Yet another movie where the box art and title have stuck in my head for far too long. Let’s take a mostly predictable ride and see if this story takes me where I think I will.
Leon is a struggling photographer in New York, who is trying to make or find his big break. He lives with his girlfriend and takes a ton of black and white photos, usually at night, in the hopes of having a piece that will get him noticed and kick off his career. One night he goes out late to find his shot. Leon stumbles into a situation that quite possibly would have gotten him killed, as he interrupts a group of men attempting to assault a young Asian woman. Leon takes a bunch of photos while egging on the attackers. One advances on him, and most likely would have beat him to death except that, as Leon points out, they are all on CCTV. Leon and the girl are safe and more importantly to him, he has his shot. It’s only later that Leon discovers that the girl he was photographing disappeared shortly after he took her picture. Something else grabs his attention, a man in the last shot of the Asain woman, on the same train.
Leon then becomes obsessed with hunting down and trying to figure out the connection that this mysterious man has with the disappearance of the woman. What he finds is that she is just one of many that have disappeared, and the man (who Leon discovers works at a butchery) is somehow linked to them all. The search for the answer only leads Leon to more questions and more danger for him.
The Midnight Meat Train is based on a short story written by Clive Barker, and it shows, for better or worse. The story is short, that’s for sure, and a bit predictable by the end. Though the brutality of the film is appropriate for the subject matter, it seemed almost cartoony at times. [See Ted Rami’s death] The cast is decent as well. Vinnie Jones is a fantastic, brutal, psychotic killer. Bradley Cooper plays Leon and manages to portray a photographer driven mad by his own hand. Halfway through the flick, I had already guessed correctly where everything would end up, aside from the circumstances that sew up the actual ending of the movie.
Someone recommended that I watch this movie, and I can’t say that I am disappointed by it in the least. I probably won’t go back and revisit The Midnight Meat Train, except maybe once. Just to see if there are any more scenes that allude to more connections with The Butcher prior to Leon finding out what is really going on. It’s worth checking out definitely for the blood of it all, it’s just not … a cut above.
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