CommentsOff on Film Review: Murder On The Orient Express (USA, 2017) beautifully captures the essence of Agatha Christie’s material With its classic style, striking ensemble, and lack of action-heavy set pieces, Murder on the Orient Express may be a little too refined for modern audiences versed in the ways of today’s distraction-centric
Home News Streaming Image credit Netflix In this era ruled by IP, is it utterly delightful that the original murder-mystery Knives Out has become one of the most high-profile franchises. Rian Johnson’s 2019 film and its sequel, Glass Onion, are inspired by Agatha Christie’s work, but bear a modern sensibility and style. Knives Out follows the brilliant master detective Benoit Blanc, whose cases typically involve a motley group of haves and have nots. In the first movie, he investigates the death of a wealthy patriarch whose strained family relationships make all his relatives suspects. In Glass Onion, Blanc is invited to an island by a tech mogul for a murder-mystery game, only for it to turn real and deadly. Netflix reportedly paid $469 million for the rights to two Knives Out sequels. Glass Onion was the first, and a second should be in the works. But it may be several years before Johnson can get to it. In the meantime, watch these seven ensemble-driven murder-mystery movies like Knives Out and Glass Onion. Plus, if you’ve got time to binge, check out great detective shows to stream right 2006Image credit Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoRian Johnson made Knives Out with a bit of murder-mystery experience under his belt. His directorial debut, Brick, is a whodunnit set in a high school. Johnson cleverly uses teen tropes to mimic an old-school noir cliques instead of gangs, slang that’s as opaque as 30s-era jargon and a loner serving as a hard-boiled Frye Joseph Gordon-Levitt is disturbed when he receives a call from his ex-girlfriend Emily Emilie de Ravin begging for help. The next day, he finds her dead body and vows to solve her murder himself. To do so, Brendan must decode Emily’s final mysterious message, and surf the social strata of his high school. The clues point to a local drug baron nicknamed the Pin Lukas Haas. Rent/buy on Amazon or AppleClue 1985Image credit Allstar Picture Library Ltd. / Alamy Stock PhotoThe big-screen adaptation of the classic murder-mystery board game was a flop in theaters, but has found new life as a cult favorite. It’s beloved for a campy sense of humor, witty and often racy dialogue, scenery-chewing performances and madcap multiple a secluded New England mansion, six guests arrive for a dinner party. They’re all given aliases Mrs. Peacock, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Professor Plum, and Miss Scarlet. When a seventh guest, Mr. Boddy Lee Ving, turns up dead, the others become suspects. With the police on their way, they start pointing fingers at each on Prime Video or Paramount PlusMurder on the Orient Express 2017Image credit Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoAgatha Christie’s mystery novels served as a source of inspiration for Johnson, so we naturally have to include two film adaptations on this list. The first is Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 version of Murder on the Orient Express the 1947 take is also very good. Like Johnson, Branagh fills out his ensemble with big stars, including Judi Dench, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Michelle Pfeiffer and Johnny Depp. Branagh himself plays the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, enormous mustache and all. While traveling on the luxurious Orient Express, Poirot is called upon to solve the murder of a rich American businessman. He interrogates the passengers and crew, hoping to find the killer before they strike on Amazon or AppleDeath on the Nile 1978Image credit Album / Alamy Stock PhotoOur second Agatha Christie movie pick is this star-studded 1978 adaptation of Death on the Nile Branagh also remade it, in 2022. The cast is stacked Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow and David Diven. Peter Ustinov portrays Poirot, who happens to be on board a luxury cruise on the Nile River when a newlywed heiress is murdered. Poirot is on the case, along with trusted friend Colonel Race Niven. They discover many of the steam ship’s passengers had motive to kill the woman, including her maid, a kleptomaniac socialite and a Communist writer. And of course, you can’t discount her husband or his free with ads on Freevee, Pluto, The Roku Channel or TubiGosford Park 2001Image credit Maximum Film / Alamy Stock PhotoLike Knives Out and Glass Onion, Gosford Park takes place in an extravagant setting and features a cast of heavy hitters. The names include Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Charles Dance, Kelly Macdonald and Richard E. Grant. Robert Altman’s satirical whodunnit puts more focus on the class clash between the upper-crust elite and their servants as they spend the weekend at an English country estate. Everyone is hiding secrets of some kind, whether they are financial, sexual or criminal — or all three! So, when one of the guests is killed, they are all