Murder On The Orient Express (2017)

Saw it yesteday! Angela Lansbury, Maggie Smith, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow... just wow

I think the rule of a whodunnit, unlike any other crime subgenre, is that a reader *should* be able to work it out themselves from the provided clues. It doesn't need to - and indeed shouldn't! - be obvious, but you should be able to re-read it with frequent cries of "oh, of *course*!". Roger Ackroyd is DEFINITELY a cheat.

"Guess" though, not "work out".

I actually really love Peter Ustinov as Poirot. I think possibly because he was the first one I ever saw and I just adored 'Death On The Nile', 'Evil Under The Sun' and 'Appointment With Death'. Albert Finney and David Suchet came afterwards for me.

It's the same with Miss Marple. As much as I love some of the other actresses who have played her, it's always Joan Hickson as she was the first I saw.

Hickson and Suchet are the definitives though I think.

They have a go at the Agatha Christie character in 'Murder by Death' for this very crime (if you haven't seen it, do - it's not always as funny as you'd hope, but an amazing cast and worth it for Maggie Smith saying 'oh, that's tacky!' which someone really needs to gif)

This had passed me by until I happened to see the trailer yesterday; now I'm sure it will reappear so frequently that it'll drive me mad as all trailers and ads do after a couple of viewings. It looked like an indigestible Euro-pudding and I had no idea who was playing Poirot (or rather, was concealed behind the excessive facial foliage) until I then noticed this thread. Well, so many others have had a bash, why not Mr Branagh?

Mr Kermode has given it a big thumbs up!

Saw this tonight and was a little disappointed. I can't quite figure out why but it lacked the verve of the old Ustinov movies. Poirot became an action figure at times and there was a clumsy reference at the end to another Christie yarn shoehorned in (which I very much doubt is in the novel). A great cast had little to do and overall it wasn't a patch on the 1974 version, especially the denouement.

Did I mention he held a door open for me once?

I saw it yesterday, not with huge enthusiasm but because OH and I were out for the day and he was catching up with a film I'd already seen and it was this or others with even worse reviews for me.

It actually proved a perfectly pleasant way to pass a couple of hours indoors, with a free hot drink and biscuit (I went to a PH Silver Screen performance, which meant paying, whereas I could've seen it free with Curzon but not in Brighton), and the experience at that cinema was surprising and interesting, which was a bonus.

I'd never been to that one before (though a Duke Of Yorks visitor for years) and at the London equivalents I've often found those performances poorly - sometimes very poorly - attended. In Brighton however, not only are they apparently very popular but this one sold out shortly before the start, so the usual latecomers weren't only trying to find seats in the dark but some were encumbered by walking sticks or their limited mobility.

That said, the behaviour was excellent: no talking, texting, eating or drinking that I noticed, although the infirm lady who had struggled in late to take the empty seat next to mine promptly fell asleep and snored for a while - perhaps she was exhausted from her efforts.

Reading the posts above I did not recognise some of the actors' names (e.g. Tom Bateman, Elliot Levey) or did, but hadn't recognised them in the film,so had to check to see which character they had played (Hadley Fraser, Adam Garcia).

I saw this with my 12 year old niece last week. She wanted to see it for the period costumes and makeup. I am afraid she was very badly behaved - rustling sweet packets, interesting questions and comments on the action in stage whispers. I gave up giving her warning looks and the people in front were very tolerant. I nodded off a few times (hope I didn’t snore). Thought it was ok.