The first act was treading down The Gray Man territory and I was cringing. Overly stylish, overly confident and a little too quippy and proud of itself. Nothing felt earned. Just big name stars and fancy production design.

Thankfully, David Leitch is slightly a better filmmaker than the Russo's and Brad Pitt, Brian Tyree Henry and Hiroyuki Sanada eventually take over the film. So the final act was a blast for me.

This film is basically a comic book version of 90's pulp crime films by Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and Robert Rodriguez. Brad Pitt was definitely channeling Travolta's soul surfer/gangster, Vincent Vega. Aaron Taylor Johnson & Brian Tyree Smith were Guy Ritchie characters and Bad Bunny's The Wolf could've been from the El Mariachi universe.

Leitch seemed to have missed an opportunity to pay proper homage to 60's Japanese pulp filmmakers like Kinji Fukasaku and Seijun Suzuki for the film's Yakuza backstory.

Also, I didn't hate the cameos. I was eventually won over. Might get better on rewatch.