For almost 45 minutes, Yeon Sang-ho’s “Train to Busan” is on pace to become the best, most urgent zombie movie since “28 Days Later.” And then — at once both figuratively and literally — this broad Korean blockbuster derails in slow-motion, sliding off the tracks and bursting into a hot mess of generic moments and digital fire.
But oh, those first 45 minutes: they’re genre heaven (or the undead equivalent). Equal parts “Snowpiercer” and “World War Z,” the film introduces itself as the rare pastiche with enough personality to feel like something new. A sequel of sorts to Yeon’s “Seoul Station,” which received limited festival play and never received U.S. distribution, “Train to Busan” unwraps its premise so elegantly that no prior knowledge is required to get swept along by its opening act.
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(i guess mathematically this should be 2.5 stars? i dunno, whatever, it's my life)