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‘Bullet Train’ Review: Brad Pitt Leads This Gleefully Overloaded, High-Speed Battle Royal

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry and company play in-transit assassins in 'Atomic Blonde' director David Leitch's wildly complicated action vehicle.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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The bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto takes about two hours and 15 minutes — just the right amount of time to pull off a cartoonishly over-the-top action movie, in which half a dozen assassins shoot, stab and otherwise perforate each other’s pretty little faces in pursuit of a briefcase stuffed with cash. It’s a high-stakes game of hot potato, choreographed and executed by “Atomic Blonde” director David Leitch , in which a self-deprecating Brat Pitt wears a bucket hat and oversize specs, Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson play bickering “twin” hit men Lemon and Tangerine, and “The Princess” wedding crasher Joey King (known here as the Prince) is a cunning killer who can fake-cry on command.

These quirky characters — and a handful of others, with names like the Hornet (Zazie Beetz) and the Wolf (Benito A Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny) — are identified by giant on-screen labels superimposed over their flash-frozen mugs, the way Martin Scorsese or Guy Ritchie sometimes intro their ensembles. “Bullet Train” feels like it comes from the same brain as “Snatch,” wearing its pop style on its sleeve — a “Kill Bill”-level mix of martial arts, manga and gabby hit-man-movie influences, minus the vision or wit that implies.

Adapting the pulp Kotaro Isaka novel “MariaBeetle” for a mostly Western cast, Leitch and screenwriter Zak Olkewicz make each of these characters twice as eccentric as necessary, lest audiences’ attention wane for an instant. Maria (as voiced by Sandra Bullock) is the bug in Pitt’s ear, guiding the newly nonviolent tough guy (this anger management joke recently featured in “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” as well) through what’s supposed to be the cinchiest job of his career: Board the bullet train in Tokyo, grab the MacGuffin and step off at the next stop. Cha-ching goes the choo-choo. Except Ladybug (as Pitt’s character is dubbed) is hella unlucky, and there appear to be more murderers crammed together here than Agatha Christie could fit on the Orient Express.

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Meanwhile, innocent bystanders are at a minimum. There’s a busybody woman who keeps shushing Ladybug and Lemon when their fistfighting gets too disruptive, but after a few stops, practically the only passengers who remain aboard are ones who would kill for that briefcase. There’s also an incredibly poisonous boomslang snake, whose venom takes effect in 30 seconds, making victims bleed from their eyes, like poor Logan Lerman (the first character to bite it, serving out the rest of the film in floppy-corpsed “Weekend at Bernie’s” mode).

The movie’s strategy is to keep throwing deadly obstacles at Pitt’s character, who gets his hands on the bulletproof Tumi fairly easily early on. Ladybug’s remarkably good at improvising his way out of trouble — even when the movie literally goes off the rails at the end. Setting all this mayhem on a train wasn’t Leitch’s idea, though the stuntman-turned-director makes the most of that limitation, staging visually interesting set-pieces in different cars. Ladybug and the Wolf have a knife fight in the bar area. Later, he and Tangerine smash up the kitchen. There’s some funny stuff that happens in a neon-lit segment of the train involving the mascot for a local kids’ show, who keeps getting punched in the face. Even the lavatories are fair game.

The fight scenes feel relatively original, which is impressive unto itself, considering how many other creative filmmakers are trying to distinguish themselves in the genre. Leitch tends to approach these standoffs the way Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire once did their dance numbers: The violence needn’t be taken literally (which is tough at times, considering how brutal the bloodshed can be), but rather appreciated mostly for their choreography and capacity to surprise.

Still, there’s something callous about how casually Leitch takes human life. “Bullet Train” reps one of the first and most ambitious pandemic-made blockbusters to be released, demonstrating that Leitch and company felt confident enough the world would go back to normal that they could have the Prince push a 6-year-old off a roof just to lure the kid’s father (Andrew Koji, by far the film’s weakest link) onto the train. King’s character is a real piece of work, wearing a black bob and pink schoolgirl-style getup. She’s a heartless manipulator, frequently posing as an innocent victim to ensnare her prey.

Eventually, “Bullet Train” reveals that behind this in-no-way-coincidental roundup of assassins was an elaborate plan by fearsome underworld boss the White Death (Michael Shannon) to avenge the death of his wife. But he’s not the only one who lost a loved one, as Hiroyuki Sanada’s samurai-like the Elder demonstrates when he boards a stop or two before Kyoto.

The geographical logic of “Bullet Train” doesn’t make much sense, but then, the movie looks as like was produced without the principals so much as stepping foot in Japan. And why not? It’s essentially a live-action cartoon, with high-profile cameos sprinkled in for added laughs. Stylistically, Leitch is trying his darnedest to channel the likes of Tarantino and Ritchie, even if the dialogue and mock-British accents aren’t nearly strong enough to earn such comparisons.

Tangerine and Lemon are likable characters, though the latter is constantly going on about how everything he learned about people comes from “Thomas the Tank Engine” (which explains a lot about how reductive the movie’s understanding of human nature is). Similarly, Ladybug is always quoting trite self-help aphorisms, which invariably get a laugh. This may be a fun enough ride, but such punchlines drive home that neither the characters nor the film they inhabit are particularly deep. Quite the opposite, in fact. As Calvin and Hobbes so aptly put it, their train of thought is still boarding at the station.

Reviewed at Regency Village Theater, Los Angeles, Aug. 1, 2022. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 126 MIN.

• Production: A Sony release of a Columbia Pictures presentation of an 87North production. Producers: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Antoine Fuqua. Executive producers: Brent O’Connor, Ryosuke Saegusa, Yuma Terada, Kat Samick.
• Crew: Director: David Leitch. Screenplay: Zak Olkewicz, based upon the book “Maria Beetle” by Kotaro Isaka. Camera: Jonathan Sela. Editor: Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir. Music: Dominic Lewis.
• With: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito A Martínez Ocasio, Sandra Bullock, Zazie Beetz.

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‘Bullet Train’ Would Be Better If They’d Just Named It ‘Kill Brad, Vol. 1’

• By David Fear

Let us now praise Brad Pitt . Or rather, the whole repertory company of Brad Pitts — the leading man who chased kooky character-actor roles, the matinee idol who stopped worrying and learned to love movie stardom, the wild-card outlier, the endlessly snacking comic relief, the grungy sex symbol, the All-American Adonis next door, the A-list veteran who lets his supernova aura do the talking. You get every single one of them in Bullet Train, the ballistics-and-whistles blockbuster adaptation of Kotaro Isaka’s 2010 crime novel about a commuter train filled with killers; there’s a lot of Brad for your buck here. But it’s that last guy, the just-shy-of-sixtysomething Hollywood elder, who keeps edging his way into this particular spotlight. Peruse the past seven years’ worth of acting work: neo-vanity projects ( By the Sea ) and old-school star vehicles ( Allied ), the lows ( War Machine ) and the nosebleed highs ( Ad Astra and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in the same year!). What connects them is a performer who’s figured out exactly how to use an autumnal presence to his advantage without pandering or playing things up. It’s been three decades since a walking, talking abs-delivery-service sauntered into Thelma and Louise. The man has not just aged well, he’s aged perfectly for the screen.

