GLADIATOR II : Tuesday 19th November 2024

I saw the M Rated 'GLADIATOR II' at my local multiplex earlier this week, and this US and UK co-produced epic historical action film is Co-Produced and Directed by Ridley Scott and is the sequel to Scott's classic 'Gladiator' from 2000. That film grossed US$465M off the back of a production budget of US$103M and won five Academy Awards from twelve nominations among a total awards haul of sixty wins and a further 104 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. This film cost US$210M to produce, has so far grossed US$99M, was released here in Australia and New Zealand last week, in the UK on 15th and the USA on 22nd November, and has generated largely positive critical reviews. A further sequel 'Gladiator III' is reportedly in the early stages of development. 

Set sixteen years after the events of 'Gladiator', Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal) living under the name Hanno, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and Maximus (Russell Crowe from the first film), lives with his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) and child in Numidia - a province on the North African coast. Roman soldiers led by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) invade, killing his wife and declaring that Numidia is now a Roman province captured for the glory of Rome, while burning the dead, among them many women and children. Lucius is forced into slavery, boards a ship with other barbarian slaves and sent to Ostia, the port of Rome. 

To promote the slaves as potential gladiators, the Romans pit them against feral baboons in an enclosed arena. Lucius savagely kills a baboon, watched on by an impressed stablemaster Macrinus (Denzel Washington). Although Lucius has no desire to be a gladiator, Macrinus promises him an opportunity to kill Acacius if he lives long enough and rises victorious from his fights. Macrinus sees that Lucius has a rage and a fury inside him, which he says are key attributes that will see him win his freedom.

When Acacius returns to Rome a hero, the twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Herchinger) arrange gladiatorial games in the Colosseum to celebrate his victory. Although the disillusioned Acacius requests a welcome and deserved break with his wife, Lucilla, (the daughter of the late Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Maximus's former lover), the emperors refuse, greedily plotting to conquer Persia and India with all haste. Later Senator Thraex (Tim McInnerny) hosts a party for the emperors and the elite, and arranges a gladiatorial duel as entertainment between Lucius and the emperors #1 gladiator, which Lucius wins. When Geta tries to make small talk with Lucius afterwards, Lucius contemptuously recites poetry by Virgil at him, so demonstrating that he has received a Roman education.

Lucilla and Acacius accompany the emperors to the Colosseum to see Lucius and other gladiator slaves battle it out against a giant rhinoceros ridden by a hulking gladiator hell bent on killing every one of them. After watching Lucius copy Maximus's tactics in the Colosseum, Lucilla realises that Lucius is her long-lost son and the imperial heir, whom she sent away for his protection after the death of Maximus when he was just nine years old. The next day, a naval battle is staged in the Colosseum, with Lucius taking the Macrinus team to victory, and in the ensuing chaos, he fires a crossbow at Acacius narrowly missing him with the arrow becoming embedded in the back of the chair where the emperors sit. After the battle and under cover of darkness, Lucilla visits Lucius in his prison cell. He angrily rebuffs Lucilla saying that he resented being forced to flee to the desert while his mother lived in luxury, and he is upset that her new lover caused his wife's death.

Lucius learns that Macrinus and his team doctor, Ravi (Alexander Karim), are both former slaves who won their freedom in the Colosseum. However, they both took very different paths following their freedom. Ravi, married a Roman woman and believes that Rome can be a multicultural republic. He shows Lucius the shrine to fallen gladiators and Maximus, the people's champion, which preserves Maximus's gear, including his steel breast plate and sword. Macrinus conversely tries to reclaim his standing by building his power base with the emperors and sees no conflict between being a freed slave and enslaving others.

Lucilla and Acacius conspire with Senators Thraex and Gracchus (Derek Jacobi) to overthrow the emperors and restore the Roman Republic. Acacius also agrees to rescue Lucius from slavery. However, Thraex reveals the plan to Macrinus who he is heavily in debt to, and who in turn tips off the emperors. The couple are arrested for treason, and Macrinus is appointed an imperial advisor.

Macrinus assigns Lucius to kill Acacius in the arena, watched on by a shackled Lucilla. However, after gaining the upper hand Lucius declines to execute him. The imperial guard are all told by the emperor's to execute Acacius anyway and he is shot by a dozen arrows. This leads the commoners to riot. Macrinus visits Lucilla in her cell, revealing that despite her father's idealistic beliefs, Marcus Aurelius hypocritically enslaved Macrinus. Macrinus announces that he will avenge himself on Rome by becoming Emperor. 

