Welcome to Newsletter #9.

This week we have a film review and the first theatre review on this newsletter. Enjoy!

Film

What do you get if you cross Kill Bill with Scott Pilgrim vs the World? Or if Tarantino and Guy Ritchie's lovechild made a film? The answer to both is Bullet Train! This is David Leitch's latest action film starring Brad Pitt among other familiar faces, including several Hollywood A-lister cameos. Pitt plays Ladybug, an unlucky assassin who is determined to carry out his assignments peacefully. He's been tasked with securing a package on a Japanese bullet train, but soon faces several obstacles in the form of larger-than-life characters, also on board for their own nefarious reasons, which slowly become apparent.

On the face of it (and certainly after watching the trailer) this looks like my kind of film; high-octane action sequences, sharp editing, quippy dialogue, plenty of lols and not taking itself too seriously. It is all those things and I did enjoy it, but sadly I didn't love it. Between the one-dimensional characters and the paper thin plot, there's very little to care about and it starts to unravel the second you stop being distracted by the excellent choreography of the many, many action sequences.

Rating: 6/10

Not on a screen, but a visual experience nonetheless, was finally (thanks to two successive years of Covid cancellations) getting to see Derren Brown's new theatre show 'Showman' last night. I've been a fan of Brown since first watching his initial TV series back in the early 2000s; fascinated at how someone could have so much charisma and influence to be able to 'control your mind' and with an interest in magic, I loved trying to figure out whether his acts were real, staged or somewhere in between.

20 years later and Showman left me feeling the exact same way, albeit on a grander, more intense scale. Derren asks his audiences not to share anything with those who haven't seen the show, although for a good few seconds after this request I genuinely couldn't remember any of the previous two hours and wondered I'd been coerced into forgetting it all! More likely a sign of old age...

So for a spoiler-free review I can start by saying I loved it. His effortless stage presence helps to keep the show light, balancing the uneasiness you experience when you don't quite know how something was done. As you might expect there is a lot of audience interaction and the ways he demonstrates his ability to read people is truly impressive.

Then there is the big spectacle side, where we more closely enter the world of illusion. Is it just a magic trick, set up to feel like my mind is betraying me? Who knows. The grand finale is extraordinary and 12 hours later I'm still sat here trying to figure out how it was all possible.

His UK tour ends this month, but will then be on at the Apollo theatre in London until March. If you get the opportunity to go, do it. You won't regret it.

Rating: 9/10

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If you have any feedback, please get in touch and I hope to see you again for next week’s newsletter.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Adam