And Pitt can still carry the weight of a movie on those protein-shake shoulders, which is good, because Bullet Train needs a lot of carrying. A candy-colored concoction of carnage with a substantial body count and even higher empty-calorie count, director David Leitch and screenwriter Zak Olkewicz’s attempt to weave the book’s intersecting narratives into a singular piece of pulp fiction has a tendency to jump the rails at regular intervals. At the center of it all — in more ways than one — is Ladybug, a professional killer coming off a personal funk. He’s had some bad luck on a few jobs, which has given him a bit of a Job complex; he’s convinced some higher power has cursed him for reasons unknown. Thanks to some time off and therapy, however, he’s ready to roll again. His handler, Maria, has started him off on something simple. Get on the bullet train heading out of Tokyo, the disembodied voice on his phone tells him. Grab a briefcase — it’s got a sticker on the handle, you can’t miss it. Get off at the next stop. What could go wrong?

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For starters, there are the two men transporting the item. They’re Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a pair of idiosyncratic British hit men whose reputation precedes them. The former adheres to a philosophy based on Thomas the Tank Engine, complete with archetype breakdowns and sticker sheets. The latter is just your run-of-the-mill asshole. This bickering duo had been hired to retrieve the kidnapped son (Logan Lerman) of a notorious, feared Russian gangster known as “White Death.” That coveted case contains his ransom money. One massacre of either 16 or 17 people later — the exact number is disputed, and thus requires an elaborate flashback counting off murders to settle the argument — Lemon and Tangerine leave with both the manchild and the money. They must hand over both to Dad’s cronies at one of the stops. Except someone’s taken the case. Worse, when the citrus-y pair return to their seats after searching for it, there’s a corpse waiting for them.

Plus there’s Kimura ( Warrior ‘s Andrew Koji), a yakuza’s son whose own young boy is in the hospital after being pushed off a roof. He’s been tipped off the bastard who did the deed is on the train, which turns out to be an ambush by the Prince (Joey King), a snarky teen with her own respective plan for payback. And there’s the Wolf ( Bad Bunny ), a young man decked out in gauche cartel-chic couture who, once upon a time, lost his bride on a very bloody wedding day and has vengeance on his mind, too. And the news keeps reporting the theft of a venomous viper from the zoo, which might be aboard as well — snakes on a train! — and people keep popping up poisoned, blood streaming from their eyes, and also another mythical assassin named the Hornet could be lurking around as well, and the closer everyone gets to their final destination, the more likely that Mr. White Death will make a personal appearance, which tends to end very badly….

Most of this comes straight from the source material, minus a few gender flips and bonus plot additions, and if you’ve read Isaka’s recently translated page-turner, you’ll recognize enough of the novel’s tone to make it a faithful page-to-screen transition. That’s both a feature and a bug: The book itself brims filled with neurotic psychotics and Pop Culture debris, kooky killers with offbeat nicknames and more spilled Type O than a blood bank in a Mack Sennett two-reeler. That Thomas the Tank obsession? It’s part of the original text, next to quirky musings about Virginia Woolf and German silent cinema. The book was first published in 2010, but the dream of the Nineties is alive of Bullet Train, specifically the fever dreams of one American writer-director  in particular from that decade.

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So it wasn’t surprising when Isaka said he wasn’t bothered by his Japanese novel getting the full Hollywood treatment , because the influence of Hollywood feels far stronger in his book than anything culturally related to Japan, Shinkansen setting or not. There’s a strong sense that what you’re really watching is Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino’s valentine to psychotronic J-cinema, get translated from English to Japanese then back to English. All of this sound and fury and Caro syrup and irony, slathered in Kawaii -cutesiness, conjures up an odd déjà vu effect — it’s like being in an echo chamber reverberating someone’s else’s second-generation love and theft right back at you, with diminishing returns. The snake-eating-its-own-tale vibe is strong with this one. They could have just been honest and called it Kill Brad, Vol. 1.

All of which might have been fine if Bullet Train had delivered the goods, the thrills and chills and steroidal summer-flick highs you expect from a dark comedy set on an all-star murder express. Leitch has logged in years as an action co-ordinator and stunt man — he was Pitt’s double on Fight Club — before co-creating John Wick , still the greatest action franchise of the past decade. He was the guy who put Charlize Theron through her paces in Atomic Blonde ; he also made Deadpool 2 , and you can feel that movie’s sniggering nihilism coursing through this film’s veins as well. And while Leitch clearly knows a million different recipes for mayhem, the delirium itself never gets up to its proper speed. Fight sequences and CGI-heavy ballyhoo fizzles to an end before they even begin. Any expectations that Pitt will get the full gun fu/UFC-fighter makeover should be left at the door — a “Brad Wick” joint this ain’t. The overall sense is to simply keep everything else moving so zippity-quick that people will mistake the manic pacing for actual Grand Guignol fun, though a train going nowhere at 285 kilometers per hour is still going nowhere, just faster than usual.

As for the rest of the cast, some deal with their accents and action scenes better than others. Hopefully, Brian Tyree Henry got hazard pay for rocking his atomic-blonde ‘do, and you can feel him and Taylor-Johnson working extra hard to give their curdled-cool banter some sort of electro-shock treatment. Zazie Beetz is forced to end all of her lines with an exclamatory “bitch,” and she deserves better. Michael Shannon shows up late in the game to remind us that we do not deserve him — nobody does more with the less that is the movie’s sketch of a glaring, unhinged eccentric, a.k.a. his sweet spot. It’s not a spoiler to say that Sandra Bullock plays Ladybug’s boss, given she’s in the trailers. A few other famous-face cameos are best left unrevealed, and you’ll leave Bullet Train convinced there’s an informal network of a half-dozen celebrities one phone call away from popping into each other’s movies at a moment’s notice.

But back to that name above the title for a second. It takes a certain type of actor to transcend mediocre-to-massively-disappointing material. It takes a truly rare movie star to not only rise above a mess, however, but convince you that his or her mere presence is what’s keeping it from turning into a complete trainwreck. The amount of casual charisma and commitment Pitt is bringing to this is the one thing that actually differentiates this from being just another stylishly lit, stupid-hip snarkfest. It’s impossible to overestimate how unwatchable this might have been without him injecting a sense of Pittitude into every scene he’s in — whether it’s tossing off Ladybug’s post-therapy platitudes (“Hurt people hurt people”), or gracefully moving through some uncharacteristically clunky set pieces, or simply displaying a WTF-dude? bewilderment when a case of mistaken identity almost gets him gutted. The sheer pleasure of watching him do what he does best comes close to balancing out you suffering through everything else. At every stop along the line, you’ll want to get off. He’s the only thing keeping you on til the bitter end of the line.

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Bullet Train: release date, review, trailer, cast, and everything we know about the Brad Pitt film

Tickets please for the action-packed thriller Bullet Train starring Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock.

One of the biggest new movies and summer blockbusters of 2022, Bullet Train sees Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt taking center stage as one of many trained killers on board the fastest train in the world in a high-octane thrill ride.