Macrinus plans to end the imperial dynasty, and begins by manipulating Caracalla to kill Geta. After Caracalla names his pet monkey Dundas as Chief Consul, Macrinus convinces the Senate to overthrow him. Macrinus also persuades Caracalla to use Lucilla as bait in the Colosseum, with only Lucius to defend her against a small army of Imperial Guard. His plan is for Lucius and Lucilla to be mercilessly slaughtered, which he knows will incite another riot, with the Senate ordering the execution of Caracalla in order to diffuse the situation and bring peace once again.

Lucius and Lucilla reconcile their differences to overthrow Macrinus. Lucilla tells Lucius that he is Maximus's son and gifts Lucius his father's ring with his name engraved on the inside. Lucius sends Ravi with the ring to meet Acacius's legions stationed just outside Rome, requesting military assistance. Lucilla is brought into the Colosseum shackled to a post along with the senators with whom she conspired. Lucius rallies the gladiators to revolt. Armed with Maximus's armour and sword, he leads the gladiators into the arena to defend Lucilla from execution. Gracchus is killed in the onslaught, while Macrinus kills Lucilla with an arrow fired into her chest, and then stabs Caracalla through the ear with a six inch needle. Macrinus flees the rioting city on horseback with Lucius in hot pursuit.

Acacius's army of some 5,000 men and Macrinus's army of 6,000 meet outside Rome and come to a halt either side of one of the city's gates. To prevent a battle between the two rival factions, Macrinus and Lucius fight it out. Although Macrinus nearly kills Lucius in a river by repeatedly stabbing at his breast plate with his sword, which does not penetrate due to its steel construction, Lucius kills Macrinus by first beating him across the head with a rock he grabbed while under the surface, then chopping off his lower arm just below the elbow before slashing him across the stomach so that his entrails spilled out. In a rousing speech after clambering out of the water, he reveals his true identity as the imperial heir and persuades the Praetorians to allow him free passage into Rome, where he mourns his parents in the now empty Colosseum.

With 'Gladiator II' Director and Co-Producer Ridley Scott has crafted a fitting sequel to his epic 2000 offering that continues the story arc admirably while also paying homage to Russell Crowe's Oscar winning role of Maximus. The film certainly looks the part in transporting us back to ancient Rome with its extravagant sets and costumes, the action set pieces are well choreographed, there is plenty of bloodletting, the cinematography is quite beautiful and Paul Mescal gives a convincing turn as humble farmer turned hero gladiator, and Denzel Washington chews up every scene he's in with gusto. This film is not quite up there with the 2000 original, but nonetheless should be enjoyed by those with a penchant for swords and sandals epics, big action sequences, drama and emotion. My only criticisms of the film is Connie Nielsen's performance is a little stilted in places, and the use of CGI sharks in the Colosseum naval battle sequence was way to obvious for my liking and why would Ridley bother with making up this element when more often that not he has come to rely on historical fact than fiction.

'Gladiator II' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

TOMB RAIDER : Tuesday 20th March 2018.

I saw 'TOMB RAIDER' earlier in the week, and here we have a reboot of the 'Tomb Raider' franchise that launched into the cinematic world in 2001 from its video game origins dating back to 1993. That first outing starred Angelina Jolie as our titular action adventure heroine Lara Croft, with the film being Directed by Simon West for US$115M and grossing US$275M. On the strength of this, a second film was released in 2003 titled 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider : The Cradle of Life', with Jolie reprising her role but this time Directed by Jan de Bont for US$95M and raking in US$157M. Now fast forward fifteen years, and its reboot time for this film franchise, which as a video game has sold over 63 million copies worldwide, and has made Lara Croft one of the most recognisable and notable video game protagonists in existence. And so Norwegian Director Roar Uthaug has helmed this latest instalment based on the 2013 video game of the same name as worked up by game developer Crystal Dynamics. Costing US$90M to make, the film has so far grossed US$163M and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews.

