Here things go wrong as much as they go right, as plans constantly have to be revised, moves improvised and risks taken, adding to tensions that are already high-speed to the point of exploding.

The Bullet Train is a highly engaging and satisfying thriller narrative.

Those who assumed that Speed was a knockoff of a certain Bruce Willis hit -- “Die Hard on a bus” was how wags described the Keanu Reeves flick before it opened -- might be surprised to learn that the earlier film it most resembles is this Japanese effort.

There's a ton of material in this film, and all of it benefits from a sense of exhausting duration. All of it would, I think, still receive that benefit at only two hours.