LOCKED DOWN : Tuesday 11th May 2021.

'LOCKED DOWN' is an M Rated romantic comedy heist film which I saw earlier this week. Directed by Doug Liman whose prior film making credits include 'Swingers', 'The Bourne Identity', 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Edge of Tomorrow', 'American Made' and 'Chaos Walking' most recently. The screenplay was written by Steven Knight in July 2020, financed, and filmed entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic over just an eighteen day period in October 2020 for a budget of about US$3M. The film was released in the US on HBO Max in January 2021, and has garnered mixed or average Reviews so far.

And so here, Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic in their very cosy modern terrace house somewhere in London, sometime in the first half of 2020. They are a disgruntled couple who have agreed to go their separate ways once the lock down is over, for reasons of having grown apart after ten years together, although the stimulus for the break-up seems to rest more with Linda who has grown weary of Paxton's lack of enthusiasm, lack of focus and constant down at heal, woe is me attitude. For while Linda has climbed the corporate ladder to become the UK CEO of a very successful fashion company, Paxton has struggled to find meaningful work for the last ten years since he was arrested and charged with assault. As a result, his only work is that of a delivery driver, at which he has been furloughed because of the lock down. Paxton is forced to sell his beloved motorbike which he sees as an extension to himself, to make ends meet. 

On a Zoom call with Paxton's half-brother David (Dule Hill) and his wife Maria (Jazmyn Simon) in the US, Linda breaks the news of their pending separation, and we also learn that at some point in the recent past both Linda and Maria got it on together in a wine induced one night stand, which remains a secret between them, and which Linda would rather forget, but not so it seems on Maria's part. Linda meanwhile sets up a Zoom call with four of her UK based senior management team to advise them all that they are being terminated with immediate effect because of the economic downturn and the business being unable to sustain their positions moving forward, although in reality that decision was made pre-pandemic back in December at a company junket in Paris. 

One day while Paxton is feeling especially sorry for himself, his boss Malcolm (Ben Kingsley) calls him with the offer of three days work for £200 per day cash as a driver for high value deliveries, due to the limited number of drivers currently being available. The only catch is that Paxton will have to go under an assumed name because of his prior criminal record. He needs to make a snap decision there and then on the spot, which he does so reluctantly on the condition that Malcolm promotes him afterwards to an office based administrative role, after numerous years of dead end driving. Malcolm says that he'll have his fake security ID and name tag sent over to his home tomorrow (Wednesday) for his first collection from Selfridges on Thursday, Harvey Nichols on Friday and Harrods on Saturday. 

On Wednesday Malcolm contacts Paxton saying the he texted him his assumed name and that the security ID and name badge are on their way over. Paxton retrieves his new identity to discover that he has been given the name of Edgar Allen Poe, as was suggested by Martin (Sam Spruell) a Co-Worker of his who has spent the last seven years working in dispatch and there is absolutely no love lost between the two. Paxton is none too pleased with having to front up with the name of a famous 19th Century American poet and writer, but agrees to proceed nonetheless, surmising that todays 'kids' working security won't have heard of Edgar Allen Poe anyway. Meanwhile, Linda is on a Zoom call with her boss Guy (Ben Stiller) who is locked down in the Vermont countryside in the US together with the other CEO's from around the world. Guy offers her a new position back home in the United States to which she is taken aback and stalls her decision making process until after lock down has lifted to buy herself some time. 

Linda is tasked with clearing out her firms inventory from Harrods on Saturday evening, as there is now no-one else able to complete the task. After arriving home after his first pick up and drop off on Thursday, Paxton reveals that he has a job at Harvey Nichols on Friday and Harrods on Saturday. Linda quickly comes to the conclusion that their delivery schedules at the store overlap, and Paxton would not get past the security protocols that Linda set up three years prior when she worked there. Linda on Friday organises a call with the new Head of Security at Harrods, Michael Morgan (Stephen Merchant) who brings in her former co-worker Kate (Mindy Kaling) who paves the ways for Linda's almost uninterrupted access to the department store after hours the next day. 

