric. This movie is really fucking funny. I did not expect it to be this hilarious, although I guess I should have known, because Brian Tyree Henry is in it. Aaron Taylor Johnson has proven to have really good comedic timing, but it's a really funny movie and that kind of took me by surprise.

Speaker 1: 5:46

No, 100 percent. And the latter two, the twins, absolutely hilarious, the twins.

Speaker 2: 5:52

They're so good, they're awesome.

Speaker 1: 5:53

They're so good. Everything with Thomas the tank engine was fucking gold. I loved it so much and I really wish that there was a possibility for those two characters to to have a spin off in some way. Obviously not going to happen, but again, I like their characters. I like their banter. They were standouts as well as Brad Pitt. He's hilarious as well, shouldn't be surprising. I felt like he doesn't get to do a lot of these films Really. So I really like this side of it, because Brad Pitt is always shown he can be pretty funny.

Speaker 2: 6:29

Yeah, we got paid 20 million dollars to do it, so you know that'll entice him, yeah, probably. So, yeah, really really great. Of course, you mentioned the twins Also the father and son I thought were were really really solid as well. I do want to give a shout out to Joey King, who played Prince, and I could not pinpoint where I had seen her before, so I looked it up in while I was watching the film and she is in the terrible kissing booth movies for Netflix. I don't know if you've ever I've had the displeasure of seeing one kissing. Learning a lot about you today Courtesy of our friend Sam and Kyrie. Shout out to them One of the worst movies I've ever seen and I was like holy shit for her to go from one of those terrible films to going into this and giving a very, very solid performance Really really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2: 7:21

That shit insane, which was so that's a little concerning, but really really good character and again, just kind of weaving all these people together and what they're you know what is going on and how they all ended up here was really interesting. I don't think any of the reveals were like whoa, like mind blowing, nothing like that. It wasn't that crazy, but I enjoyed the ride. No pun intended.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Yeah, no pun intended. No, I mean Joy King was great. I definitely feel like I've seen her in a couple of other things. So calling her the kissing booth girl I think is a little disrespectful.

Speaker 2: 7:58

It was like the first, one of the first things she did. She's also in a very good Hulu series many series as well, but the kissing booth is where I first saw her, that's.

Speaker 1: 8:07

I was like oh, good for you. Yeah, and again, this movie has a lot to offer. It is a lot of fun, it is a thrill ride you know of a you know no pun intended there on the bullet train and it's a really fun ride to be able to go on with, not only from all these different characters point of views, but it's a very simple plot. You're really knowing what you're getting into. A job has to be done. They have to get a briefcase. That's essentially the mystery. That's kind of all behind it is what's going on around this briefcase and what are all these characters? How do they tie back together? So I thought all of that was perfectly fine. The comedy was was gold. The action was cool. You know. It definitely kept me intrigued throughout the film. Definitely a lot of, you know, a little bit of unexpected gore, I didn't, you know. Once the blood started splattering, it was there Pretty brutal pretty brutal.

Speaker 2: 9:02

It was very, very Kingsman-esque yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Yeah, that actually kind of fits. And this movie I think the thing I'll remember the most about it which is kind of a shame that I'm that I'm saying that, but it is kind of true. Like the cameos I'm going to remember the most out of this movie because they happened so infrequently yet so often. Somehow they did both.

Speaker 2: 9:27

Yeah, I don't know, would you consider? I wouldn't consider Bad Bunny a cameo because he's in the trailer, so I don't think that one counts, but he's still very good in it. I love to see that. It's funny to see him recently in so many like physical roles. He did this and of course he's done the wrestling stuff. He's just awesome Like Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny needs to perform at the Super Bowl Half Time show next year. I hope he locks that.

Speaker 1: 9:49

What's that in the music? Good Listen, I've been listening to Bad Bunny recently, so he's.