And so in 2018 Alicia Vikander portrays the fiercely independent, free spirited, reckless and carefree action adventure loving Lara Croft who spends her life kick boxing at her local gym and in between time running food deliveries as a bicycle courier across London. She is the only daughter of eccentric archaeologist adventurer Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) who went missing some years previously, now believed to be dead. When she is arrested for a relatively minor infraction, involving her bicycle and a Police car, Richard's business partner Ana Miller (Kristen Scott Thomas) posts bail and advises her that if she does not claim her inheritance, her father's estate will be sold off. In flashback we see Lord Croft tearing himself away from his country estate and his young seven year old daughter Lara to go away on some purposeful adventure, and then doing so again at age fourteen . . . a journey he would not return from.

Reluctantly Lara, now in her early twenties, agrees to sign off on the inheritance papers, and in doing so uncovers a key contained in an old Japanese wooden puzzle wrapped up in a handwritten clue that gains her access to a secret office located in the bowels of the Croft estate. Rummaging around in her fathers office, she finds a camcorder with a recorded message to Lara that describes his years long search for the tomb of Himiko the mythical queen of Yumatai whom it is said was able to control the power of life over death. The parting message warns Lara to destroy all evidence of his search for Himiko - written notes, diaries, scribblings, voice and video recordings, lest they should fall into the wrong hands and unleash the power of Himiko upon an unsuspecting world with deadly consequences for all humanity.

Lara travels to Hong Kong in search of a boat owner that allegedly took her father to the island of Yumatai seven years previously aboard 'The Endurance'. After a run in with some local likely lads who steal Lara's satchel, which she retrieves successfully following a foot chase across various boats and junks on Hong Kong Harbour, she encounters Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) the drunken gambling owner of the boat. He explains that it would have been his father (also named Lu Ren) who was commissioned by Richard Croft to take him across 'The Devil's Sea' to the island of Yumatai - but Lu Ren Senior is now dead! However, the pair strike up a deal, and set sail. The ship gets caught up in a boiling sea just off the island and crashes into treacherous rocks and is smashed. Lara is tossed off the boat, and Lu Ren is presumed lost at sea. Washed ashore in the storm, Lara is knocked unconscious by a mystery figure.

The next morning Lara comes around face to face with Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) who has been on the island for seven years searching for Himiko's tomb with no success. He claims to have killed Lara's father all those years ago, but is grateful for his detailed research notes found in Lara's satchel that will help him locate the tomb once and for all. Vogel works for a secretive organisation called 'Trinity' that wants to harness the power of Himiko, and ultimately weaponise it. Vogel takes Lara prisoner and puts her to work with a whole bunch of other fishermen and shipwrecked sailor prisoners captured over the years, and Lu Ren, who survived the storm only to be captured himself too.

With the help of Lu Ren, Lara is able to stage a distraction and make an escape, but is chased through the dense jungle undergrowth by two of Vogel's henchmen. She successfully evades them, but gets into various death defying falls and bad scrapes along the way that see her lurch from one near death experience to another in quick succession. Finally, she is hanging from the canopy of an old parachute as it roughly glides her down towards the jungle floor through the trees to come to an abrupt crashing halt. She is injured and passes out from her wound.

Later that evening Lara is stirred by the sounds of someone or something lurking close by. She gets into a fight with one of Vogel's henchmen sent to track her down and retrieve her. She gains the upper hand and drowns him in the river. Her first kill, which distresses her. But this is short-lived when she spies a hooded figure looking on through the nighttime undergrowth. She gives chase but the figure disappears up the side of a cliff with the aid of a rope which is quickly hauled up. Lara climbs up without the aid of the rope into a cave, where the mystery figure is poking around at an open fire. The mystery figure is a heavily bearded Richard Croft. At first Ricard does not recognise his daughter, but she jogs his memory and they embrace. Richard treats Lara's wound, which she sleeps off until the next morning.

Despite Richard's protests Lara sets off to recover his research notes and a satellite phone from Vogel's camp. She and Lu Ren create a distraction so allowing him and the fishermen prisoners to escape amidst the chaos of gunfire and explosions in and around the camp site.

