The Midnight Meat Train

This thriller has an interesting atmosphere and a slow, creeping pace, spiced up with blood and brutality. But it is fatally dragged down by unsuitable action visuals and especially the ostentatiously cheap effects used for the murders. I might have tolerated this if it was an experimental B-movie by film-school students who don’t know where their talent lies or what genre they’re working in, unnecessarily relying on superficial pop-cultural showiness just to be “in”. (14.05.2009)

I love these cocktails of atmospheric and bloody horror. The Midnight Meat Train is a lot better in the second half, with blood splattering out of the screen during the fights with the butcher Vinnie Jones while Barker’s atmosphere is everywhere. But the first half isn’t boring either, it has several very tense scenes and the aforementioned Jones makes you afraid just by looking at him, especially when he’s wielding a butcher’s hammer and hatchet. The style is very interesting (the camera, the colours) and makes the film memorable, although there’s a risk that it will not appeal to a big part of the audience – not everyone will like its cold (sterile metal) style. Many people are complaining about the final twist, but I personally liked a lot. (04.10.2008)

It's like two directors pitted against each other. One insists on music with every subsequent murder, while the other keeps urging Master Bradley Cooper to act more dramatically and seriously, the bloodier the whole train becomes. And though I like Bradley's acting in a hundred different ways, except for a few romantic scenes, it simply doesn't fit here. Moreover, due to surprisingly bad Leslie Bibb and the entire second half, there was no surprise ending or nice reveal, just an overly fattening gimmick. (15.07.2013)

Although it is a stupidly simple film with a bizarre ending, the urban feeling and brutal murders elevate it to at least an average level. Kitamura is a master with the camera, as his tricks would confuse even Michael Bay. For horror fans, there are litres of blood and “off the record” events and it is an absolute must-watch. For the rest of the population, it is a pure WTF matter that someone would throw in a corner while others devour it like a raspberry. (19.03.2009)

Disgusting! Sometimes I wonder the roles that popular and good actors are willing to take. True, Bradley Cooper was just getting into the big leagues, and Vinnie Jones has such a naturally deadpan expression that the role of the psychopathic and taciturn butcher is perfect for him, but do these two need to be plunging knives into lifelessly hanging corpses and wallowing in rotting entrails? The Midnight Meat Train is a repulsive spectacle, at first perhaps nicely atmospheric and narratively interesting, but gradually everything gets overshadowed by a cloud of cheap clichés, disgustingly digital and overly bloody murders and relentless carnage in the last quarter of an hour, which, moreover, culminates in one of the most moronic and shocking twists I could ever imagine. I don't mind the brutality, but the creators could have left the sci-fi aside (although it explained everything beautifully). 50% (02.08.2013)