Linda discloses to Paxton that there is a £3M diamond in the vault at Harrods that has been sold to an anonymous buyer, and the store keeps a duplicate on-display. That anonymous buyer Linda learns from Essien (Claes Bang) the owner of the company she works for, is a drug dealing, money laundering, probably murdering international criminal king-pin, and once the diamond is returned to a vault on New York's Wall Street will probably remain untouched and unseen by anyone for years. And so Linda and Paxton agree to take the real diamond for themselves and send the fake one to the buyer in New York City, splitting the sale between themselves and the National Health Service, three ways equally at £1M each. 

Upon making it to the famed Knightsbridge department store on Saturday evening, both under separate cover, Linda meets with former co-worker Charlotte (Lucy Boynton) at the security check in, with Paxton waiting outside to be ushered in. After some very loose checking in procedures, Linda and Paxton (Edgar Allen Poe) make their way to Harrods famed food hall which is being cleared out and closed down. There they help themselves to all the lavish ingredients for a £5K picnic up on the rooftop of the store before 7:30pm and their designated time for collection of the inventory and the diamond. 

Linda and Paxton retrieve the diamond from the vault and swap it out with the fake. However, they are confronted by Donald (Mark Gatiss), a former co-worker of Linda's she fired earlier in the week. Donald had alerted the Police after learning of Paxton's fake identity. Linda reveals their plan, and Donald agrees to lie for them, out of respect and love for Linda and being anti-establishment (especially at this time!). 

In exiting the store, a repeated message comes across the internal Public Address system for Edgar Allen Poe to return to the security gate immediately. Fearing the worst that the Police are lying in wait, the pair make a hurried dash for a security guarded rear entrance when Security Guard Mark (Marek Larwood) approaches brandishing Paxton's security ID that he left earlier at the main entrance, and promptly hands it over saying that he'll need it to gain access to Heathrow to put the diamond on the plane to New York. Linda and Paxton breathe a sigh of relief, and ride off into the night on Paxton's motorbike home via Heathrow Airport. 

The pair, who originally had planned to go their separate ways post lockdown, decide to reevaluate their relationship, now that they are each £1M better off and the burden of money woes, and both being stuck in jobs from which they gained no satisfaction, is effectively over. Then, on Paxton's birthday, the COVID lockdown is extended by another two weeks.

On the plus side 'Locked Down' works because of the chemistry and obvious good time that our two principle Actors, Hathaway and Ejiofor, clearly had during the making of this film, and watching a bunch of other A-listers phone in it via Zoom calls - Stiller, Bang, Kingsley and Merchant all adds a weight to the proceedings which should not be under estimated. The zeitgeist too is captured pretty well too with businesses shuttered, company layoffs, working from home, forced isolation, Zoom technical challenges, pot-clanging tributes, and the frustrations, anxieties and boredom of being holed up for two weeks and more in a confined space with the same person. On the down side the film really labours the ever declining relationship between Linda and Paxton during the first two-thirds, and then seems to remember that somewhere in the plot there is a diamond heist that needs to be crammed into the remaining third, and when it comes it is so underwhelmingly delivered and hurriedly conceived that it feels like an afterthought. But then I guess to write a script, get it financed and green lit, amass a cast and crew, go into production, shoot, edit and release a major motion picture in just about six months flat speaks volumes about what Director Doug Liman has been able to pull off, but also is telling as to what this film might have been given more time. It's not a great film, but it's also not that bad either.

'Locked Down' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY : Tuesday 6th November 2018.