Meanwhile, Richard has ventured up to the uncovered entry to the tomb site, found by Vogel with the aid of his extensive research notes which were clearly not destroyed by Lara despite her father's very specific instructions to do so. He is joined by Lara and then Vogel. With Richard caught in the middle, with his daughter aiming a bow at Vogel and Vogel pointing a gun at Richard's head, something in this Mexican stand-off has to give. And it is Lara who buckles under the pressure, and agrees to open the tomb in lieu of saving her father, much to Richard's disdain. And so faced with various cogs and wheels built into the wall which must be unlocked in sequence in order to gain access to the tomb, Lara sets about her task . . . with relative ease it seems!

With access gained to the tomb, Vogel orders Lara to venture down first, then Richard and then several henchmen bringing up the rear. Needless to say the group is greeted by a number of booby traps and challenges through a labyrinth of tunnels and corridors that open out in to huge expanses of underground space. One of the henchmen perishes at the end of a giant spike, and there are several close calls along the way, but ultimately the group reach Himiko's sarcophagus.

Opening up the casket, two of Vogel's henchmen attempt to lift Himiko's corpse but are almost instantly infected by her power. Lara deduces that she was the carrier of a disease that was so powerful that physical contact alone triggers an immediate reaction whereby the body starts to progressively die and disintegrate. From the markings around the walls, she further deduces that Himiko voluntarily sealed herself in her tomb because she wanted to avoid spreading it, even though she had an immunity to the disease which she was carrying. Vogel shoots one of his infected henchmen, and from this decides that he cannot move the corpse as planned. Instead, he cuts off a finger tip and seals it in a plastic ziplock bag and drops it into his shirt breast pocket. One of the henchmen believed to be dead, rises up and attacks Richard, allowing Lara to make a getaway. In the ensuing gun fight between Richard and Vogel, Vogel is shot in the leg but manages to escape, while Richard fends off the henchmen killing him, but is himself infected by the henchman's touch.

Lara returns to the sarcophagus where Richard sits, the infection taking hold. He tells Lara to keep her distance, and explains that he proposes detonating several bombs to seal the tomb shut forever, prevent the worldwide spread of the disease and killing himself in the process. Lara backs away tearfully and gives chase to Vogel who is fleeing the cave as quickly as he can. The two meet and fight, with Lara ultimately force feeding Vogel the severed finger which he swallows inadvertently biting down on the bag. He stumbles backwards as the disease takes a rapid hold and falls down a deep ravine in the cave on to a bed of human skeletons. The explosion rips through the cave system, the blast destroying everything in its path and sealing the cave tightly shut under mounds of dust, debris and rubble. Lara escapes just in the nick of time, and is pulled out of the rubble at the mouth of the cave by Lu Ren. The two then commandeer an arriving Trinity helicopter to take them and the remaining fishermen prisoners back to the mainland.

Back in London at the headquarters of Croft Holdings, Lara signs her agreement to accept her fathers inheritance looked on by Ana Miller and Mr. Yaffe (Derek Jacobi) legal counsel for Croft Holdings. Once completed Yaffe hands Lara a portfolio of all the companies owned by Croft Holdings. Scrolling through the huge volume of individual business details, she notices a company name that she had seen before on Yumatai Island and deduces that this is a front company for Trinity. Investigating further, she begins to suspect that Ana Miller is not all she seems and that she manipulated Lara to signing over the day to day business operations of Croft Holdings. Knowing how ruthless Trinity is, Lara arms herself with two assault pistols procured from her local pawn shop owned and operated by Max (Nick Frost), ready for her next adventure.

'Tomb Raider' is a bit of a misnomer for this film really, considering that Lara Croft doesn't actually raid a tomb here, but is rather a reluctant bystander dragged along while someone else does the raiding. She's just the 'Joanna on the spot' left to clean up someone else's mess, pay the price and get the hell outta there before it all comes crashing down around her ears. And in casting the diminutive Alica Vikander in the role of our titular heroine she is far cry from the tall statuesque curvaceous arse kicking gun wielding Angelina Jolie that most resembles the video game character that the world has come to know and love. That doesn't make Vikander's performance any less, and she is reasonably convincing in the role but she does get beaten up and picked on aplenty by her male antagonists who are all worthless dispensable bad dudes anyway that we don't care about and ultimately get their comeuppance. In between the well choreographed action sequences the film plods a little, and really there is very little here that we haven't seen many times over in similar genre specific offerings - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'The Mummy', 'National Treasure' and the earlier 'Tomb Raider' franchises most notably. Clearly set up for further instalments, Lara Croft will need to lift her tomb raiding, gun toting, tough as nails approach if she is to succeed in this action adventure world.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS : Tuesday 14th November 2017.

'MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS' which I caught earlier this week is the classic 1934 Agatha Christie murder mystery novel upon which this film is based, that has been committed to the big and small screens a number of times over the years, most notably in 1974 as Directed by Sidney Lumet and starred an ensemble cast. That film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won one - for Best Supporting Actress going to Ingrid Bergman. It was also nominated for ten BAFTA's and walked away with three for Best Supporting Actor and Actress to John Gielgud and Ingrid Bergman respectively, and Best Music. All up the film won nine awards and received a further sixteen nominations, and at the Box Office returned US$36M from its US$1.4M budget outlay. The films cast included Albert Finney as the super sleuth gentleman detective Hercule Poirot, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Michael York, Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave and Jacqueline Bisset. In 2001 a made for television movie was released of the same name, featuring the same storyline, and the same title but set in the present day and starring Alfred Molina as Hercule Poirot, Peter Strauss and Leslie Caron. Then in 2010 the popular long running television series 'Agatha Christie's Poirot' with David Suchet as the detective aired in Season 12, Episode 3 'Murder on the Orient Express' which featured the acting talents of Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Chastain, Barbara Hershey, Toby Jones, David Morrissey, and Eileen Atkins. There has also been a BBC Radio 4 serialisation of the book and a video game adaptation over the years too.

And so now in 2017 we have this latest lavish reiteration of Christie's famed novel with Kenneth Branagh on Directing duty and starring as the hirsute Belgian detective Hercule Poirot with a ensemble cast for this production that reads like a Who's Who of British and American acting talent. The film was released in the UK on 2nd November, and in the US and Australia on 9th November. and has so far grossed US$105M off the back of a US$55M production Budget. The film has generated mixed Reviews from Critics, but all universally praise the casting and production values.

The film opens up with a scene setter in a 1934 Jerusalem at the site of The Wailing Wall where Poirot announces to a gathered crowd of onlookers who the culprit is in the theft of a valuable religious artefact. Job done, but not without a scuffle, he is ready to depart to Istanbul to travel onward to London to work on another case that needs finalising, and in between time he is to take some much needed R&R. In Istanbul, while checking out the culinary delights of a local market he happens across an old friend, and a Director of the Orient Express, Bouc (Tom Bateman) who offers the Detective a sleeper cabin on the unusually booked out Orient Express. Managing to squeeze Poirot into a shared cabin, we quickly grab glimpses of the other well to do passengers as they board, that Poirot will be sharing his journey with. The first of which is a Caroline Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer) a trophy ex-wife to several ex-husbands, clearly wealthy and hungry for a man, who instantly tries to chat up Poirot, but he'll have none of her advances, preferring to keep himself very much to himself, and besides, he's got a Charles Dickens book to catch up on.

As the train gets underway, Poirot is introduced to Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp), an American businessman who looks more like a mobster than a professional purveyor of fine arts, collectables and antiquities that he claims he is new into and still learning as he goes. Ratchett is joined on the journey by his bookkeeper come lawyer come personal assistant Hector MacQueen (Josh Gad). Over a pastry in the dining car, Ratchett confides in Poirot that he has recently undertaken some dodgy deals back in Istanbul selling fake wares, and those hard done by now want pay back and are vying for his blood, and sending him threatening letters. Ratchett pleads with Poirot to act as his personal bodyguard, for a handsome fee, for the duration of the trip to ensure his safety, but Poirot politely declines. Later that night while Poirot is trying to get to sleep he is constantly disturbed by noises coming from outside his cabin in the interconnecting hallway. Later on that night when the commotion has settled down, a lightning bolt strikes the side of a snow covered peak sending an avalanche crashing down upon the advancing train, causing the engine carriage to derail, halting the journey in its tracks on a remote mountain side.

The next morning, Poirot learns that Ratchett was murdered in his bed sometime during the previous night - stabbed a dozen times in the chest. Poirot and Bouc investigate the crime scene and the murder case, with Bouc being the only non-suspect on the train, because he slept in a different carriage the night before, unlike everyone else. Initial evidence points to a suspect working alone, with Caroline Hubbard claiming that during the night there was a strange intruder present in her cabin. Several clues are left in Ratchett's cabin, including an unused pipe cleaner, a fine lace bloodstained handkerchief with the letter 'H' engraved, and a partially destroyed note linking Ratchett to the case of an abducted child Daisy Armstrong some years previously.

