The Midnight Meat Train

Initially intriguing yet ultimately atrocious, The Midnight Meat Train follows Bradley Cooper’s Leon, an aspiring photographer, as he begins pursuing a mysterious figure (Vinnie Jones’ Mahogany) responsible for deaths of multiple people aboard the New York City subway system – with the movie detailing Leon’s progressively obsessive endeavors and the impact his dangerous pursuits eventually have on his girlfriend (Leslie Bibb’s Maya) and close confidant (Roger Bart’s Jurgis). There’s little doubt that The Midnight Meat Train, before it goes completely off the rails (so to speak), boasts an eye-catching and appreciatively violent vibe that’s fairly difficult to resist, as filmmaker Ryûhei Kitamura, working from Jeff Buhler’s screenplay, delivers a go-for-broke exercise in over-the-top style that benefits from a typically engaging turn from star Cooper. It does, however, become increasingly clear that there’s just not enough material here to sustain a 100 minute narrative, with the movie suffering from an increasingly repetitive midsection that grows more and more infuriating as time progresses. The revelation that the film’s screenplay has been adapted from a Clive Barker short story is certainly not a surprising one, and Buhler’s wheel-spinning efforts at prolonging the thin plot paves the way for a series of padded-out and entirely needless sequences (including a pointless interlude revolving around Maya and Jurgis’ exploits within Jones’ sinister character’s abode). By the time the admittedly stirring climax rolls around, The Midnight Meat Train has certainly confirmed its place as a completely misbegotten effort that could’ve only worked as an interlude within a horror anthology.

* out of ****