A bit on the lengthy side (152-minutes), The Bullet Train is still an exciting thriller that, albeit familiar for fans of Speed, features an in-depth story and formidable, and not-cartoonish, villain combined with some adequate visual and special effects for its time.
The Bullet Train
— The Limited Edition Series —
(1975)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Drama
Twilight Time | NR – 152 min. – $24.95 | December 12, 2016
Date Published: 01/05/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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PLOT SYNOPSIS
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| The basis for the 1994 American hit, Speed, The Bullet Train (Shinkansen Daibakuha, 1975) stars Ken Takakura (The Yakuza) as a mad bomber who plants a device on a high-speed Japanese train, programmed to detonate if the train’s speed drops below 80 kilometers per hour. His design: to collect a multi-million-dollar ransom. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.0/5 |
| This release comes with the usual 6-page essay booklet and features are rather light with only the featurette, Big Movie, Big Panic: Junya Sato on The Bullet Train (24:41; HD). |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| The Bullet Train rides onto Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time, presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. The picture, for the most part, does look good with some decent detail throughout while colors, as they tend to be for movies of the 1970s, is more on the muted side, though skin tones do have a natural look. The transfer itself is clean, free of debris or dirt. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track offering clean dialogue levels while the few action scenes do sound nice, giving some fine depth channeled through the center speaker. It’s nothing special but for a 40-year-old film, and a foreign one, is still respectable all things considered. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, No Escape is an all around entertaining film perfect for a Saturday movie night. No, it doesn’t make you think or have any profound performances but the acting isn’t bad with Owen Wilson serving as a fine everyman type of character and Pierce Brosnan in his small part is a lot of fun. This is probably worthy of a rental or, if under $10, purchase. The Blu-ray released by Lionsgate offers so-so video, good audio and an OK selection of bonus material. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.