Vinnie Jones gets to wreak even bloodier mayhem in Lionsgate's unrated DVD and Blu-ray editions of THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN.


THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN


2008, Lionsgate, $39.99, 102m 27s, BR By John Charles


Determined to capture the ugliness and danger of his city, photographer Leon (Bradley Cooper) spends more and more time prowling the streets late at night. A business-suited serial killer named Mahogany (granite- faced Vinnie Jones), who works as a butcher by day, has been spending his evenings pulverizing unlucky subway commuters with an oversized meat tenderizer. While trolling for threatening im- agery around a subway entrance, Leon catches a glimpse of Ma- hogany and begins to track his movements.


Clive Barker produced this middling adaptation of his epony- mous BOOKS OF BLOOD short


story, with Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura (VERSUS, AZUMI), an interesting choice, at the helm. At feature length, it feels a bit distended, and some of the more striking visuals, like the subway car as abattoir, have already been anticipated in gen- eral concept by features like the Saw series. Another debit are the CGI splatter effects, which are even more exaggerated in this unrated version, and so cartoonish at times, they under- mine an otherwise reverent, qual- ity-minded approach to the material. Kitamura does deliver several genuinely cringe-inducing moments and an impressively vi- cious finale, and the piece’s mood and intensity is enhanced considerably by Johannes Ko- bilke and Robb Williamson’s bracingly macabre score. Leslie Bibb (very good as Leon’s per- plexed, but steadfast girlfriend),


Brooke Shields (as an icy, bisexual art gallery diva) and genre cameo king Ted Raimi also appear. The film (running about 5m longer in this director’s cut) pos- sesses a conceptually grainy, grungy, triotone look for much of the running time, but the reso- lution in the 2.35:1 transfer is quite good and the DTS Master Audio is frequently striking. Also included is a laudable, refresh- ingly candid commentary with Kitamura and Barker (who ex- press their displeasure in no un- certain terms with the way Lionsgate executive Joe Drake derailed the film’s intended wide theatrical release), as well as three brief featurettes, the most inter- esting of which showcases Barker’s considerable expertise as a painter. The only HD supple- ments are trailers for other Lionsgate titles. There are no al- ternate language options, save


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