4/5 Has plenty of flaws, but I had a good time.
  by AmoebaAdolescent (Massachusettes, USA)
Like most reviewers here, I saw this movie as a free On Demand flick under the FEARnet category. I had seen previews for it on a horror DVD I own, and it looked decent, so I decided to check it out. I had read no reviews before watching it, so I was pretty open to whatever the movie had to offer.

I have to say, this movie was one he11 of a fun time. Bradley Cooper plays a struggling photographer named Leon, living with his girlfriend played by Brooke Shields. Upon having his work criticized by a prestigious art snob (they explain her qualifications better in the movie, I just don't recall what they are), he decides to follow suspicious, dangerous people in the night with his camera in order to truly capture the "heart of the city". He becomes obsessed with a creepy butcher played by Vinnie Jones, who also happens to be a mass murderer.

First, let's discuss the pros. If you are a gore hound like me, you will not be disappointed by THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN. There's a lot of gruesome stuff here, and the camera never shies away from the killings. There are also a lot of really cool camera angles and POV shots that really add to the movie stylistically. The movie is shot in a way that makes the whole city look muted, dismal, and bleak, adding to the film's dark atmosphere. At times, the movie is truly beautiful to watch. Vinnie Jones is awesome as the killer, totally believable and frightening. Cooper and Shields are pretty good in their roles, and their characters are likable enough.

Now the cons. I'm a fairly pragmatic person, so it was hard for me to suspend my disbelief enough to swallow some ludicrous aspects of the plot. For instance, Leon becomes psychotically obsessed with the butcher awfully fast. And gosh, he's pretty good at hand-to-hand combat for a frigging photographer. And I like gratuitous, excessive violence, but the fight scene at the end is just dumb. For instance, Leon blocks a knife coming at his face using HIS OWN ARM as a shield. I mean really? Seriously? You're totally surrounded by dismembered body parts, and you couldn't use one of them?

Despite all my complaints, I really had a good time watching this. I'm on the fence about buying it, but if I were to see it at a store really cheap, I'd definitely get it. It's a bloody, messy thrill ride, and you'll like it if you can get past the stupidity of some parts.



5/5 Hunter / Gatherer...
  by Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein (under the rubble)
Clive Barker's BOOKS OF BLOOD vols. 1-3 were far ahead of their time (the ridiculous 80s). I didn't think that anyone could capture Barker's stories on film without making a pig's breakfast of it. Well, THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN proves that cinema has finally caught up! Bradley Cooper plays the role of obsessed photographer with the perfect amount of growing bewilderment. Vinnie Jones IS Mahogany, making him a terrifyingly lethal creature w/ no other purpose than to serve out his blood-soaked mission. Mahogany is one of the best über-killers in recent memory. His only competition lately might be Beatrice Dalle's unstoppable berserker from the french masterpiece, INSIDE! The atmosphere of MEAT TRAIN is thick and caustic. A building, irreversible feeling of damnation hangs over everything like a bitter japanese ghost! Few movies give me that thrilling sense of dread and desolation. THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN scratches that maddening itch..

4/5 A Fun and Bloody Ride
  by Graboidz (Westminster, Maryland)
I remember reading this Clive Barker story years ago, but somehow got it tangled up in my mind with another subway horror tale called "The Light at the End". What is it about Subways that make them such a great horror setting? I've rarely ridden on a subway, living in a rural part of America, I would actually have to drive a considerable distance to ride a subway, actually the drive to the station would make the train ride pointless. Still I'm fascinated by films set in and around subways. Maybe it's because they roll around underground through those long dark tunnels, but films and novels set in and around subways and the tunnels have also struck a chord with me. "The Warriors" cruising to Coney, the subway attack in "An American Werewolf in London", the original "Taking of Pelham 1-2-3", getting pinned in the subway car at the end of "Mimic", hell the only memorable scene in that flick "The Church" occured underground with the subway car splattering that dude like a bug on the windsheild. So yes for some reason subways in films have always struck a chord with me.

