Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express 2017

• Director: Kenneth Branagh
• Based on the book by Agatha Christie
• Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom Jr, Tom Bateman, Penelope Cruz, Josh Gad, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Willem Dafoe
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kenneth Branagh – Dunkirk, Wallander, My Week with Marilyn, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Warm Springs, Shackleton, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rabbit-Proof Fence, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Wild Wild West, Hamlet, Othello, Frankenstein, Much Ado about Nothing, Swing Kids, Peter’s Friends, Dead Again, Henry V, Fortunes of War
• Daisy Ridley – Star Wars the Last Jedi, Star Wars the Force Awakens
• Penelope Cruz – Pirates of the Caribbean, Elegy, Blow, All about My Mother,
• Johnny Depp – Transcendence, Mortdecai, The Lone Ranger, Dark Shadows, Life’s Too Short, The Rum Diary, Pirates of the Caribbean 1-4, Rango, The Tourist, Alice in Wonderland, Public Enemies, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Libertine, Finding Neverland, Secret Window, Once upon a Time in Mexico, From Hell, Blow, Chocolat, Before Night Falls, The Man Who Cried, Sleepy Hollow, The Astronaut’s Wife, The Ninth Gate, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brave, Donnie Brasco, Nick of Time, Dead Man, Don Juan DeMarco, Ed Wood, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Benny and Joon, Arizona Dream, Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Platoon, Slow Burn, Nightmare on Elm Street  
• Derek Jacobi – Last Tango in Halifax, Vicious, Cinderella, My Week with Marilyn, The King’s Speech, Doctor Who, Nanny McPhee, Gladiator, Gosford Park, Hamlet, Dead Again, Henry V, Hamlet, Richard II, I Claudius
• Michelle Pfeiffer – Stardust, Dark Shadows, White Oleander, I Am Sam, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Thousand Acres, To Gillian on Her 37^th Birthday, Dangerous Minds, Love Field, Batman Returns, Frankie and Johnny, Married to the Mob, The Witches of Eastwick, Scarface
• Judi Dench – Victoria and Abdul, The Hollow Crown, Spectre, Hotel Marigold 2, Vicious, Philomena, Hotel Marigold, My Week with Marilyn, Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, Jane Eyre, Cranford, Nine, Quantum of Silence, Notes on a Scandal, Casino Royale, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies in Lavender, Die Another Day, The Shipping News, Chocolat, The World is Not Enough, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Tomorrow Never Dies, Mrs Brown, Hamlet, Golden Eye, Middlemarch, Henry V, A Handful of Dust, A Room with a View, Macbeth
• Olivia Colman – Tyrannosaur, Broadchurch, The Night Manager, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz, Much Ado about Nothing Re-told, Black Books, The Office
• Willem Dafoe – John Wick, Mr Bean’s Holiday, Paris je t’aime, American Dreamz, Manderlay, The Aviator, Once upon a Time in Mexico, American Psycho, eXistenZ, Lulu on the Bridge, The English Patient, Wild at Heart, Cry-Baby, Born on the Fourth of July, Mississippi Is Burning, The Last Temptation of Christ, Platoon, Streets of Fire
• Why? Branagh, Depp and Dench
• Seen:  20 October 2019      

       Agatha Christie is not one of my favourites but Branagh, Depp and Dench are, and I love trains so here we sit.

       M Poirot (Branagh with a French accent) is renowned for his pedantry and eye for the minutest detail and his resultant solving of tricky crimes and mysteries. Fate puts him on the Orient Express from Istanbul.

       I’m not even going to try to summarise the story. That’s why I don’t like Christie – convoluted, silly stories with endless whodunnit stuff.

       The film is of course crawling with famous faces, meticulous detail and spectacular scenery. But is it a good film?

       Yes, in fact it is. Not brilliant but good. It definitely has the Branagh touch. But, really, he should do Shakespeare. He can do so much more than create merely enjoyable entertainment.

3 ½ * of 5 (Hal gives it 4 because it’s Agatha Christie so you can’t blame the film for its faults.)