Directed by David Leitch, who is best-known for Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Bullet Train sees Pitt's unlucky assassin, Ladybug, boarding the titular train for a simple snatch-and-grab gig that soon goes off the rails. As it turns out, he's not the only trained killer onboard, and his mission sees him crossing paths with these lethal adversaries.

Teasing the movie, Leitch told Empire magazine: "You hear the title Bullet Train and you think, 'Hard-boiled action.' But really it's a deliriously fun, heightened comedic action thriller."  

He added: "There's a little bit of physical comedy. The fights are designed to enhance the characters. We're here to have fun in this super-contained space."

Alongside an all-star cast, the chatter about the much-anticipated film suggests it will also feature an abundance of complex and explosive fight scenes, plus a satisfying sense of pace and tension as the train speeds towards its final destination with nowhere to hide and no way off (bullet trains can reach speeds of over 300mph). 

So jump on board and discover everything you need to know about Bullet Train .

When is the Bullet Train release date?

Bullet Train is now playing exclusively in movie theaters around the world, after premiering in early August.

This is the final stop for the movie after a few detours previously. Bullet Train was first dated for spring 2022, then moved to July 15. It had one other small date shift to July 29 before finally settling on August 5.

To find out where you can catch it, check out our feature on how to watch Bullet Train .

Bullet Train reviews — what the critics are saying

In What To Watch's Bullet Train review , we said that the cast was clearly having a blast and highlighted the fight sequences, but suggested that the blockbuster ran out of steam in its final half hour.

Critics on the whole appear to have a mixed opinion of the film. On Rotten Tomatoes , Bullet Train currently has a 54% critics score, putting it just a few points below the 60% "Fresh" threshold,  with many saying it is entertaining but also a mess.  

Bullet Train plot

Sony's official plot summary for Bullet Train reads: 

"In Bullet Train , Brad Pitt stars as Ladybug, an unlucky assassin determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs gone off the rails. Fate, however, may have other plans, as Ladybug's latest mission puts him on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe—all with connected, yet conflicting, objectives—on the world's fastest train. The end of the line is just the beginning in this non-stop thrill-ride through modern-day Japan from David Leitch, the director of Deadpool 2."

What is Bullet Train based on?

Bullet Train is based on a novel by Kotaro Isaka. It was originally published in 2010 under the title Maria Beetle (now republished with the title Bullet Train ).

The adaptation is written by Zak Olkewicz, whose previous credit is Fear Street: Part 2— 1978 .

Bullet Train cast

Leading the cast is megastar Brad Pitt. He plays hired killer Ladybug, his latest codename. Alongside Brad is Ocean's Eight actor and fellow Hollywood big-hitter Sandra Bullock as who plays Maria Beetle, Ladybug's handler for his latest mission.

Other big names linked with the production include Kick-Ass and Nowhere Boy actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Tangerine, Joey King ( The Kissing Booth ) as Prince, Eternals actor Brian Tyree Henry as Lemon, Andrew Koji ( Warrior ) as Kimura, Hiroyuki Sanada ( Mortal Kombat ) as Elder and hip hop star Bad Bunny (aka Benito A Martínez Ocasio) in as Wolf. Michael Shannon ( Knives Out , Nine Perfect Strangers ) is also on board as The White Death.

Get a more detailed rundown of the Bullet Train cast here .

Is there a Bullet Train trailer?

After a fake promo for the type of train that will be the setting of the action movie (check that out below), the full trailer for Bullet Train i s here, with Brad Pitt having to survive a group of assassins all going after the same briefcase while riding on the locomotive. Watch all the action and hijinks in store below.

And again, here's that teaser we mentioned:

What is Bullet Train rated?

Bullet Train is rated R in the US and 15 in the UK. The reasons for the R rating are described as "strong and bloody violence, pervasive language and brief sexuality."

How long is Bullet Train?

Bullet Train clocks in with a runtime of two hours and six minutes.

Who is director David Leitch?

The director of Bullet Train , David Leitch, began his career as a stuntman and even served as Brad Pitt's stunt double in some of his biggest hits, including Fight Club and Troy .

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Leitch was asked about his previous job as Pitt's stunt double and how their relationship has evolved now he's directing the megastar.

"It was surreal. There were many times on set where I’d sit there and go, 'That’s Brad Pitt!' We have a relationship and a friendship from the movies we did together. It was really cool to come back in this new relationship where I’d grown as an artist, he’s grown as an artist and we are doing something that is leaning into both of our strengths. It’s something special that you haven’t seen from him or me."

While his wife Kelly McCormick added. "I think David was a little intimidated at the very start of the first week because they had such a different dynamic and relationship from before. It was kind of cute for them to figure out their lane and get into a rhythm and then for them to really form a partnership."

Leitch's other directing credits include Atomic Blonde , Deadpool 2, and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw . He was also a producer on John Wick .

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Joanne Lowles has been writing about TV since 2002. After graduating from Cardiff University with a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism, she worked for All About Soap magazine covering the ups and downs of life on the cobbles, the square and the Dales. 

Next came nearly 10 years at TV Times magazine as a writer and then deputy features editor. Here she spent many happy days interviewing the biggest names in entertainment and visiting the sets of some of our most popular shows including Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing . 

With a love of nature and wildlife she’s also interviewed the leading experts in this area including David Attenborough, Chris Packham and Steve Backshall. She’s also travelled the world visiting Mongolia, Canada and South Africa to see how the best in the business make the most brilliant natural history documentaries. 

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The new movie “Bullet Train” takes a track similar to the film “Murder on the Orient Express,” except, unlike Albert Finney with a mustache, hyperactive “Bullet” might send the audience into seizures. 

The lights are glaring neon and the quirky character flashbacks, a la “Family Guy,” arrive rapid-fire. Extended, calming shots come around as often as Halley’s Comet. It’s sensory overload — in a good way.

BULLET TRAIN

Running time: 126 minutes. Rated R (strong and bloody violence, pervasive language, and brief sexuality). In theaters.

And director David Leitch’s movie proves that, even in 2022, trains are excellent settings for sleazy high jinks. (Bong Joon-Ho’s film “ Snowpiercer ” and the musical “ On The Twentieth Century ” are other fine, very different examples.) All types of people ride them, there are clever places to hide and, for long stretches, you’re trapped on board.

“Bullet Train” is a fun flick, to be sure, reminiscent of director Guy Ritchie’s better crime comedies such as “ The Gentlemen ” with Hugh Grant. But, as the title suggests, it’s louder and faster. And, a warning to the squeamish, there’s a swimming pool’s worth of blood.

Brad Pitt plays a mercenary with the code name Ladybug — so-called for his luck, or lack thereof — tasked with recovering a metal briefcase with unknown contents from a train departing from Tokyo. 

Little does Ladybug and his handler (Sandra Bullock on the phone, so she probably only had to show up to set for one day) know that more ne’er-do-wells are aboard the locomotive, including Shakespearean clowns Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who are in possession of both the briefcase and the son of a Russian crime lord called White Death (Michael Shannon). 

Also seated in first class is a terrifying young woman called the Prince (Joey King), who has kidnapped a Japanese man (Andrew Koji) who she plans to use to kill the White Death.

