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 The Midnight Meat Train 

What grade would you give this film?
A 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
B 63%  63%  [ 5 ]
C 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
D 25%  25%  [ 2 ]
F 13%  13%  [ 1 ]
Total votes : 8

 The Midnight Meat Train 
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Post The Midnight Meat Train
The Midnight Meat Train

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The Midnight Meat Train is a 2008 horror film based on Clive Barker's 1984 short story of the same name, which can be found in Volume One of Barker's collection Books of Blood. The film follows a photographer who attempts to track down a serial killer dubbed the "Subway Butcher" and discovers more than he bargained for under the city streets.

The film was directed by Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura and stars Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Vinnie Jones, Brooke Shields and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Its script was adapted by Jeff Buhler, the producer was Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore Entertainment, and it was released on August 1, 2008.

Producer Joe Daley, a long time friend of Buhler's, brought the two writers together and helped develop the script, along with producers Anthony Diblasi and Jorge Saralegui, for their newly minted horror factory The Midnight Picture Company. As of this entry, The Midnight Picture Company was busy shooting Book of Blood, the next film adaptation from the anthology of short stories that spawned Midnight Meat Train.

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Thu Oct 09, 2008 3:10 am
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Jordan Mugen-Honda
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
Whoever decided to dump this movie needs to be immediately strung up by the balls and slapped with a bag of frozen peas, this is Gore based horror done right!

My only real complaint is the opening 1/3 is lopsided towards the violence scenes which are intense and messier then Swedish Ladies mud wrestling. This means the middle 1/3 feels slightly limp in comparision, but then it picks up steam again down the stretch and all is forgiven.

The camerawork is great, the performance of Jones excellent and the ending is quite a nice departure from the twist I was expecting.

Superior Horror.

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Thu Oct 09, 2008 11:29 pm
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loyalfromlondon
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
Indeed.

It's a shame that studio politics forced the dumping of this, as it's actually quite a stylish, scary, and intense piece of work. The first few murders are fairly excellently realized, keeping Vinnie just out of focus - so as to heighten his possible supernaturalness - while amping up the gore and gruesomeness (including a memorable eyeball popping out of head moment). From there the story turns down a character-driven path, developing the obsessiveness of the lead well while still retaining the horror and gore of the first third. And then the last act combines the two into a brilliant finale with some brutal violence and an interesting twist.

On top of that it's got some stylish camerawork (including a superb panning shot during the final fight), solid performances, and a great story. Definitely one of the better American horror films in recent memory.

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Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:10 pm
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Teenage Dream

Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:20 am
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
Got this sitting on the hard drive.

I'll try and watch it tonight. I've heard raves from pretty much everyone that managed to find it during its absolutely brutal theatrical release.


Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:59 pm
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Teenage Dream

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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
I think I kinda missed the boat on this one.

Yeah, it's definitely more interesting than the vast majority of American horror films that find their way to theaters, but it has a lot of problems.

Goofy, Fincher-before-Fincher-really-got-it CGI camera work.
Goofy CGI blood and gore.

And I really don't think it spent enough time building an atmosphere and mood. Everything seemed to happen way too fast. And the ridiculous, WWE-style climax is laughable.


Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:16 pm
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
I'm thinking I'm somewhere betwen makeshift and Gulli on this one. I liked it, but it's not great. I've seen many better horror flicks recently, but this was entertaining, though not much more.

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Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:38 pm
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
This started out pretty well, got old fast, and then turned to pure shit.

I guess I should have expected the ridiculous supernatural doom ending, what with Clive Barker and all, but it was all so...uninteresting.

Once the lead started with the dreams of the train and Killer cut off sausage parts or whatever-the-fuck from his chest I pretty much figured this would be more of the "hero destined to replace killer, oooooooo!" crap that's been done plenty of times before. I can't believe some of you actually found that surprising, shocking, interesting, or even mildly amusing. Wasn't the ending painfully clear--at the very latest--once Hero got those carvings in his chest? What else did anyone think was going to happen?

