The Midnight Meat Train

This one has been on my list of must sees for quite some time now and it was such a bitch to find I has to have a friend mail it to me. I point this out because it would seem the distibutor (sorry Lionsgate!) skipped a track on this one. If it was ever shown in Toronto I missed it and the DVD is pretty much impossible to track down. Shame as this is one little splatter fest destined to become a fave in the dark circles. I barely remember the short story from the BOOKS OF BLOOD though I remember the title. In many of the colder cities in North America the late subway is refered to as the "meat train" because it used for cruising street hustlers an in joke I'm sure Clive Barker is more than well aware of. Here, we have a butcher going about his nightly business on said trains when I photographer stumbles upon his moonlighting affairs. It's pretty standard as a story until the ending which is one that will leave some happy and others pullling their hair out. Such is life though I had hoped with Ryuhei Kitamura directing they might have taken a more Japanese approach and left the story in an ambiguous fashion. I fully expect people to disagree with me on this which is OK, I just think it would have been better unresolved. As for the butcher, he is played with cold and demneted fervor by the great football (soccer for us North American pussies!) thug Vinnie Jones. I wont say it's his best work but as a full feature role he nails it and many should check this one out just for the fight between him and former UFC fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Bradley Cooper is adequate as our protagonist and Leslie Bibb is surprisingly good here. We have a bit part thrown in for Brooke Shields who sadly does not get her meat tenderized in this one and a little cameo from the lovely kate Mulligan. Special mention must be made of Ted Raimi who has the best death scene by far! I should point out old die-hards may be put off by the CGI splat effects which I will admit are a tad over the top at times but they sure are eye popping. Make sure you get your ticket for this train even if you have to order it from eBay!