More gangsters pop into frame, such as Wolf (Bad Bunny) and the Hornet (Zazie Beetz), and criminals are offed at random and with great creativity. The first one comes as a real shock and much of the enjoyment derives from guessing who will be killed next — and how.

Leitch, who also helmed the knockabout first “John Wick” movie, has assembled a sexy cast that is willing to get weird. Every character is a neurotic eccentric (Lemon is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, for example) and all the actors make them memorable. 

In this cacophony of activity, some deaths are actually quite sad and serene. Our affection for all of these horrible people really sneaks up on us.

King, in particular, has a Veruca Salt witchiness that garners a scrumptious love-hate response. And Pitt’s chill character has embraced meditation later in life, and is a good fit for an actor who has relaxed a lot in general. Henry’s British accent could use some work, but he’s funny anyway. 

Speaking of “ Murder on the Orient Express ,” Leitch’s movie is leagues better than Kenneth Branagh’s execrable version of Agatha Christie’s ensemble whodunit. There’s real energy and life here — not a mausoleum full of cash-checkers.

Still, the film’s lightness will be a problem for some. Everybody is dry, quick and seemingly unfazed by their dangerous predicament — like they’re dancing a caper rather than part of a crime caper. They have boisterous, exciting fights in full view of other passengers, yet nobody seems to mind.

For a late summer movie, though, it goes down smooth.

And much smoother than your average Amtrak ride.  

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A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

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• Trivia The character of Lady Fay Zhu is loosely based on Anna May Wong (1905-1961) the first Chinese-American actress in Hollywood whose career spanned both silent and sound films.
• Goofs A "Jackass Forever" billboard appears in the 1952 epilogue.

[Jack finds George crying with his head in the toilet]

Jack Conrad : Aw, Georgie. Who was it this time?

George Munn : [panting] Claire.

Jack Conrad : Claire. Well, Claire's a lesbian. That's an uphill battle for anyone.

• Crazy credits The Paramount logo is the 1920s version, fitting the era the film is set in.
• Alternate versions In Singapore, before the film could passed with an R21 classification for theatrical release, the distributor required to remove a scene depicting a deviant sexual act in which the authority felt it has exceeded the classification guidelines which states that "any material that is about or promotes deviant sexual behavior" would be refused classification.
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• $110,000,000 (estimated)
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• Dec 25, 2022
• $63,562,440

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• Runtime 3 hours 9 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

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‘babylon’ review: margot robbie and brad pitt get blitzed by damien chazelle’s nonstop explosion of jazz-age excess.

Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li and Jovan Adepo also star in this feverish look at Hollywood’s transition from silents to talkies, as depravity was edged out by moralism.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Jean smart recalls losing late husband: "it was so unexpected", box office: 'if' hopes to make millions of friends with $40m opening.

The opening half-hour here, from the sepia-toned vintage Paramount logo to the delayed appearance of the movie’s title, is such a syncopated concentration of hedonistic revelry — including a thinly veiled blow-by-blow of the Fatty Arbuckle-Virginia Rappe scandal — it could virtually have fleshed out a full-length feature. Chazelle mashes up bits of historical Tinseltown lore and real-life inspirations with the kind of lurid detail that filled the pages of Kenneth Anger’s once-banned muck-raking compendium, Hollywood Babylon , and there’s no denying the hyper-kinetic energy of the enterprise.

Propelled by Justin Hurwitz’s unrelenting wall-of-sound score, it’s often electrifying, to be sure, and certainly impressive in terms of sheer scale. How often do we get to see hundreds of non-digital extras in anything these days? But even when Chazelle takes a breather from the debauchery and gets his principals on a studio backlot or tries accessing them in more intimate moments, it all seems like one big, noisy, grotesque nostalgia cartoon. The show-offy flashiness behind one elaborately conceived and choreographed sequence after another becomes an impediment to finding a single character worth caring about.

Manny is working on the household staff of producer Don Wallach (Jeff Garlin) when he meets and is instantly intoxicated by wild child Nellie LaRoy ( Margot Robbie ) at one of the legendary parties at DW’s mansion in the hills, still surrounded by miles of undeveloped land.

While the already wired Nellie helps herself to the copious amounts of cocaine and other substances provided for guests, the two strangers bond over their dream of being on a movie set. Nelly is a New Jersey transplant with no credits and no representation, but she’s a creature of driven self-invention. “I’m already a star,” she proclaims, and when Robbie crowdsurfs the dancefloor with ecstatic moves that make her seem possessed, you don’t doubt it.

That extended opening is Chazelle at his most flamboyant. DP Linus Sandgren’s cameras weave at a breathless pace among a heaving throng of bodies either dripping in bugle beads, sequins and fancy headdresses or nude to varying degrees and indulging in more uninhibited sex and drugs than your average night at Studio 54. Just in case you miss the message, the entertainment includes a dwarf bouncing on a giant penis-shaped pogo stick that shoots confetti.

The chronicler of all things Hollywood is Photoplay columnist Elinor St. John ( Jean Smart ), based on British novelist Elinor Glynn, with a dash of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. There’s also Black jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo), inspired by bandleader Curtis Mosby; and Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li), who makes a sultry entrance in a lesbian-chic tuxedo, singing “My Girl’s Pussy,” a pointed homage to queer icon Anna May Wong. But aside from Manny, the people of color in the cast are thinly outlined character sketches.

Chazelle maps the rise and fall of these players in the evolving Hollywood ecosystem as they are chewed up and spat out by the moral decay that eventually was rejected by the American public. That narrative already proved bloated and shrill in John Schlesinger’s 1975 film of the Nathanael West novel, The Day of the Locust . Clearly feeling the urge to cement his status as a visionary, Chazelle pumps it up into something louder, longer, gaudier and more extravagant, but seldom more interesting.

Manny and Nellie achieve their dream of getting on a movie set faster than they imagined. Jack takes a shine to Manny, commandeering him as an assistant, and he swiftly makes himself indispensable during production on a battle scene in a sword-and-sandal epic. A couple of rickety shooting setups away on the Kinoscope lot in the desert, Nellie steps in for the unfortunate starlet who overdosed while cavorting with Fatty Arbuckle — here named “Piggy” — and her exhibitionistic abandon makes her a natural.

Soon Manny is shimmying up the production chain while Nellie is catapulted to stardom before anyone figures out that her partying, gambling and generally trashy behavior might cause problems. The script takes a lazy stab at injecting some poignancy into their connection by showing that both are alone in terms of family, even if Nellie’s opportunistic father (Eric Roberts) turns up to get in on her earnings. But there’s not enough meat on the bones of either character to help them compete with the movie’s hyperactive focus.

The most out-there sequence is a sweaty detour into a criminal underworld so decadent it makes Babylon ’s version of Hollywood seem sanitized. This occurs when selfless Manny, having offered to cover Nellie’s gambling debts, pays a visit to James McKay, a mob boss so seedy he basically exists so that Tobey Maguire can attempt to out-weird Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker combined. McKay leads Manny through an underground maze of freakdom where the gangster can hardly contain his excitement over a rat-eating muscleman. The fact that we’ve seen more imaginative variations on this theme as recently as Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley might make it easier for you to contain yours.