Speaker 2: 9:53

I don't know what he's saying but it makes me want to learn Spanish and it's fantastic. So, but yeah, he's, he's great. Which one was your favorite, eric? I think mine is probably Zazie Beats, as the what was her character? The Hornet, I think that was probably my favorite one. The what's his name? What's the guy for Magic Mike? Why? Channing Tatum, channing.

Speaker 2: 10:18

Tatum was, was one of those clips that was spoiled for me on Instagram. I was like damn, I wish I could have seen that when it was happening in real time. So that's probably why it took a little bit away from it. But Zazie Beats was my favorite. I definitely thought Channing Tatum was the white, the white devil or the white. I definitely thought it was him at one point, but it was not.

Speaker 1: 10:36

Yeah, that would have been funny. Yeah, no, definitely Channing Tatum's up there. You know, sandra Bullock, I love that, love that cameo, for sure that I would probably say that they're kind of neck and neck. I'm Michael Shannon, though, as the white death Did not see that coming, ryan Reynolds with quick, quick appearance. That was so random. But you know, again, the cameos definitely were a nice piece of it and it's the thing I'm gonna remember the most about this film, in addition to it being very funny. Those are the two things I think the most that stood with me after this. And it's a fun time, it is all right, it is really good. We'll say really good. Doesn't really go into great territory or masterpiece, it's just a really good, fun film. I could absolutely see someone going to the theaters and loving this movie, and a lot of people did.

Speaker 2: 11:29

Yeah, and we'll get to our grades here. As far as our letterbox scores, and I'll tell you, guys, we're rotten tomatoes landed on it, because, yeah, that's one thing you mentioned. As far as theaters, eric, I wish we had seen this in theaters. I'll chalk this up as an L for us. I think it would be a really, really fun theater experience. And you know, who knows, movies are getting re-released all the time. Now. This is, I think, becoming a little bit of a cult classic, because, as far as the rotten tomato reviews, they don't really reflect, I think, the audience scores. So, who knows? And there also, supposedly, is a sequel in the mix, so, which doesn't surprise me. But, yeah, I found this out too, that Sandra Bullock agreed to appear in this movie if Brad Pitt did a cameo for her in the Lost City, which is the Netflix film.

Speaker 1: 12:13

Spoilers, sorry guys, also spoiling another movie which I was never ever seen a little bit of. I haven't watched the whole thing, but yeah, so that makes a ton of sense. I think you might have just been playing the same character.

Speaker 2: 12:23

There you go. Or maybe the character that dies in Deadpool 2.

Speaker 1: 12:26

So maybe Honestly, I think all three of those might be the same character, all the same guy, just the same guy.

Speaker 2: 12:33

I found this interesting as well. The director, david Leach, had been Brad Pitt's stunt double in Troy, mr and Mrs Smith and, I think, world War Z, so they're pretty familiar with each other, which I thought is that's a hell of a career.

Speaker 1: 12:49

What a bad guy.

Speaker 2: 12:51

Yeah, so pretty cool. But I did see that Brad Pitt did quite a few stunts himself. I think Aaron Taylor Johnson actually ended up having to go to the hospital due to one stunt. So he was he was also getting very physical in this movie. But, yeah, really, really good. I mean a lot of just one crazy thing happening after another, and then you just add the snake into the mix with, like, just just escaping because of Brad Pitt's character. Yeah, again, like you said, this was a really, really fun time and I wish we had gone with some friends to go see it in the movies. But yeah, it was. Again, I'm going to chalk this up as a miss on our end for not going to see it earlier and taking the opportunity.

Speaker 1: 13:35

Maybe we I guess we got to go see Grant Charisma we might miss out Maybe or we could just watch this director's films, because apparently we like them John Wick, the first, john Wick, deadpool 2, fast and Furious, hobbs and Shaw, which we like.

Speaker 2: 13:49

Ok, well, I should have known that.

Speaker 1: 13:51

I'm just saying these are a lot of movies. Now Bullet Train, this is a lot of his filmography. We never watched Atomic Blonde, but I was I was good. It's good, yeah, so I was. I was interested from the trailer. I remember that much. So, again, I mean Phil, that's literally almost his full filmography here, so I think we're big fans of this director.

