The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Brooke Shields and Vinnie Jones

More info: IMDB

Tagline: The most terrifying ride you'll ever take

Plot: Bradley Cooper stars as Leon Kauffman, an ambitious New York photographer whose reckless search for a serial killer known as "the Subway Butcher" (Vinnie Jones) leads him down a dark and dangerous path that puts his own life at risk.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? I won't rule it out but it'll be a few years if I do.

All I knew going into this was that Vinnie Jones was the killer in a movie called, THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN. That's all I needed to know. Clive Barker? I don't care. Names like that don't mean dick to me because he's put out some shit just like Wes Craven, John Carpenter and Stephen King. What matters to me is what you do with it. Everyone says King is a great writer. I'd never know because movies are my bag and most of what I've seen with his name on it stinks. But I digress...

Good flick. My biggest issue is Bibb's character, Maya, Leon's (Cooper) girlfriend. I'm not sold on her character's actions and reactions. She gets too 'survivor girl' which gets annoying. At least there's a good payoff. Without spoiling anything, the ending went to a place that satisfied me and somewhat made for the weaker second act. Vinnie Jones is very menacing and the gore is, well, gory. There's a pretty high body count and the violence is over the top much in the way you'd find it in a Sam Raimi horror film. I accepted it early on and embraced it. If you don't buy into it, it'll just piss you off. I'm sure a second viewing or listening to the commentary (if there is one - I didn't bother to check) may fill in some of the holes or questions but I'm not exactly in a hurry to find out.

And by the way...why is called THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN when they clearly state the killer always gets on the first train after 2 a.m.? HELLO!?!?!