suspectsRent/buy on Amazon or AppleThe Usual Suspects 1995Image credit ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoA murder-mystery is nothing without twists and turns, and The Usual Suspects might feature one of cinema’s greatest red herrings. After a ship fire kills 27 people, one of the two survivors is the disabled con man Roger "Verbal" Kint Kevin Spacey. During his police interrogation, Verbal relates how he and his associates came to be on the ship. In the previous weeks, Verbal claims that a crime lord named Keyser Soze arranged for a group of five criminals to pull off a heist. Soze is considered a mythic figure in the underworld, but things turn deadly when Verbal and his partners get close to identifying him. Nothing is exactly what it seems, though, as the police and FBI soon free with ads on Freevee, Pluto or TubiZootopia 2016Image credit Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock PhotoHere’s a more family-friendly ensemble mystery that is just as satisfying, entertaining and clever as the more mature titles on this list. The animated movie is set in the city of Zootopia, which is populated by anthropomorphic mammals. Judy Hopps Ginnifer Goodwin is proud to be the first rabbit to join the police force, but soon learns enforcing the law is no picnic. When a river otter is one of the latest mammals to go missing, Judy volunteers for the case. Unfortunately, it entails teaming up with the sly fox con artist Nick Wilde Jason Bateman. As they track down clues and talk to various mammals of interest, they uncover a much larger conspiracy than they had imagined. Watch on Disney PlusMore from Tom's Guide9 movies like John WickThe best Netflix movies to watch right now15 summer movies we can't wait to see Instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Kelly is a senior writer covering streaming media for Tom’s Guide, so basically, she watches TV for a living. Previously, she was a freelance entertainment writer for Yahoo, Vulture, TV Guide and other outlets. When she’s not watching TV and movies for work, she’s watching them for fun, seeing live music, writing songs, knitting and gardening. Most Popular

AgathaChristie's Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express [New Blu-ray]. Please view all photos for condition

Story Based on Agatha Christie’s celebrated crime mystery novel, the film revolves around the murder of a dubious businessman aboard the luxurious first class compartment of the Orient express. With almost every co-passenger being a suspect, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot’s Kenneth Branagh sharp deduction skills are put to test once Loaded with mysterious intentions, cheeky humour, clever repartee and an ensemble cast that comprises some of cinema’s biggest names, Murder on the Orient Express makes for an intriguing watch. Strangers being stranded on a stalled train makes for a great premise, given the thrill of finding a killer lurking this dangerous train ride has its own delays if not derailment. Kenneth Branagh who plays the most crucial character of Poirot and directs the film as well, looks like he is trying to bite off more than he can he manages to infuse the necessary underlying tension, awkwardness and silence between his characters, he and his dramatic moustache and accent struggle to make this retelling of 1930s whodunit, appeal to the contemporary audience. To set an entire movie in just one frame train compartment and yet make it look engaging is another challenge. Branagh wins some, loses particularly liked how he captures his characters as they steal a glance at each other. You wish the story played around their unspoken emotions a little more before diving straight into the investigation. Character buildup seems hurried and thus of Poirot and his obsession for balance’, only if Branagh had maintained that as a director as well. Barring Michelle Pfeiffer and Branagh himself, most talented actors like Judi Dench and Penelope Cruz get lost in the despite the glitches and avalanches, thanks to a stellar cast and gripping source material, this mysterious train journey is worth taking. Does it have a twist in the end? You have to watch the movie to know that.

Murder she wrote, and Hollywood loved her for it. Or they used to, at least — plundering Agatha Christie’s vast catalog of posh, stabby whodunits for On a certain level, you can’t help but wonder how yet another production of Murder On The Orient Express even exists in 2017. It’s not as if audiences have been begging for more Agatha Christie content in recent years or that there’s suddenly been a massive revival in drawing room mysteries to explain why a studio would want to make a blockbuster version of Christie potboiler. It likely exists as a big expensive Kenneth Branagh ego trip, surrounded by a bunch of famous friends as cover. This thing shouldn’t have made it through the studio system at all, especially as a grand and expensive studio release. Johnny Depp in Murder on the Orient Express 2017 – image via 21st Century Fox Yet on another level, it kind of makes sense. After all, many moons ago the paperback murder mysteries that Christie specialized in