Well welcome to THE subway horror film. "The Midnight Meat Train" was simply fantastic. The basic plot is that a freelance crime photographer gets the chance to showcase some of his photographic artwork, if he can capture the "heart" of the city on film. The photography journeys out into the night looking to capture the city at it's most raw....and finds it with a mysterious and sinister butcher that he becomes obsessed with.

The gore and special effects are top notch, this is definately not a movie for the squeemish. The blood flows freely, but it's not gratuitous. Ryuhei Kitamura's direction is AMAZING. Some of the point-of-veiw shots from the victims' perspective are mind-blowing, the lighting is extremely eerie, almost as if the entire film were lit with the blue lighting found in butcher freezers or deli-counters. The film is very raw as well, you can almost smell the blood onscreen.

If you want something original, not a remake or "re-imagining", give this movie a try.

4/5 A dark secret beneath the surface...
  by Edmonson (Canada)
"The Midnight Meat Train" is directed by Ryuchei Kitamuri. What struck me initially with this film was how beautifully produced, directed, and lighted it is. Each and every frame is exquisite, and I found myself watching with fascination as each sequence of events unfolded. Anyone who enjoys the paintings of Francis Bacon might find this film particularly enjoyable.

Initially we are introduced to Leon (Bradley Cooper) who is a photographer looking to enter the art world. He's looking for those special, one of a kind photos of riveting moments. This leads him to take more and more chances in the subways photographing often dangerous confrontations. By chance he photographs a man, Mahogany (Vinne Jones), who appeared around the time he saw a woman who was later murdered. He thinks there might be a connection, and begins to follow this strange man who waits in the the subway and then boards the trains at a specific time every night.

One night Leon goes too far and boards the train with Mahogany and discovers the dreadful secret of the murders. This story seems flawed though. Leon is spared, but why? We're told by the train driver that Mahogany is no longer able to do the job, though he seemed to be doing a commendable job right up until he met Leon. The transformation of Leon to murderer seems unbelievable, but it does add an interesting twist to the story nonetheless. There are other aspects of the story that seem to come out of nowhere for dramatic effect, such as the beasts that are fed these corpses. What are these creatures, and where do they come from, and how have they managed to stay hidden from the general public for so long? Why do they have to enlist a man in order to do the murders. Why is the train driver and other humans working for these creatures? Who is the train driver? The ending leaves more questions than answers, but the ride is nevertheless thrilling and fascinating to watch.

2/5 Midnight Meat Train 2.5 stars, Bradley Cooper 0 stars.
  by Sid the Elf (North Pole)
The Midnight Meat Train was an Ondemand leftover that Sid decided to jump on like it was a desperate actress with bad hair, teeth and a bad pink negligee as part of our October Horrorgreatsuccess. We really knew nothing at all about the film, and from the title, we blindly assumed it was an older flick. But then we saw Brooke Shields and Sack Lodge so we knew this was new school B. Like, it was shown on a mere 100 screens in its theatrical release then quickly put out on DVD B. That's what we were dealing with.

What bothers Sid as much as just about anything is potential unfulfilled. This movie was full of it, not good times. This started out as an awesome movie. Great premise, a subway that you get on but you don't leave unless its as a piece of Mario or Luigi Scallopini. Really cool killer(the big guy from Gone in 60 seconds). And to top it all off a killer female lead. Well, not her acting, but Leslie Bibb is a smokeshow. This leads us to problem number 1: How did Cooper not make her his mother-in-law in the first scene? That's not B at all. Problem number 2 was a huge lag in the middle that made this one seem about 3 hours long. Not cool when Sid was primed for some pranking, video games, and Monday Night Football.

The Midnight Meat Train was a decent movie that could have been really great horror. Another strike against it, it was bad horror but not really B. There's a huge difference. It ad some cheesy effects but not enough to make it B. Maybe it was Cooper's character's stupidity/wussiness. Maybe it was Leslie Bibb not giving us a full show. Whatever it was, this one didn't have it. This one would have been kept on the whole time in the old days with no payout. If young Sid was reviewing this one, it'd be a safe bet for 1 star.