The Armstrong child was held for ransom, and then killed. Ratchett is identified as being John Cassetti, the murderer of the child. Grieving, Daisy's mother Sonia collapses and gives birth to a still born premature baby and dies in child birth, and shortly thereafter, her father Colonel Armstrong commits suicide. The family's housemaid Susanne, was found guilty of the murder on trumped up charges allowing Cassetti to go free, and she hanged herself while in custody, only to be determined innocent after the fact.

More evidence is uncovered during the course of the investigation, while rail workers dig out the engine carriage from the snow. Poirot and Bouc systematically interview all the other suspects gathering further insights into their individual backgrounds, possible motives, and sorting through the lies from the truth. Poirot discovers through his expert powers of deduction, that all suspects are in some way linked to the Armstrong household, the family, or the ensuing court case. Whilst interviewing Governess Mary Debenham (Daisy Ridley) who upto now has been the most aloof about Ratchett maintaining her silence, Poirot is confronted by Dr. John Arbuthnot (Leslie Odom Jnr.) who claims responsibility for the murder, and who is also the secret interracial love interest of the Governess. A scuffle breaks out, in which Arbuthnot, a trained former sniper, shoots Poirot in the arm, but who is then incapacitated by Bouc. Poirot however, can see that Arbuthnot had never intended to kill him, and was acting out of love for Mary Debenham.

By now, Poirot has amassed enough evidence, but the prime suspect still eludes him. He calls everyone together in the nearby train tunnel while the rail workers set the engine carriage back on the tracks. He has two theories. One is that there was a lone murderer who masqueraded as a Conductor, killed Ratchett and fled the scene of the crime undetected under cover of darkness. The other is much more complex and involves every passenger suspect aboard the train being linked to the Armstrong's, to Susanne and the subsequent trial in some way - giving them all a possible motive.

Poirot concludes ultimately that each and every one of them had reason for killing Ratchett and therefore in this case, unlike every one of the cases he has solved before, there is no right or wrong, it is not black and it is not white, there is no guilty nor innocent, and as such he will have to live with that imbalance. This outcome does not sit easy with the Super Sleuth, but he must accept it on this occasion and under these circumstances.

Upon arrival at the next train stop, Poirot presents the evidence of a killer acting alone to the Yugoslavian Police, who accept his story, leaving the passengers to continue their onward journey, each wrestling with their conscience. As the Detective leaves the train, a messenger alerts him that he is required urgently in Egypt, as there has been a murder on the Nile. Poirot accepts the case, forgoing his much needed R&R, as the Orient Express departs the station, and he jumps into a waiting car.

The film also stars Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Penelope Cruz, Olivia Colman and Lucy Boynton amongst others in supporting roles offering minimal dialogue that belittle their acting credentials leaving them to wallow in the background. There is no doubt that Branagh has cast an impressive line up of A-List Actors who bring a gravitas to the proceedings and no doubt a pulling power into movie theatres the world over. The production values are high and the era has been recreated faithfully with its costumes and set designs, and the CGI adds to the depth of this period piece whodunit with its stunning vistas. But, is that enough to carry off this film? Despite such an ensemble cast, I couldn't help feeling that our amassed group of fine acting talent were left wanting to do more with their characters, but instead are largely sidelined with very little dialogue of note. Branagh meanwhile, chews up every scene and with his enormous well kempt moustache arriving fifteen seconds in the room before he does, he puts together the pieces of this murder jigsaw puzzle with relative ease it seems whilst telling everybody that he is the greatest Detective the world has ever seen. And, when the ending comes and the big reveal, it's all a bit of an anti-climax really, that sees Poirot going back on his principles that have served him so well throughout his career to date - first time for everything I guess, including his Oscar worthy facial fuzz extraordinaire. A classic story that looks good on the screen and has a lot going for it, but ultimately are period piece whodunits still a drawcard for the modern audience . . . . only you can answer that one!

Depending on the success of this film, Branagh has indicted his willingness to adapt further Christie novels involving the master of investigative deduction, Hercule Poirot, and judging by the closing scenes of this film it looks as though 'Death on the Nile' could be up next.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-