had a similar level of cultural cache and success as comic books. Plus, this famous property is also technically part of a larger franchise linked by Christie’s super detective Hercule Poirot. Fox likely looked at the star-packed project and saw the potential for a blockbuster franchise with just enough period prestige to qualify as awards bait and bring in a bundle from older audiences. Sure, there’s a certain desperation involved to stretch Agatha Christie into a potential repeatable Hollywood franchise. But hey! Maybe it could work. Well, sadly, that seems unlikely when you actually shove Branagh’s big safe gamble into your eyeholes. That’s not to say that Murder on the Orient Express is a particularly bad movie—because it’s not. It’s fine. It’s perfectly decent and totally watchable. It’s just not particularly exciting despite all the famous faces and blockbuster razzmatazz. There’s very little here that didn’t work better in the 1974 cinematic adaptation of this story and not only will viewers who remember that version likely shrug off the new one, but the creaky old conventions in play are unlikely to bring in many new viewers. Sure, murder and intrigue and famous and big ol’ set pieces all pop up in the flick on the regular, just in ways that feel awkwardly out of date and forced into contemporary mainstream filmmaking styles at once. Kenneth Branagh and Daisy Ridley in Murder on the Orient Express 2017 – image via 21st Century Fox At the centre of it all is Kenneth Branagh, not just over-directing the hell out of the movie so that every camera angle is a canted show off shot filled with unnecessary CGI effects to needlessly expand the scale, but also overacting as a Belgian super detective who is a cross between a less funny Inspector Clouseau and a less exciting Sherlock Holmes. The guy goes big as both director and actor, chewing scenery and whipping the camera around like a Michael Bay oddly obsessed with gentle early 20th century mysteries. It can get a bit overbearing, but it’s also frequently fun. There are few blockbuster specialists in history as unexpected as Branagh and he’s gotten good at what he does. Sure the focus is middlebrow and dated, but that’s to be expected from the Branagh at this point. Mugging overacting isn’t always a given with the guy, but that’s fine. After all, he’s got a hell of a cast to try and overshadow at the centre. Indeed, there’s virtually no one in this sprawling list of murder suspects who isn’t super famous or at least instantly recognizable. The big name is Johnny Depp, playing a dastardly jerk pretty much destined to be murdered from the second he opens his mouth and spits out a vulgar old timey criminal accent in a distinctly British tale. After Depp’s role is reduced to a bloody corpse, it’s up to the likes of Judi Dench, Daisy Ridley, Willem Dafoe, Josh Gad, Penelope Cruz, and Michelle Pfeiffer to act super suspicious as Branagh runs through the suspects. Some of the performers are wasted, some are overused, some are awkwardly out of place, and exactly one of them shines brightly. That’d be Michelle Pfeiffer, who does so much with so little you can’t help but hope that she’s primed for a comeback. Other than that, it’s fun to see these famous faces do shifty-eyed acting. But ultimately, this type of mystery writing and characterization has been around for so long that little of it surprises. The story is still well told and lands on a pretty great solution to all the parlour games, but it ultimately feels old fashioned rather than nostalgic. The type of story best suited to BBC broadcast, no many how many famous faces, special effects, and show-off camera moves Branagh lavishes all over the material. Judi Dench and Olivia Colman in Murder on the Orient Express 2017 – image via 21st Century Fox That’s ultimately the biggest problem with Murder On The Orient Express; we’ve been here before and enough times that there’s little need to do it again. Sure, it’s kind of fun to watch a clearly amused Kenneth Branagh get to play with one of the most expensive train sets ever constructed while sharing the stage with a bunch of famous friends. It’s just also a bit rich to think that Branagh and the studio seem so cockily convinced that they can stretch this thing into a blockbuster franchise for grownups. This is a passable bit of light entertainment, but hardly something worthy of a multi-year and film investment. Fortunately, it’s highly unlikely enough people will show up for this stagey bit of faux blockbusterdom to imagine it all leading to an Agatha Christie Cinematic Universe. It’ll likely be a quickly dismissed and forgotten experiment. But hey, at least Branagh and a bunch of his famous friends had a bunch of fun making a movie, right? Sure, it would have been better if audiences had even half as much fun watching the results. But hey, you can’t have everything, right?
Imostly went to Murder on the Orient Express on the basis of the trailer, which showed a big cast of luvvie actors who seemed to be having an infectiously fun time together. Some of the names in the credits: Michelle Pfeiffer, Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley and Penélope Cruz.
