Thursday, November 9, 2017

Film Review - Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Murder on the Orient Express is based off of the novel by Agatha Christie and is directed by and stars Sir Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot who boards the Orient Express train in the hopes of returning to London for a well deserved break but a passenger is later murdered and its up to Poirot to solve the case.

This isn’t one of the best films I’ve seen this year but I did enjoy myself quite a bit with this movie and a lot of that comes down firstly to Sir Ken for not only does he direct the film well with lots of interesting angles including his infamous dutch tilts but also by maintaining a tight pace to proceedings and also by making sure the story and the mystery never stray too far away from the train and thus rob the story of its momentum or tension as Poirot solves the case.

And also Branagh himself does well as Inspector Poirot and look the moustache is silly I know but it is what it is okay so I’m going to move on and leave it there as what it far more important is how Branagh goes as Poirot and as I mentioned above he handles himself very well in the part and watching him here made me go “I wouldn’t mind seeing a few films of him as this character” and some of his reveals in both the role and in directing the film are also good for a laugh.

But secondly the films overall cast consisting of Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Derek Jacobi, Josh Gad, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Dame Judi Dench and Olivia Coleman among others are also pretty good and it was sure nice to see Ms Pfeiffer in a good role again plus Depp not come across as a slobbish drunken buffoon pissing his great legacy against his wall after a bender the night before and part of me also did swoon a little whenever Ms Daisy came on screen.

Though thanks to Red Dwarf I knew the outcome of the case the Murder on the Orient Express is a well made and engaging murder mystery and is worth seeing, 3 out of 5.

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