I don't think I'll ever understand how any "filmmaker" could write this cliche garbage nowadays. In the 80's, yes, I can understand as it wasn't entirely beaten to absolute death and cremated yet. Guess what? Now it is, so think of some better reasons why the various characters need to be alone for scary things to happen and not more "Gee, I suspect this guy is a serial murderer so come on______(insert pointless only-there-to-die friend here), we have to go search his apartment by ourselves and split up while doing so--because we can get more done that way, silly--instead of calling the cops and, if nothing else, making up some bullshit to get them to go with us" nonsense.

It became a joke every time Maya yelled out "JURGIS!!!" after the first dozen times. Why wasn't Jurgis killed right off, anyway, and then hung up like everyone els--oh, that's right, no particular reason other than that's what the filmmakers decided they felt like doing.

The CG blood and FX? No, that's not gross or frightening or anything other than a waste of money and perhaps laughable in the past but inexcusable now that we know it's a bad idea.

Also, the cops--or at the very least, that cop--being in on it is not a twist, it's tired and predictable.

I like Bradley Cooper, but once he started with the obsession part of the plot--if that's the word we're going to use to describe it--he was...well, to put it nicely he was not good. At all.

This just seemed like a pretty okay idea (the serial killer on a train part) stretched out with various bits from other movies and stories before descending into complete and utter nonsense.

It deserved to be dumped.

D


Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:51 pm
Wallflower
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN - 7/10 (B-)

Released at the right time (Maybe October or January) this could have done decent at the Box Office. But honestly, audiences wouldn't have been crazy about it, mostly because of the ending. After seeing it I can't say I blame Lionsgate for dumping it. There are much better horror movies out there that deserve(d) the royal treatment more than this.

That being said, I did like it, but it's nothing great at all and I didn't care for the ridiculous twist at the end. A little too far-fetched for me. Also, while it's plenty gory, there's a lot of distractingly fake-looking CGI.


Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:22 am
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College Boy Z

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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
'Twas alright. Entertaining and fun, definitely, but not as great as I've heard.

The porno-like title doesn't help it.


Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:07 am
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Extraordinary
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN

I thought this might be interesting with Brad Cooper in it and it was a horror gore type movie based on the synopsis from netflix. There certainly was gore to it. I'll give it that and it started off interesting enough for me with the train killings and the hammer type weapon the killer used, but as the film rolled along it just got ridiculous. You had people covering up the crime, not calling police, spying on the killer among other things. Then the last couple fights are nice at the end but the whole final bit is just way out there and not interesting. That just lost me in the end.

Grade - D

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Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:32 am
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Post Re: The Midnight Meat Train
B


It was Clive Barker's name that drew me into this film as well as promise of some really inventive and gory kills. Well, in the latter department it certainly delivered. I remember a review wondering how this movie actually got away with an R-rating and I must say that I agree. This must be one of the most violent and brutal US movies I have seen in quite some time (I am deliberately saying US because the French have recently brought out some even sicker puppies). In particular one scene involving Vinnie Jones, a hammer and an eye popping out of its socket was very impressive. The best thing was that the gore was not just inventive and over-the-top - the scenes were also shot in a very stylish way.

The truth is, style rules here over substance. The movie's story, while bearing an interesting concept, is sadly underdeveloped. I liked the whole build-up a lot, but at the end it just ends up being fairly predictable. The ending of the movie is the logical consequence of what has happened throughout the film, yet it is just so simple and I would really have liked some more explanation on the backstory here. The acting is decent all-around. Vinnie Jones (who has one word of dialogue in the whole movie) is PERFECT in the butcher role, Bradley Cooper does a decent job in what is a pretty difficult role to master and Leslie Bibb just looks cute. The main character's transformation and descent are well-done in the first two-thirds of the movie, but is rushed at the end. Aside from the generic ending and a lack of some explanation, this is an interesting, very Barker-ish, stylish and gory horror flick that leaves a solid impression.

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