Despite all its meticulous craftsmanship — particularly Florencia Martin’s elaborate production design and eye-catching costumes by Mary Zophres that reference the period with distinct contemporary flourishes, a duality notable also in the women’s hairstyles — much of Babylon feels like overworked pastiche.

Chazelle’s intentions seem serious enough in attempting to shine a light on the non-white and queer people generally given minimal visibility in vintage Tinseltown narratives. But the storylines are so flimsy they seem no more real than the fanciful camp of Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood .

Aside from Nellie’s giddy spiral as the free spirit who won’t be tamed, which Robbie plays with unstinting commitment even when the frantic more-is-more of it becomes abrasive, the only story Chazelle really seems to want to tell is Jack’s.

Babylon follows his fortunes from being the highest paid star in Hollywood to getting unceremoniously dumped by Irving Thalberg (Max Minghella) after failing to make the transition to talkies and having his career decline cruelly chronicled in Photoplay . That yields the movie’s best dramatic scene, in which Jack confronts Elinor with guns blazing and the tough-as-nails columnist coolly douses his fire with some hard truths about the ephemeral nature of stardom. Only the movies endure, she tells him, which is not exactly true given that no one gave a thought to film preservation back then. But Pitt and Smart both seize on the rare breathable moment to find welcome dimension in their characters, even if the outcome that follows for Jack is drearily predictable.

A 1952 coda has Manny wandering into a movie theater to see Singin’ in the Rain and that film’s parallels to his experience in the ’30s trigger a magic-of-cinema reverie that dives back into the past and soars into the future. Some folks will eat this up, with Chazelle informing us that great art will always be bigger than the fucked-up, self-absorbed people making it. Or something like that. But it’s hard to imagine the overstuffed yet insubstantial Babylon finding its way into many screen-classic montages.

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Brad Pitt Movies

Actor and producer Brad Pitt has been nominated for multiple awards , headlined major films for over three decades, and worked with acknowledged masters both as a movie star and the head of his company, Plan B Entertainment. Brad Pitt movies have result in Academy Award nominations three times for his acting—“12 Monkeys,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Moneyball”—and three times for producing—“Moneyball,” “12 Years a Slave,” and “The Big Short”—and he shared in the Best Picture win for Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave.” Brad Pitt has also been nominated for five BAFTA Awards, eight Golden Globes, and three Emmys, along with major nominations and wins from every guild and critics groups in the country. 

Becoming a household name in the ‘90s, Brad Pitt also pushed the profit margins of tabloids with his marriages to A-list stars. For a few years, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were the hottest couple in Hollywood, and then it happened again with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were married from 2000 to 2005. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were marreid from 2014 to 2019.  

He has worked with David Fincher, Terry Gilliam, Terrence Malick, Quentin Tarantino, James Gray, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Soderbergh, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Ridley Scott, Robert Redford, and many more, often collaborating with some of his best directors more than once.

Brad Pitt's Family

Brad Pitt —who actually took his middle name as an actor as his given name was William Bradley Pitt—was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma on December 18, 1963, but the family quickly relocated to Springfield, Missouri, where he spent most of his childhood. Active in theater and sports through his youth, he almost switched gears when he majored in journalism at the University of Missouri, but he fell just short of graduating and moved to Los Angeles when he was in his early 20s. Brad Pitt's height worked to his advantage from a young age, as the actor stands 5' 11".

Brad Pitt Movies of the early-1990s

A series of uncredited and cameo work for young Brad Pitt followed in everything from “Less Than Zero” to “Growing Pains.” TV guest appearances on shows like “Dallas” and “21 Jump Street” helped lead to his first major TV movie part in an NBC flick called “Too Young to Die?,” co-starring Juliette Lewis, with whom Brad Pitt would reunite in 1993’s “Kalifornia.”

The true breakthrough for Brad Pitt came in Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning “Thelma & Louise” in 1991. In a small role—as an object of affection for Geena Davis’ Thelma—he made a big impact. Pitt was on the map and didn’t really look back. His first major lead role came just a year later in Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It,” still one of his most beloved performances. He would play against the movie star image he was already developing with gritty turns in “True Romance” and “Kalifornia.”

Brad Pitt Movies of the mid-1990s

The mid to late ‘90s were a pivotal time in Brad Pitt’s career, launched into blockbuster films like Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” with Tom Cruise, “Legends of the Fall” with Anthony Hopkins, and “Seven” with Morgan Freeman. David Fincher’s 1995 thriller remains a highlight of Pitt’s career, and it’s remarkable that it was released the same year as Terry Gilliam’s “12 Monkeys,” which earned Pitt his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor (he won the equivalent Golden Globe for the performance). 1995 also happens to be the year that Brad Pitt was named People ’s Sexiest Man Alive (which he would win again in 2000).

1996’s “Sleepers” was a reasonable hit, but a string of disappointments would follow, including “The Devil’s Own,” “Seven Years in Tibet,” and “Meet Joe Black,” about which Roger Ebert said, “Pitt is a fine actor, but this performance is a miscalculation.” In his late 30s, Pitt alternated critical and commercial darlings like David Fincher’s “Fight Club” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s Eleven” with less beloved films (yet still profitable) like “The Mexican” and “Spy Game.” The image of Brad Pitt in "Fight Club" is one of the most iconic of his career. 

Brad Pitt Movies of the 2000s

During this time, Brad Pitt had a few high-profile relationships, including an engagement to his “Seven” co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, but it was when Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston wed in 2000 that landed the most headlines. For much of his life, he has been a staple of celebrity news and gossip sites. 

In 2001, Brad Pitt co-founded Plan B Entertainment with Brad Grey and then-wife Jennifer Aniston, changing the definition of what the phrase "Brad Pitt movies" means. Their first production was, naturally, a Brad Pitt movies, 2004’s “Troy.” In the years since, Plan B has had a remarkable run of high-profile and award-nominated films, including Best Picture nominees “The Departed,” “The Tree of Life,” “Moneyball,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Selma,” “The Big Short,” “Moonlight,” and “Vice.”

A turning point for Brad Pitt came in 2005 when he co-starred with Angelina Jolie in Doug Liman’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”. That same year, he divorced Aniston, and would later end up marrying Jolie, although the three have said that Pitt and Aniston didn’t have a contentious split. Jolie and Pitt have revealed that they did fall in love on the set of the Liman film, but that they didn’t start dating until the divorce was final. Either way, the controversy made it one of the biggest Brad Pitt films. 

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie became the hottest Hollywood couple of their era, dubbed “Brangelina” by the press, but Brad Pitt's children earned them a lot of headlines too. While Jolie had their first child together in 2006, they weren’t married until 2014, divorced only two years later in 2016 - Brad Pitt's divorce made headlines around the world. Over the course of their union, they adopted or had six children. Brad Pitt's children are named Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne. Brad Pitt's kids became a major part of the story around him, especially after Brad Pitt's divorce. 

