Review of The Midnight Meat Train (2008) by Halimali H — 16 Apr 2010

The story of the Midnight Meat Train revolves around Leon (Bradley Cooper), a photographer who wants to prove himself to Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields) an art gallerist who is not impressed alot by his work. One night Leon goes into the city's subway to take photographs and there he finds bunch of guys harassing a girl. He takes some photos and then saves her from the guys. The next day, while reading the newspaper he discovers that the girl is missing. Leon then Investigates on similar cases to find out that all the previous cases lead to a butcher named Mahogany (Vinnie Jones). The strange thing is that this butcher has been killing subway passengers for hundred years!!!

Leon's obsession increases day by day on the subject which makes him follow up the butcher every night to picture him while he is killing his victims. His girlfriend Maya (Leslie Bibb) gets worried as this starts to affect him and their relationship so one day she decides to check out that butcher herself with a friend and to get inside his flat. Now I don't want to say what happens next so that I wont spoil the story. What will happen to Leon and his girlfriend? What is the secret behind the killings done by that butcher? You need to watch the movie to know all this.

The Good Stuff:

- The movie had somehow a good atmosphere but again I think the director would have been able to make it darker than how it is.

- Very nice cinematography combined with an interesting story.

- I liked the way the movie ended and it made an interesting watching.

The neutral stuff:

- Acting was OK. Not that good but it was not bad as well. I think Bradley Cooper was cool here. Vinnie Jones did not have dialogue but was appropriate for his role as the tough serial killer.

The bad stuff:

- Not sure but I felt such a movie requires a particular theme in terms of music and this was the major let down for me here. However the film itself had some good sound effects.

Some Interesting Facts:

- The movie got some critical acclaim but did not get the commercial success as this film had a limited release only. The film generated around $3M revenues while the budget was around $15M.

This movie is not intended for everyone as it has high level of violence and some extremely gory scenes.

Final Verdict: Recommended.

The Ratings:

-Entertainment: 70%.

-Performances: 60%.

-Direction: 60%.

-Cinematography/Special effects: 80%.

-Background Music: 40%.

-Duration: 70%.

Overall: 63% ====> 60%.