Another old curmudgeon movie review... "Murder On the Orient Express"..

The new one. And this is further proof that I consider everything from 'yesterday' better than today. That's somewhat tongue in cheek.

Ok... the acting is good... not fantastic. Kenneth Branagh I liked... he did well. The rest? Well, the talent was there but the 'new' screenplay gave them little opportunity to show it.

The cinematography is something to behold... beautiful... but so 'artsy' that it was quite unreal. S'ok, I guess I can live that. The movie is meant to entertain, after all.

In the original some of the acting was incredible. Most specifically... Ingrid Bergman who was lights out phenomenal. Windy Hiller as well. In all fairness the 'new' roles were not given the chance to compete... but that said, it wouldn't have mattered. Ingrid Bergman gave a tour de force performance. Windy as well... and Albert Finney was very good as well... he both acted and looked the part of Hercule Poirot as I envisioned him to be. Branagh was quite different... not the Hercule I knew... BUT.... that's a compliment. He couldn't impersonate Finney so he made the role his own... can't fault him for that.

I'm not sure why Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, were even in the movie. Johnny Depp had to be, (his character), but other than having to portray the 'bad guy' he did little else.

Daisy Ridley... that's really who we're interested in, right? Well, she showed real promise, IMHO. Quite a switch from "Rey". But again.. the screenplay limited her to such a degree that I don't think any real opinion of her performance can be drawn.

The ending got silly. Yes, I can suspend belief. Actually, I don't think anyone can do that better than I can.... BUT... whoa. Plot, cinematography, dialog, IMHO veered into the absurd. So much so that I found myself watching and not caring at all.

In the end... a "Murder" should be fun, no? Well, a "Whodunit" should be anyway... and in that regard.. yeah, the new version had it's fun moments... but not many.

Agatha Christie movies I can't resist. Same as any movie dealing with "Time Travel".... it doesn't really matter how 'bad' they are, as movies, I'm going to watch them. I don't think this new version of "Murder On The Orient Express" is "Bad" as much as it was a wasted effort.

Am I too harsh? I think you can make a VERY good case that yes, I am being too harsh. It is rare indeed that ANY remake will meet with my satisfaction, so there's that. - JamesJM