Career highlights of the ‘00s for Brad Pitt included Best Picture nominee “Babel,” two sequels to “Ocean’s,” critical darling “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” the Coens’ Brad Pblack comedy “Burn After Reading,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” and the film that would land him his second Oscar nomination, David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

Brad Pitt Movies of the 2010s

His remarkable career-long streak of quality work continued into the ‘10s in films like “The Tree of Life,” “Moneyball,” “Fury,” “By the Sea,” “The Big Short,” “Allied,” and, in 2019, James Gray's "Ad Astra" and Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” which earned Brad Pitt some of the best reviews of his career. It's arguable that no other actor of Brad Pitt's age ended the decade as critically acclaimed. 

Actor and producer Brad Pitt also has a deep philanthropic resume, campaigning for a proposal in California that would fund stem-cell research, supporting a campaign to fight AIDS and poverty around the world, donating money to help rebuild Chad and Sudan, financing the rebuilding of homes after Hurricane Katrina, and much more through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation , which was founded in 2006. As of 2019, Brad Pitt's net worth is estimated at $300 million. 

The Most Critically-Acclaimed Brad Pitt Movies as an Actor

"12 Years a Slave"

"Moneyball"

"True Romance"

"Inglourious Basterds"

"12 Monkeys"

"The Big Short"

"Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

"The Tree of Life"

The Most Critically-Acclaimed Brad Pitt Movies as a Producer Only

"Moonlight"

"If Beale Street Could Talk"

"The Normal Heart"

"The Departed"

"The Lost City of Z"

Oscar Nominations and Wins for Brad Pitt Movies

1996 - "12 Monkeys" (Nominee)

2009 - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Nominee)

2012 - "Moneyball" (Nominee for Acting and Producing)

2014 - "12 Years a Slave" (Winner for Producing)

2016 - "The Big Short" (Nominee for Producing)

Clips From Brad Pitt Films

Brad Pitt in Fury

Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall

Brad Pitt in Deadpool 2

Brad Pitt in Troy

More Links About Brad Pitt Films

Brad Pitt Filmography

Brad Pitt News

Brad Pitt Interview with Anthony Hopkins

Brad Pitt Interview with The New York Times

Brad Pitt Movies on Netflix

Find on IMDB

Find on Wikipedia

Babylon (2022)

Brian tallerico.

Jack Conrad

Bullet Train (2022)

Matt zoller seitz.

The Lost City (2022)

Abby olcese.

Ad Astra (2019)

Roy McBride

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019)

Cliff Booth

War Machine (2017)

Gen. Glen McMahon

Allied (2016)

Peter sobczynski.

Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016)

Simon abrams.

Narrator (voice)

The Big Short (2015)

Glenn kenny.

Ben Rickert

By the Sea (2015)

Fury (2014)

The Counselor (2013)

Dan callahan.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Susan wloszczyna.

World War Z (2013)

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Roger ebert.

Happy Feet Two (2011)

Will the Krill (voice)

Moneyball (2011)

Billy Beane

The Tree of Life (2011)

Mr. O'Brien

Megamind (2010)

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Lt. Aldo Raine

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Benjamin Button

Burn After Reading (2008)

Chad Feldheimer

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Jesse James

Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Ocean's Twelve (2004)

Troy (2004)

Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas (2003)

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Spy Game (2001)

The Mexican (2001)

Snatch (2001)

Fight Club (1999)

Tyler Durden

Meet Joe Black (1998)

Seven Years In Tibet (1997)

Heinrich Harrer

The Devil's Own (1997)

McGuire/Devaney

Sleepers (1996)

12 Monkeys (1996)

Jeffrey Goines

Seven (1995)

Legends Of The Fall (1995)

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

The Favor (1994)

Kalifornia (1993)

Early Grayce

A River Runs Through It (1992)

Paul MacLean

Cool World (1992)

Frank Harris

Thelma and Louise (1991)

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Keith Law Wants You to Watch Better Baseball Movies

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The Bourne Identity director made headlines by threatening to boycott the premiere of his new movie, Road House. It’s just the latest example of how this idiosyncratic filmmaker can often be his own worst enemy—even when his movies end up being great.

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From On Golden Pond to the recent Bleeding Love, a family drama can be more affecting when it features actual dads and their children. We look at the best and the worst of this niche genre.

Prime Video’s Update of Mr. and Mrs. Smith Crackles with Wit and Creative Energy

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The latest on Blu-ray and streaming, including Trolls 3 and Criterion releases of Blood Simple, Mudbound, and Trainspotting.

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Moths to the Flame: Damien Chazelle on Babylon

An interview with the writer/director of this week's Babylon.

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Brad Pitt: All Upcoming Movies in 2024 and 2025

Cited as one of the most influential figures in Hollywood, William Bradley “Brad” Pitt made his first prominent mark in the role of a cowboy hitchhiker in ‘Thelma & Louise,’ which led him to roles in ‘A River Runs Through It’ and ‘Legends of the Fall.’ He earned his first Academy Award nomination for his performance as Jeffrey Goines in ‘12 Monkeys.’ Since then, Pitt showcased his compelling onscreen presence and versatile acting prowess by featuring in projects of different genres, including David Fincher’s crime film ‘Seven,’ the romantic crime film ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ the historical drama ‘Troy,’ the heist film ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ and the action thriller ‘Bullet Train,’ to name a few.

Pitt received Academy Award nominations for his brilliant performances in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ and ‘Moneyball’ but he finally got his hands on an Oscar as an actor when he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a stuntman in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’ Given his stature and successful career, Pitt has left our readers wondering what to expect from him after his role as Jack Conrad in ‘Babylon.’

1. Wolfs (TBA)

Brad Pitt will reunite with George Clooney as both of them are set to star in Apple TV+’s ‘Wolfs,’ a thriller movie written and directed by Jon Watts. Even though most of the details regarding the plot are kept under wraps, what we can tell you is that the narrative centers upon two lone-wolf professional fixers who get assigned the same job. Apart from featuring as one of the unnamed leads, Pitt is also involved in the project as one of the producers. The film also stars Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, and Poorna Jagannathan. The film is expected to be released on September 20, 2024.

2. Untitled Formula One Racing Movie (TBA)

Pitt is set to star in yet another Apple TV+ sports movie, which is about Sonny Hayes, a Formula One driver who used to race in the 1990s. Hayes gets into a horrible accident during one of his races, forcing him to retire from Formula One. However, one of his friends, who is also a Formula One team owner, gets in touch with him and requests him to get back on the tracks and serve as a mentor to a rookie prodigy named Joshua Pearce on the Apex Grand Prix team. Pitt plays the veteran Hayes while ‘Snowfall’ fame Damson Idris plays Pearce. Pitt is attached to the project as one of the producers as well.

The movie is helmed by ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ fame Joseph Kosinski. Also starring Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, and Lewis Hamilton, the action film’s production was halted due to the SAG-AFRTA strike almost as soon as it went into production in July 2023. It is currently in its filming stage with no reports of release yet.

