If you're going to take on a modern reboot of a movie classic, 2017's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS is a prime example of how to do it right.
With an all-star cast, plenty of terrific CGI to immerse you in the 1930's lavish train and scenery, Director Kenneth Branagh finds the right tone for the entire film, while picking up the pace of the 1974 original for more modern tastes.
Branagh is excellent as famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, all eccentricities, impatience and elocution, complimented by a mustache that deserves its own credit in the titles. Branaugh is by turns humorous, clever, intimidating and wise and plays all those notes perfectly.
Poirot has just wrapped up a case and finds himself on a wintry journey back to London, surrounded by 13 first class passengers.
When one of them turns up murdered and our train becomes snowbound, Poirot dives into the mystery and starts to divine the facts from this very interesting lot.
Johnny Depp is very good as a rough Chicago businessman with plenty of enemies, Penelope Cruz is a religious woman with deep passions, Willem Dafoe is a racist German professor, Judi Dench is a stuffy Countess, Josh Gad is Depp's accountant, Leslie Odom, Jr is a doctor, Daisy Ridley is a teacher and Michelle Pfieffer is a chatty American widow hunting for a husband.
But who is killed and who is the killer?
That's best for you to unwrap under Branagh's deft hand.
Visually its a fantastic film to look at, recreating Istanbul in the 1930's and plenty of snow covered European landscapes. Composer Patrick Doyle has been working with Branagh since 1991's "Dead Again" and Doyle fills the film with a terrific score.
As a fan of the 1974 film version, I always felt that the denouncement of the murder was smart and clever, but that the film's closing moments felt like an unfinished afterthought.
Branagh flushes out the emotions of the resolution with a lot more style and clarity in the new film, concluding things in style, with a strong hint of a sequel that should make Poirot fans happy.
Great to look at, filled with plenty of clever dialogue, humor and a train car stuffed with interesting suspects, MURDER slays and gets an A.
(Sharp eyed fans may notice that the pic of Poirot's one true love Katherine is actually a pic of Branagh's real life ex-wife Emma Thompson, his co-star in "Dead Again")
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