There is a moment early in Kenneth Branagh’s intricately constructed adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit when Hercule Poirot Branagh stands on the deck of a ship as it leaves Istanbul. Poirot is captured center frame The deck, the railing, the adjacent cabin and the sea itself are balanced perfectly around him. The shot is illustrative of Murder on the Orient Express as a whole, which centers upon Poirot as the audience’s guide through the cinematic lattice, and also as the center of the film’s thematic and indeed philosophical exploration. As one would expect in a detective drama, Poirot provides the balance between mystery and understanding, but this conceit goes further, as this very balance becomes less steady and understanding less certain as the narrative unfolds. The twists and turns of the story are well known to many. This reviewer, however, had the pleasure of not knowing the story at all and therefore encountered the titular murder and subsequent investigation as a series of reveals and genuine surprises. Even those familiar with the story, however, may find much to enjoy with Branagh’s stylish presentation and delivery. Director of photography Haris Zambarloukos creates a mobile and captivating cinematography, including some extraordinary overhead shots that delay showing the full extent of a scene just long enough for the viewer to cease expecting it, before the camera pans to reveal further details. Zambarloukos also captures much of the film in long takes reminiscent of the work of Emmanuel Lubezki in “Birdman” and “The Revenant.” Like the latter of these, a cold and snowy environment enshrouds the events of Murder On The Orient Express, vast mountains dwarfing the eponymous train as it moves with a smooth motion similar to that of the camera. This fluid visual style neatly complements the wattage of the starry cast who play the passengers aboard the famous train, all of which are neatly sketched and provide a colorful collection of characters. From Johnny Depp’s “Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales” oily Edward Ratchett who spars words with Poirot over cake, to Judi Dench’s “Victoria and Abdul” haughty Princess Dragomiroff and her seemingly downtrodden maid Hildegarde Schmidt Olivia Colman, “Tyrannosaur”; from Michelle Pfeiffer’s “mother!” overly garrulous Caroline Hubbard to regular Branagh collaborator Derek Jacobi’s “My Week with Marilyn” Edward Henry Masterman; from Willem Dafoe’s “The Florida Project” curiously accented Gerhard Hardman to Daisy Ridley’s “Star Wars The Last Jedi” stellar turn as the cool and collected Mary Debenham, each passenger/suspect is more than they seem and provides an excellent foil to Poirot. Yet the film ensures that Poirot himself is also layered, as a constant strain of melancholy plays behind Branagh’s searching eyes and flamboyant mustache. Poirot’s remarkable deductive abilities and suggestions of obsessive compulsive disorder are balanced with regular references to a photograph of a lost love, and a broader sadness at a world that he believes is not how it should be. This belief feeds into the philosophical investigation of Murder on the Orient Express, which seems to develop in response to Poirot’s a rather naïve moral perspective, expressed early in the film “I can only see a world as it should be. It makes an imperfection stick out like the nose on your face.” His view proves highly significant, as while the viewer may agree or disagree with Poirot, it makes sense that a detective would create a mental construct as a bulwark against the contradictions and iniquities that Branagh’s character encounters. But as Poirot and the audience learns, if no one is what they seem, perhaps the world at large is similarly dubious and possessed of shades of gray. This conceit plays into the visuals, as at times the largely digital exteriors are at odds with the physical interiors. Jim Clay’s production design evokes a sense of period, location and society, but the digital effects seem overly pristine and smack of artifice, modernity and transience. Yet this tension is thematically effective as Murder On The Orient Express is acutely interested in the tensions between artifice and reality. Many shots capture the characters through multi-paned windows, expressing the multiple roles they play and the various perspectives available, both narratively and morally. The film emphasizes such relativity in moments when Poirot reconstructs the events of the titular and other crimes, in a manner similar though more reserved than that seen in “The Limehouse Golem” earlier this year. Also unlike that film, Murder On The Orient Express eschews gore, which again supports the somewhat conservative morality that Poirot puts forward, and adds further meat to the philosophical meal. So much visual and narrative backflipping might become wearing if without purpose, but where the film goes with this perspective proves to be arresting and feels quite radical. At one point there seems to be a resolution that feels somewhat anticlimactic, but more is still to come before Branagh/Poirot delivers the coup de grace that is both expected yet refreshing and pleasingly ambiguous. This ambiguity undercuts the overtly artificial construction of the film’s milieu, demonstrating that standards of morality and ethics may be as much a construct as the mechanisms of a railroad, or indeed a plot. It is the film’s philosophical investigation, that perhaps Ludwig Wittgenstein might enjoy, that elevates Murder on the Orient Express into something special. Combined with his starry cast, intricate and vivacious storytelling, Branagh has breathed new life into a classic story, making it fresh, vibrant and relevant.
