While I don't usually go for super-gory horror films, I really enjoyed MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN. Based on Clive Barker's famous short story, the film is a really dark and disturbing tale- stylishly directed by Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura. While I haven't seen most of his earlier films like VERSUS & AZUMI- I was lucky enough to catch a crazy screening at the 2005 Fantasia of his film GODZILLA: FINAL WAR. I thought that film was a blast and a half, and I'm happy to see that for his first American film, Kitamura seems to have been more or less given a free hand. The film positively oozes style, particularly in the final bad ass showdown between Leon & Mahogany.
Besides the direction, and the cool premise- there's a lot of other reasons MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN works so well. Particularly worth mentioning are the two lead performances from Cooper & Jones. Bradley Cooper's been around for years- and usually plays "the other guy" in romantic comedies like THE WEDDING CRASHERS & FAILURE TO LAUNCH. He does a good job in his first lead role, and I could definitely seem him being a decent action star somewhere down the line.
Vinnie Jones is, of course, bad ass as always. While he doesn't do much talking in the film, Jones manages to convey a lot in this purely physical performance. After watching this film, if I ever find myself alone on a subway (or metro's as they're called in Montreal) with someone looking like Vinnie Jones- I'll definitely be getting out at the next stop.
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