Speaker 2: 14:12

I guess we just really like David Leach and we didn't know it.

Speaker 1: 14:14

We didn't know it, our favorite director of the year, I guess.

Speaker 2: 14:17

I don't know. Yeah, atomic Blonde is a really cool one shot. So you'd like Atomic Blonde for sure, because you know what All those movies have in common they're all a fucking blast. They're all really, really fun. So again, this one, for some reason, somehow just went over our heads. So, yeah, I think we we got to chalk this one up in the alcohol America.

Speaker 1: 14:40

Yeah, no, no, that's that, that's fine. Yeah, I think we can accept that this movie is two hours and seven minutes. Does it need to be that long Is a great question. So I will say on the opposite side of things, you know, as we're speaking freely on the movie, the movie does kind of drag a little bit at points, but not not often Like it's not long periods. We're talking about like three minutes here, three minutes there, where I'm like OK, we could probably cut past all this. All the formality is all the, all the info. It definitely gave me also less flashy original Suicide Squad vibes with, like the visuals. Luckily they didn't do that too much. I was worried that it was going to get very campy, but they didn't. They didn't go too into that and I was happy with that.

Speaker 2: 15:27

I mean what Brad Pitt is flying through the tree. That's literally a Deadpool scene.

Speaker 1: 15:33

I was like well wait a minute. Probably the worst shot of the movie that the whole sequence was pretty, pretty awful, cgi wise. So again, the bullet train itself Outside not great, not great, you know a lot of what's done inside the train is really where the magic happens.

Speaker 2: 15:52

Right, right. So pretty cool. I get really, really fun movie. As far as rotten tomatoes, goes a little rough on the tomato meter. 54%, so critics, not the biggest fans of this, and a 76% audience score, which I thought that was gonna be a lot higher, eric. But yeah, this movie is exactly a reason why I Wish there were point two fives on letterbox, because I I couldn't give it a four, but I think it's better than a three point five. So I would have given it a three point seven five. So I had to settle on a three point five for bullet train, which is its average score on letterbox. So I'm curious to see if you landed exactly there, if you went a little bit lower or or even higher.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Us getting into letterbox. I need to get better about doing it right then in there, otherwise I forget, and I did forget that I need to rank it. On letterbox. I would say a three and a half is fair. Maybe I could go to three point seven, five. I feel like I'd probably need a second viewing for that. I will say this movie should be seen with friends. That would definitely make this Probably higher for that experience. But yeah, no, I think a three and a half is a is completely fair and I think that's um, that's a good, that's a good score.

Speaker 1: 17:08

I don't know, I don't know that this is a four. Again, three and a half to me is really good and that's kind of what I mentioned at the top of the episode. This movie is really good, great, I think, would be in the fours. We're talking about amazing being a four and a half and a masterpiece being a five. So I made that all up just now, so I'm sure I'll have to take that back, but it sounded good coming out, so I'm gonna stick with it.

Speaker 2: 17:29

No, it sounds good, we're just gonna crop it up forever and that's gonna be, and that would just be my ranking square, and then anything below a three is just shit, just awful.

Speaker 2: 17:37

So okay, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it but bullet train is very good, unlike Another movie. But I think, like you said, eric, watching this with friends would be a really good time. I would certainly watch it again with people who haven't seen it before, and I'm glad I did. And you know, if they come out with a sequel, I would be very excited to see these characters return. A ladybug lemon Unfortunately, not tangerine. Honestly, you could do a lemon and tangerine. Aaron Taylor Johnson, brian T Tyree, henry spin-off. I would watch the shit out of that thing, man.

Speaker 1: 18:09

They had yeah such amazing chemistry.

Speaker 2: 18:12

I would absolutely watch that. So, yeah, as you can see, we both very much enjoyed the movie. Definitely worth your time. And you know, eric, whenever we go into a late to the party and we enjoy ourselves, it is a win.