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Thetrick is to film the hell out of an ensemble cast of incredible actors, each of them putting their own spin on a timeless classic, and to have a Choo-choo choose this whole idea of remaking a murder mystery, especially one of the most popular murder mysteries ever made, is inherently fraught with peril. After all, a lot of people in the audience already know “whodunnit”, either because they’ve read it, seen it, or heard about it through good old-fashioned cultural it was exceptionally smart to get Kenneth Branagh to remake Murder on the Orient Express. The director of Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet has built his whole reputation on re-staging classic tales that had already been re-staged thousands of times. He knows that the trick to making another Murder on the Orient Express isn’t to keep us guessing. Agatha Christie’s impeccable story does all of that heavy lifting for him. The trick is to film the hell out of an ensemble cast of incredible actors, each of them putting their own spin on a timeless classic, and to have a grand old time doing on the Orient Express stars Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot, an obsessive-compulsive detective who is desperate for a vacation. But his trip on the Orient Express, en route from Istanbul, comes to a sudden halt when an avalanche stops the train in its tracks. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s now a dead body on board. Someone has been stabbed a dozen times and every one of the passengers in that train car - except for Poirot, of course - is now a out his cast There’s a governess with a secret, played by Daisy Ridley, and a doctor with his own secrets, played by Leslie Odom Jr. There’s a shady American businessman, played by Johnny Depp. There’s a racist Austrian professor, played by Willem Dafoe. There’s a stuffy princess played by Judi Dench, and her put-upon servant, played by Olivia Colman. There’s the victim’s alcoholic assistant, played by Josh Gad, and his long-suffering valet, played by Derek Jacobi. There’s a deeply religious woman with a past, played by Penélope Cruz, and a flirtatious socialite, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. It goes on like cast is dazzling and Kenneth Branagh gives each of them their moment to shine, as they are interrogated one-by-one. The luscious cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos makes even the most confined spaces seem full of portent and possibility, and the deft adaptation by Michael Green keeps the film sprinting swiftly from one memorable sequence to another. Murder on the Orient Express speeds along just like, well, the Orient Express, giving us plenty of time to take in the sites while moving steadily and suspensefully towards its final, shocking on the Orient Express Cast of CharactersBut although he’s got one hell of an ensemble, Branagh as usual saves the juiciest part for himself. His rendition of Poirot is heroic and hilarious, driven by compulsion but impishly amused by his own cleverness. As the mystery plows forward, and the clues make less and less sense, his uncertainty tears him apart. You can always see Poirot’s gears turning, and it’s delightful when the engine works and tragic when it Branagh is phenomenal in front of and behind the camera because he seems to love playing with these toys, from the enchanting prologue that gives weight to Poirot’s legend, to the ambitious long takes that remind you of just how dazzling this ensemble is. He loves his cast so much that when he assembles them into the same shot together, he stages them like Da Vinci’s Last Supper. And the action gets just as much attention as the dialogue, so that the smallest moments are just as captivating at the big ones, and that’s really, truly on the Orient Express may not be a particularly “necessary” adaptation. If you’ve seen Sidney Lumet’s Oscar-winning film from 1974, you’ve already seen a pitch perfect rendition of Agatha Christie at her best. But Branagh’s interpretation is just as delightful in some ways, and almost as delightful in all the others. It’s a classy, riveting remake, and it will make you want to see even more adventures featuring this particular This ArticleMurder on the Orient Express ReviewamazingChoo-choo choose this engrossing new adaptation of Murder on the Orient Bibbiani Murderon the Orient Express Review By Rich Cline The latest adaptation of Agatha Christie's 83-year-old classic whodunit, this lavish, star-studded film is old-style entertainment. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Admittedly I enjoyed this movie a little less than expected. It looks beautiful, has an A-list cast and of course is adapted from a book by legendary crime writer Agatha Christie. I took a Christie expert to the theatre with me, who has over the years read everything that bears her name. When Kenneth Branagh appeared on screen for the first time, she turned to me and said "No, Nooo, Noooooo". So if you're a hardcore Hercule Poirot fan, then you may find this hard to watch as Brannagh does not embody that character as faithfully as he is written. If you don't care about that whatsoever then, good news, you'll probably enjoy this incarnation a lot more. There are a lot of very well known actors in this that share screen time with each other and don't take up a lot of individual attention. Daisy Ridley and Michelle Pfeiffer do seem to get more time. Pfeifer is electric; I wish she'd do more movies. Of course, there were no weak performances as you would expect from a group of this calibre. Johnny Depp as much as I love him does ham it up terribly, this seems to be an ongoing feature of all his work these days, but his character is the pace does seem stilted, and it drags on a little too long for me. Being shot entirely in a studio, all of the environments outside the train were CG, even though they proved stunning. A couple of the backdrops, although pretty, did not look photoreal which you'd expect from a feature like this. The ending set the franchise up for a sequel, Death on the Nile, another Christie book so if you enjoyed this one then there's another to look forward to. It's a decent movie, and the all-star cast provides a novelty that you won't get in any films these days. Worth a look.… Expand
Therehad already been an excellent film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel "Murder on the Orient Express" back in 1974, directed by Sidney Pollack. It was nominated for several Oscar awards including Best Actor (Albert Finney), Best Supporting Actress (Ingrid Bergman, who won), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best
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