3. The Movie Critic (TBA)

Brad Pitt will star in Quentin Tarantino’s final film ‘The Movie Critic’ which will be set in 1970s Los Angeles and centers on a film critic who wrote movie reviews for a fictional porno rag called ‘The Popstar Pages.’ Tarantino was inspired by his own experiences as a teen when he put porn magazines inside a vending machine in return for quarters from the cash dispenser. In some of these magazines, he came across the movie critic whom he found interesting. We do not know whether Brad will play the titular role. Paul Walter Hauser is also rumored to be in the film. Tarantino will be both writing and directing. The earlier works of the director-actor duo are ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009) and ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ (2019). ‘The Movie Critic’ is currently in its pre-production stages and is unlikely to arrive before 2025.

Read More: Best Brad Pitt Movies You Must See

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Brad Pitt gets behind the wheel at British Grand Prix for Formula 1 movie

Here's your first look at the untitled film, which also stars Damson Idris and Javier Bardem.

Jessica is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, where she covers TV, movies, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in Bustle, NYLON, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, and more. She lives in California with her dog.

Brad Pitt suited up and got behind the wheel of a race car at the British Grand Prix to film scenes for his upcoming Formula 1 movie.

Pitt and costar Damson Idris immersed themselves in the festivities at Silverstone race track Sunday, donning white racing suits emblazoned with the logo of the film's fictional racing team, APXGP. Formula 1 shared snapshots on Instagram , showing Pitt and Idris posing alongside current F1 champion Max Verstappen and racer Carlos Sainz. A caption added, "Welcome to the grid, APXGP."

After his time on the track, Pitt told Sky News he was feeling "giddy" and shared a few details about the untitled Apple Studios film, revealing that he plays a racer who competed during the '90s but experienced a "horrible crash, craps out and disappears, then he's racing in other disciplines."

Javier Bardem plays a pal of Pitt's character, a team owner overseeing a last-place team. "They're 21-22 on the grid, they've never scored a point, but they have a young phenom, played by Damson Idris, and they bring me in as kind of a Hail Mary and high jinks ensue," Pitt said. "Tell you what's amazing about it — there are cameras mounted all over the car. You've never seen speed, you've never seen just the G-forces like this. It's really, really exciting."

Pitt also offered F1 presenter Martin Brundle, a former racer himself, a cameo in the film, to which Brundle replied, "I'd love to."

Joseph Kosinski ( Top Gun: Maverick , Spiderhead ) is directing the film, and producing alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, Chad Oman, and seven-time F1 champ Lewis Hamilton. Ehren Kruger penned the script, and the cast also includes Kerry Condon and Tobias Menzies .

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Lewis Hamilton's F1 Movie Starring Brad Pitt Surpasses Eye-Watering Budget

P roduction costs for the highly-anticipated Formula One-themed film starring Brad Pitt and co-produced by Lewis Hamilton, have soared beyond its original budget. The project now faces financial pressures, needing a substantial box office success to break-even.

The film, rumored to be called 'Apex' but with no confirmed name yet, has encountered significant financial hurdles that have driven its production costs to surpass the $300 million mark, according to reports from Koimoi.com .

A-list actor Brad Pitt portrays a retired F1 driver who takes under his wing a promising young talent, a role played by Damson Idris, in the fictional Apex Grand Prix team. The cast is further embellished with performances by Kerry Condon and Javier Bardem.

However, the glamour of its cast and the novelty of its setting have come at a high price. Initially projected with a substantial budget, the actual expenses ballooned as the production involved the use of genuine race cars and rigorous safety protocols. These elements, while aiming to provide an authentic racing experience, have notably inflated the costs.

The financial trajectory of 'Apex' became even more precarious due to delays brought on by the Screen Actors' Guild and Writers' Guild of America strike in 2023. The interruptions not only delayed filming but necessitated reshoots of some scenes, adding to the financial strain.

Filming at actual Grand Prix events, such as the iconic Silverstone circuit during the British Grand Prix weekend last year, and using modified F2 cars as stand-ins for F1 cars, director Joseph Kosinski, alongside screenplay co-writer Ehren Kruger, sought to capture the essence of Formula One, embedding real race environments into the film's fabric.

Yet, the lavish expenditure has set a towering break-even point. To cover its escalated costs, 'Apex' must generate over $750 million in global box office revenues, a challenging feat even for a star-studded blockbuster.

Speaking to Sky Sports last year about his involvement in the film and whether he would also feature on screen, Hamilton clarified:

"No, not really, I don't really have any desire to be in front of the camera, but there may be an element in it where maybe I'll slot in and play a small cameo, but at the moment that's not the plan.

"I'm more enjoying the part in the background, making sure that I'm really talking to Joe [Joseph Kosinski] about who we're hiring, making sure that it's diverse, making sure that the sport looks how it's supposed to look in the future, in terms of being more accessible."

Hamilton continued:

"Just to be able to sit there with Joe and Jerry, who are such legends, and then sit there and watch Brad work - I'm learning so much through the process and have even more of an appreciation of what it takes to create a movie.

"I'm sure that will continue to grow as I see this thing slowly grow and build into something special."

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Highest Rated: 100% Big Men (2013)

Lowest Rated: 4% Cool World (1992)

Birthday: Dec 18, 1963

Birthplace: Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA

Born in Oklahoma and raised in Missouri, Brad Pitt viewed Hollywood from afar in his youth. As he came of age, he attended the University of Missouri, but just shy of graduation, he left, setting sail for California so he could try his hand at becoming an actor in the mid-1980s. His early work was mostly uncredited, with appearances in "Less Than Zero" (1987) and an episode of "21 Jump Street" (Fox 1987-1991). His first leading film role was in "The Dark Side of the Sun" (1988), but the film was barely seen. That was followed up by a starring role on the show "Glory Days" (Fox 1990), but that only lasted six episodes. Pitt's first notable role arrived in Ridley Scott's "Thelma & Louise" (1991), which led to another scene-stealing turn a few years later in the Quentin Tarantino-written "True Romance" (1993). Nearly a decade after leaving college to go to California, Pitt broke through in 1994, where he starred in "Interview with the Vampire" (1994) and "Legends of the Fall" (1994). He followed that up in the next few years with memorable performances in David Fincher's "Seven" (1995) and Terry Gilliam's "12 Monkeys" (1995), the latter of which led to his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That good run of acclaim hit a speed bump after Pitt starred in a pair of commercial and critical disappointments in "Seven Years in Tibet" (1997) and "Meet Joe Black" (1998). He wasn't down for long, though, as he reunited with David Fincher for his critically acclaimed turn as Tyler Durden in "Fight Club" (1999). Around that time is when Pitt met Jennifer Aniston. The two married in 2000 and Pitt even earned an Emmy nomination for a guest role alongside Aniston on "Friends" (NBC 1994-2004). At the start of the new millennium, he starred in a number of films, including Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Eleven" (2001) and "Ocean's Twelve" (2004), the Greek epic "Troy" (2004), and "Mr & Mrs. Smith" (2005). He starred opposite Angelina Jolie in "Mr & Mrs. Smith" and that's where their relationship blossomed following Pitt's divorce with Aniston. The pair did not marry until 2014, though they were together in 2005 as Pitt adopted Jolie's children and the two started having their own kids. In 2007, Pitt began a run of acting roles that led to more Oscar buzz and acclaim, starting with "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (2007) and and leading to his Best Actor-nominated performance in Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (2008). A few years later, Pitt notched another Best Actor nomination for his performance as Billy Beane in the baseball-inspired "Moneyball" (2011). He even earned a credit for the Best Picture nomination "Moneyball" received as he was a producer on the movie. Two years later, Pitt would win a Best Picture award for producing "12 Years a Slave" (2013). While winning awards for behind the scenes work, he still kept up as a box office star with "World War Z" (2013). In 2016, Pitt and Jolie separated, coinciding with a stretch where Pitt appeared in more cameos than starring roles. 2019 was a big return, though, as Pitt starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019) and the space drama "Ad Astra" (2019).

