"You never know what horrible fate your bad luck saved you from," is one of many philosophical lines about luck and fate in the slick but satisfying thriller, "Bullet Train." The film, manically directed by David Leitch ("Deadpool 2"), has several characters, from Ladybug (Brad Pitt) to the Prince (Joey King), to the Elder (Hiroyuki Sanada) talking or waxing poetically about fate and luck, luck and fate.
There also several characters, including Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry), Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) — aka "The Twins," and yes, named after the fruits — who talk about Thomas the Tank Engine. (Lemon learned to read people from watching Thomas.) All this talk, while witty and amusing, balances out the film's action, which is also witty and amusing, as well as extremely, excessively, and gleefully violent. One "funny" gratuitously violent sequence has Lemon and Tangerine recounting exactly how many people died in an episode that might give Guy Ritchie fits of envy — and it's scored to Engelbert Humperdink's "Pretty Ribbons." Another involves seeing a character after half their head is literally blown off, which provides a fantastic sight gag. There's more, much more. Some of it funny, some of it painful, some of it is both.
