Indie Gems: The Midnight Meat Train

Riding the Subway in the middle of the night is totally safe.

Until Dell talked about this in one of his Thursday Movie Picks. I only remembered it from the Easter egg in Silver Linings Playbook where it was on a marquee at the movie theater in that film. But after hearing him talk about it, I figured this would be good, gory fun.

Leon (Bradley Cooper) is a photographer who is itching to get approval from a big art dealer, Susan. (Brooke Shields) When she tells him not to turn away before he gets the best shot, he breaks up an attempted assault in the subway station one night. But the women he photographs goes missing, and he catches only a glimpse of the last man scene with her, mute Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) who happens to be a murderous butcher. He becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to not only this woman, but others who have gone missing on the Philadelphia subway. 

This movie had an interesting time in production. Judging by the way it was shot, I'm assuming this was intended to be a big 3D horror film. However Lionsgate hired a new exec, Joe Drake who apparently hated the film and gave it a limited release of about 100 theaters in the U.S. It's unfortunate, because the film is good fun. It's very gory, there's lots of blood and things that will make you squirm. 

Bradley Cooper and Leslie Bibb, who plays Leon's girlfriend are both kind of awful, but it works in this strange way. Their acting takes a back seat to Mahogany bashing in people's brains with a giant mallet. The ending is pretty weird. I'm now wondering if another big horror movie may have used this as inspiration for something they made fun of. If I said which movie I was talking about, I'd give it away, and I don't want to do that. Flaws aside this film is very entertaining

Grade: B-

Memorable Quote: "I've got a train to catch." - Leon (Bradley Cooper)