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‘IF’: Yes, There’s a Subtle ‘Deadpool’ Easter Egg in Ryan Reynolds’ New Film

Well, technically it’s a nod to “Deadpool 2”

Ryan Reynolds often finds a way to get little winks to “Deadpool” in many of his movies, and that holds true for “IF.” But you need to hang around for the credits to catch it.

The actor stars in Paramount’s new film, in theaters now and written and directed by “A Quiet Place” director John Krasinski, as Cal. Together, he and a young girl named Bea (Cailey Fleming) strive to help all the imaginary friends of the world — or IFs, as they’re called — to find new children to bond with after the kids that dreamed them up have grown into adults and forgotten them.

Cal has all the sass and sarcasm you might expect from a Reynolds character, but there’s no real tie between him and Deadpool. In fact, the easter egg doesn’t even center on Reynolds at all. It instead continues a gag from “Deadpool 2.”

Among the many IFs in this film is one named Keith. He’s invisible and has no lines, but is often hanging out right in everyone’s way. Keith even made most of the trailers for “IF,” causing Reynolds to trip and face-plant multiple times, angrily calling out “Keith!”

Given that Keith has no lines, you wouldn’t expect a famous celebrity to voice him, as is the case with the other IFs — but you’d be wrong. Because, as the credits roll, fans will spot a message: “Introducing Brad Pitt as Keith.”

Now, “Deadpool” fans will almost certainly understand this right away. But for those unfamiliar, Pitt also played an invisible character with no lines in “Deadpool 2.”

He’s known as The Vanisher, and the only reason we know Pitt played him is because, at the start of their mission, he flies into some power lines. When he’s electrocuted, his invisibility wears off, revealing Pitt’s face. He has no lines in the film otherwise, and isn’t seen again.

It’s unclear if the decision to continue the gag came from Reynolds or Krasinski, or possibly both. But nonetheless, it makes for a fun easter egg in the credits.

“IF” is now in theaters everywhere.

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California today

We’re Adding to Our California Movie List

Looking for a movie to watch this weekend? Here are your recommendations.

By Soumya Karlamangla

Looking for a movie to watch this weekend? We’ve got you covered.

For the past several months we’ve been building a California movie list, a collection of films that readers say best reflect our fascinating state. We kicked off the list with the perennially popular classics “Chinatown” and “Vertigo,” and more recently added standouts from the 1990s like “The Big Lebowski” and “Boyz N the Hood.” You can browse the list here , here and here .

Today we’re adding six more, ranging in release date from way back in the 1940s to just before the pandemic.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] with your own choices and why you think they deserve to be included. Happy viewing.

“The Long Goodbye” (1973)

“I am always thrilled to see the Pacific Coast Highway, and this movie has several scenes set in Malibu. Something about the California light is perfectly captured here. It’s bleached out, but sinister at the same time. Sleazy, cool and dark, and mostly in daylight. Also, no one can match the appeal of a young Elliott Gould in a suit and cigarette. It’s a fact.” — Natella Kataev, Los Angeles

“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963)

“The popular madcap adventure with Spencer Tracy was filmed all over California, from Newbury Park to Sonoma to Palm Springs, Orange County to Camarillo, Thousand Oaks to Santa Monica. When I first saw it in a theater in the late 1970s in Santa Monica, it was fun to be in an audience of locals, all making noises when the film showed the actors driving south on the Pacific Coast Highway, and we all knew it was actually showing them going south, and oohing in recognition at the scenes filmed in the well-known Pacific Palisades Park nearby.” — Elizabeth Good, Aptos

“Sunset Boulevard” (1950) and “The Player” (1992)

“It’s a tossup between these two films. Both films go into the personal stories and tragedies that arise from Hollywood and moviemaking, and the setting of each film is so L.A. The films were made 40-plus years apart, yet so much is the same.” — Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Corona del Mar

“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (2019)

“Lived my 69 years in California and no movie has captured an era as well as this one. It was remarkable. I felt like I was back in L.A. at that time. I have watched it three times, and every detail is so perfect.” — Robin McDuff, Santa Cruz

“Double Indemnity” (1944)

“This is a quintessential film noir, written by Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. The lighting and play of shadow (love the black and white approach), terse dialogue, Barbara Stanwyck’s femme fatale who exposes Fred McMurray’s inner darkness and the inexorable descent from good guy to murderer makes this a gem of the genre.” — Laura Berthold Monteros, Los Angeles

The rest of the news

Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking yesterday at a climate conference at the Vatican, accused former President Donald J. Trump of “open corruption” regarding his appeal to fossil fuel executives for campaign donations in exchange for policy promises.

The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week over a challenge to Proposition 22 , a ballot initiative approved by voters in 2020 that allows companies like Uber to treat their employees like independent contractors, CalMatters reports.

Southern California

A college professor who was accused of striking a Jewish counterprotester during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Thousand Oaks last year will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter and battery , The Associated Press reports.

Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles has ordered an immediate increase in law enforcement personnel on Metro trains and buses after a series of attacks in recent weeks, NBC Los Angeles reports.

Central California

T.J. Cox, who represented parts of the San Joaquin Valley in Congress from 2018 to 2020, has accepted a plea deal in a case involving federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering, The Fresno Bee reports , citing court documents.

Northern California

At least a dozen people were arrested at the University of California, Berkeley, after the police ordered protesters to disperse from a new encampment that had been erected at a fire-damaged complex on campus.

California Forever, the company seeking to build a new city in Solano County, says that a dozen companies have pledged to open start-ups in the proposed city, KQED reports.

And before you go, some good news

The water polo star and Olympic gold medalist Maggie Steffens was raised in Danville in a family of notable aquatics athletes. Her father started playing water polo back when he still lived in Puerto Rico, and her sister was one of her teammates at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Steffens was a junior at Stanford when she was invited to a party at the Old Pro, a bar in Palo Alto, in December 2016 (after she’d won two Olympic gold medals). It was at this party that she met Robert Conner, her future husband .

Conner was determined to see Steffens again after he’d left the party, even if that meant meeting hundreds of miles away.

“Maggie was the first person in my life I was immediately drawn to,” he said.

Steffens was interested in Conner, too, after he treated her to a Cuba libre. “It’s the drink of Puerto Rico,” Steffens said. “I was like, this guy knows me.”

The instant chemistry remained during their first date at a Cuban restaurant. Years later, they got married at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back on Monday. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword .

Halina Bennet and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox .

Soumya Karlamangla reports on California news and culture and is based in San Francisco. She writes the California Today newsletter. More about Soumya Karlamangla