8 Awesome Movies To Watch If You Loved Bullet Train

If you loved the over-the-top action, humor, and witty dialogue of Bullet Train, then here are 8 more movies that I would recommend.  These films have some, if not all, of the components that made Bullet Train a joy for audiences to watch.  Which ones will you see this week? 

8. Guns Akimbo

Amazon Prime

Guns Akimbo is the only film on this list without a theatrical release.  An Amazon Original, the film provides a bloody, eccentric, action fest starring… Daniel Radcliffe? 

In the future, rules have been thrown out the window, as a city-wide fight club, Skizm, streams online.  Radcliff plays Miles, a computer programmer who may be the biggest loser you’ve ever met.  He gets his kicks by being an internet troll. After trolling some people involved in the online game, he falls asleep in his cluttered apartment.  When Miles wakes up, he is shocked to find that both hands have been surgically connected to revolvers. To his surprise, he has been drafted into Skizm and must do everything he can to survive.

Daniel Radcliff is hilariously silly in this fish-out-of-water role. Replace Arnold Schwarzenegger with Daniel Radcliffe in The Running Man and watch as wackiness ensues. 

7. The Long Kiss Goodnight(1996)

Amazon Prime ($1.99)

In The Long Kiss Goodnight, Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) suffers from amnesia.  She doesn’t remember anything past being washed up on shore, pregnant with her now eight-year-old daughter, Caitlin.  A concussion caused by a car accident starts to restore some of her muscle memories.  Lucky for her, as she is attacked at her home by a mysterious figure. She quickly kills the intruder with her special ops training.  Unable to understand why she has these skills, she leaves with private investigator Mitch Hennessy (Samuel L. Jackson) to discover the truth about her past. 

A slightly older film, The Long Kiss Goodnight benefits from the campiness associated with the 80s and 90s action flicks.  Director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2; Cliffhanger) cut his teeth making 80s/early 90s flare.  Shane Black also pens a fun script that gives you great characters for the actors to sink their teeth into.  Samuel L. Jackson still says that The Long Kiss Goodnight is his favorite movie of his to watch.  Do you need any other endorsement?

6. Hot Fuzz (2007)

Hulu

Part of Edgar Wright’s “Cornetto Trilogy” of movies (Shaun of the Dead; At Worlds End), Hot Fuzz reunites our favorite buddy duo, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, to solve mysterious deaths in the small town of Sandford, Gloucestershire.  Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, the best police officer in London. Angel is so annoyingly good at his job that his colleagues get rid of him by reassigning Angel to this small, quiet town.  However, Angel believes something nefarious is happening in the town, and enlists the local dolt of a police constable, Danny Butterman (Frost), to investigate.

Hot Fuzz is slightly less violent than Bullet Train but still packed with over-the-top action.  A tribute to buddy cop movies, the script cleverly intertwines action movie tropes throughout the film. If this is your first time viewing any movie from the “Cornetto Trilogy,” then be careful, as you will want to immediately binge the other two films.

5. Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Amazon Prime ($1.99)

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; In Bruges). Seven Psychopaths is about a writer named Marty (Colin Farrell) struggling to finish his screenplay, “Seven Psychopaths.”  His best friend and dog kidnapper Billy (Sam Rockwell) has the great idea of having Marty interview confessed psychopaths as inspiration. While that is happening, Billy kidnaps a dog belonging to dangerous gangster Charlie (Woody Harrelson), who sets out for revenge.

Seven Psychopaths is a quirky, erratic, violent, dark comedy with some of the best dialogue you will encounter.  The all-star cast also includes the always incredible and enigmatic Christopher Walken, who steals scenes right and left. There are many surprises, twists, and turns along the way. Like Bullet Train, Seven Psychopaths also has a frenetic energy that keeps you on your toes throughout the film. You can rent Seven Psychopaths from Amazon, but you might as well buy it for its rewatchability alone.

4. Nobody (2021)

Amazon Prime 

Everything about Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is boring.  He lives in the suburbs, hates his job, and family dynamics aren’t the best. And yet, Hutch wouldn’t have it any other way.  Unbeknownst to his family and friends, Hutch had another life as the baddest special agent there ever was. Burglars break into his house, embarrass him in front of his son, and steal his daughter’s kitty cat bracelet.  This is unforgivable. Hutch decides to hunt down the burglars, opening the door back to his previous life. 

Nobody gives comedian Bob Odenkirk the John Wick treatment in this action comedy.  It’s a typical story of a protagonist kicking the ass of many who continuously underestimate him. David Leitch produces, and Derek Kolstad (John Wick Franchise) writes the hilarious screenplay.  It would be fantastic if one day it is revealed that Hutch and Wick are in a shared universe and eventually cross paths.  Make it happen, Leitch!   

3. Atomic Blonde (2017)

Amazon Prime ($1.99)

If Bullet Train was your jam, then why not look at David Leitch’s other films? My favorite of Leitch’s directorial work is Atomic Blonde, staring the badass herself, Charlize Theron.

Theron plays Lorraine, an MI6 special agent assigned to retrieve a list containing the names of all MI6 intelligence agents who are actively undercover.  Lorraine must recover the list from the KGB and return it to the agency.  The great John Goodman, James McAvoy, Eddie Marsan, and Til Schweiger round out the cast.

Atomic Blonde is derivative of other spy movies, especially with a McGuffin almost identical to that in Mission Impossible.  Yet, Atomic Blonde’s style and flair are uniquely its own. A more serious film than most on this list, you are engulfed in this world of spies and espionage.  David Leitch’s background as a stuntman aid in his top-notch direction of realistic fight sequences throughout the movie. Charlize Theron is arguably a top five female action star of all time, and Atomic Blonde has a lot to do with that recognition.

2. The Gentlemen (2019)

Netflix

The Gentlemen is a story about Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American who brings marijuana to England and builds a drug empire.  The story follows Mickey’s dealing with different factions of the criminal underworld, trying to strong-arm him out of his business or find ways to undercut him.  

The Gentlemen, came out pre-pandemic and was one of my favorite theater memories before the world shut down for a time. Matthew McConaughey owns the screen, but Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong, Hugh Grant, and the up-and-coming Henry Golding are also fantastic.  

When it comes to violent action comedies with great dialogue and ensemble casts, director Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) is the king.  Ritchie is a master of attracting massive talent to his projects and intermixing multiple storylines to dramatic conclusions. You can easily see similarities in the fast, bantering dialogue of Ritchie’s movies and Leitch’s Bullet Train.  

1. The Nice Guys (2016)

Netflix

The Nice Guys is a criminally underrated Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) film anchored by Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.  This buddy action comedy follows Holland March (Gosling) and Jackson Healy (Crowe).  March is a private investigator hired by the aunt of a movie star, who believes that the reports of her death are untrue.  Healy, a gun for hire, is at odds with March at first, as he is given a job to scare March away from the investigation. However, they reluctantly form a partnership to investigate what happened to Misty and why so many people associated with her end up dead.

The Nice Guys underperformed at the box office, barely recouping its 50-million-dollar budget. It was a shame, as The Nice Guys was one of my top 10 movies that year.  Luckily everyone can hopefully discover this film’s brilliance through streaming.