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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More static than Speed, February 15, 2008
This review is from: Bullet Train (DVD)
Pop quiz: there's a bomb on board and if you go under 50, it'll go off. What do you do? Well, if you're a Hollywood studio, you move the bomb from 'The Bullet Train' and put it on an L.A. bus and hope that no-one reminds you that Japan did it first in 1975 with this Takakura Ken movie.
More a typical 70s disaster movie than a thriller, with all the stock characters onboard - yes, including the hysterical businessman and obligatory pregnant woman - Takakura Ken broods magnificently as ever as the bad guy with a grudge and a supply of explosive devices while Sonny Chiba is the driver on the train trying to prevent the big bang (no, he doesn't hit anyone for once). Shame it's so dull. There are a couple of mildly interesting plot twists and there's a surprising emphasis on the family of extortionists who are far more sympathetic than the clichéd and irritating passengers or the bungling cops, but there's no reason for it to stretch out to more than two-and-a-half hours. There's also a curious sense of constantly being outside the action, as if a passing spectator rather than a participant. One occasion where Hollywood definitely did it better.
Just to make matters worse, Crash Cinema's Region 1 DVD is atrocious - a poor dubbed transfer that's cut by some 40 minutes. You're better off seeking out Optimum's UK PAL release - it is the uncut subtitled version in a decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer (though the colour is nothing to write home about). Extras on the UK DVD are limited to trailer, poster gallery and a selection of trailers to Chiba's action films.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
If you have seen the movie Speed, then check out where it came from, August 25, 2006
This review is from: Bullet Train (DVD)
I bought this in the kill Chiba 3-pack and while there is NO martial arts in this. It is a very good movie. Sonny Chiba is the train conductor and only has about 5 minutes in the movie btu a great thing to watch is the villian. You may recognoze him as the partner of Michael Douglas in Ridley Scott's Black Rain. He really brings a realism to the character. So literally no action in this movie except for a couple gun shots, but this thing has a very tight plot and will keep you in it all the way.
Crash cinema version has watchable picture quality and is widescreened with acceptable English dubbing.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It excited me when I was a kid, August 2, 2005
I saw this movie about 25 years ago.
I was just a kid, but my memory of this movie is very good and exciting.
When I was watching the movie, the cinema projector in the movie theater burned out. So I only saw half of the film.
I want to see it again, in its entirety.
There is a lot of action and suspense in it.
The american movie "Speed" is based on this Japanese original.
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