Speaker 1: 18:25

It is. I'm gonna actually do this. This was not something I planned. Um, phil, if you were to pick a Thomas and friend character or Thomas the Tank Engine character to describe yourself, who would that be? I think very, I'm very curious.

Speaker 2: 18:44

I think I might be a Percy. Give me a second. I'm trying to remember which one Percy is. Yeah, percy is the smallest member of the main group of engines. He is a happy little chap who was normally quite happy puffing around the yard and is always keen to Oblige, fact of which other engineer engines are determined to take advantage. So Maybe a Percy with. But I would have to do a little bit more research on the Thomas the Tank engine In characters, but Percy is the one that came to mind first. I. It's kind of a bummer that I can't really remember all of them, because I was heavy into Thomas the Tank Engine when I was a kid, but I've sadly forgotten some of them. What do you think you are? Or who do you think you are?

Speaker 1: 19:32

I don't know, I Also have to do it. That's why I was like when I did this, like last second, I was like I don't even think I really watched Thomas the Tank Engine like I did, but no, just kind of pulling up the the image here. I don't think I'm a diesel. I don't know. What is Edward? What Edward sounds like something. I would be Thomas the Tank Engine. Let's see Edward. Oh, there's an Asian one now, that's perfect.

Speaker 2: 19:59

Okay, hold on A couple Asian ones. Edward, I'm honestly not.

Speaker 1: 20:07

Okay, yeah, he's reliable, helpful, kind, friendly, very wise.

Speaker 2: 20:12

No pretty good see you might be, henry. He was officially built as a dysfunctional prototype engine who needed special Welsh coal to operate properly.

Speaker 1: 20:27

Oh my god following his accident, henry underwent extensive he has a thoroughbred look and, like all thoroughbreds, tends to be somewhat highly strong and prone to illness. I don't want to. I don't want to be Henry I.

Speaker 2: 20:47

Don't want to be Henry, yeah. I don't want to be yeah, I think, either Henry or or maybe a Gordon. I think Gordon was kind of like the wild card one, but I'm not 100% sure. Again, this might have to be its own episode, eric, along with, I think, along with this in the soup bracket. We have a lot to do.

Speaker 1: 21:04

Honestly, we should probably get that started. Yeah, no, that's um. Oh, wow, we really went off the rails there.

Speaker 2: 21:11

Uh, I feel like it's still Relatable because it's still trains. So I think we're fine.

Speaker 1: 21:17

Yeah, no, we're fine, but that's definitely I really lied. That's what I'm gonna remember the most is the Thomas the Tank Engine Reference is so good, great, so good, great.

Speaker 2: 21:26

Well, well, guys, again, thank you so much for joining us for this episode of late to the party. If you want to see what other films we were way, way late on as far as checking out, make sure you check out the show notes at the link tree link. In the show notes You'll find all of the rest of our episodes, as well as our social media pages. If you find yourself listening on either Spotify app, a podcast, wherever you're listening, give us a thumbs up, five stars, whatever the highest praise you can give us on that podcasting app. We would really appreciate it. And if you want to support the show a little bit extra, such is our patron, briar Eric will let you know how to do that.

Speaker 1: 22:00

Yeah, you can join our patreon, where you can get exclusive and bonus content, such as video versions of select episodes, early access and additional perks. You can also go directly to our buzz sprout website and support us there, but we truly appreciate just the likes, the comments, the shares, all of the engagement. You guys have been amazing and we can't wait for some Exciting changes that are gonna be coming to the podcast very soon. With that being said, my name is mr Eric almighty. That is my co-host. Fill the Filipino and, please don't forget, we release new episodes every Monday and Wednesday here on the podcast with bonus content on platforms like tiktok, and all you got to do is wait for it.

Speaker 2: 22:43

So I heard you're looking for a go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it gaming, wait for it anime. Mr Eric almighty, and fill the Filipino.

Speaker 1: 22:57

Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you got to do is Wait for it.

Speaker 2: 23:14

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