'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' is a different turn here for film and television Director, Producer and Writer Bryan Singer. Here he Directs this biographical offering about the British rock band 'Queen', and in particular its front man, showman, and lead singer Freddie Mercury. Bryan Singer's previous Directorial outings take in the likes of 'The Usual Suspects', 'Apt Pupil', 'X-Men', 'X2', 'Superman Returns', 'Valkyrie', 'X-Men : Days of Future Past' and more recently 'X-Men : Apocalypse'. The film was first announced back in 2010 by Brian May in a BBC interview. Since then various Directors and lead Actors have come and gone including Dexter Fletcher to Direct and Sasha Baron-Cohen and Ben Whishaw to portray Freddie Mercury. Dexter Fletcher went on to conclude the final two weeks or so of filming as Director after Bryan Singer was fired for being persona non grata and for clashes with the cast and crew, although Singer gets the full credit as Director and Fletcher as Executive Producer. The film saw its World Premier screening in London on 23rd October, went on general release in the UK the next day, and was released here in Australia and the US last week. The film cost US$52M to Produce and has so far grossed US$156M.

The film charts the meteoric rise of Queen through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound. As the film opens we see Farrokh Bulsara (Rami Malek) working as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport. It is 1970. Farrokh is also a college student living at home with his sister Kashmira (Priya Blackburn), mother Jer (Meneka Das) and father Bomi (Ace Bhatti). They are British Indian of Parsi decent we learn from Bomi over the dinner table later on which refers to a member of the Zoroastrian community who migrated to India and Pakistan from Persia during the Arab invasion of 636–651AD.

Shortly after Farrokh goes out to a nightclub to see a local band, Smile, perform live. Post show Smile's lead vocalist Tim Staffell (Jack Roth) announces to his other two band members Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) that he is quitting Smile to join a more up & coming band with greater prospects of success. As luck would have it, Farrokh walks past Brian and Roger sitting in the back of the bands van feeling sorry for themselves and dejected, and strikes up a conversation, which ultimately leads Farrokh to offer his services as their new lead vocalist. Proving himself with a short burst of his singing ability, Farrokh is in. Shortly after, John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello) is recruited as bass guitarist.

The band changes their name to Queen, and gradually start to become known around the British club scene. After a year on the road touring around Britain, the band sells their van to finance their debut album, released in mid-1973 and self-titled. Their progressive style leads the band to be signed to EMI Records and managed by John Reid (Aidan Gillen). In the meantime, Farrokh legally changes his name to Freddie Mercury much to the chagrin of his father, and he also asks fashion store assistant Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) to marry him having been in a steady relationship for some two years or so, and having met for the first time when he saw Smile perform. However, during the bands breakout US Tour while he is away from Mary for the first time for any real length of time, it dawns on Freddie that he is attracted to men, more so than women.

In 1975 the band lock themselves away in a remote country farmhouse to record their fourth album 'A Night at the Opera'. It is during this time that they also record their six minute opus 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Upon hearing the full version of the song for the first time EMI Executive Ray Foster (Mike Myers) rubbishes the song and says that it is way too long to gain any radio airplay, and that it does not follow the tried and true formula of pop/rock music to appeal to the record buying public.

After a very tense argument in Ray Foster's offices, the four band members walk out severing their ties with Foster and EMI for being unsupportive and not heeding their wishes to have Bohemian Rhapsody released as their first single off the new album. Freddie throws a rock through Foster's office window and the band taunts him from the street below, to which Foster retorts by saying that they'll all be forgotten about come Christmas. Freddie is good friends with London's Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett (Dickie Beau) who has him debut the song live on the airwaves. Despite mixed reviews Bohemian Rhapsody becomes a smash hit and stayed at the #1 slot in the British Charts for nine weeks over the Christmas and New Year period 1975/'76. Shortly after the band's first World Tour, Freddie begins an affair with Paul Prenter (Allen Leech), his personal manager. Mary splits with Freddie when he comes out to her as believing himself to be bisexual, although she assures him that he is gay and that she had known it for some time.

The band's success marches on worldwide through to the early '80's. Tensions begin to surface between the other three band members and Freddie over the direction their music seems to be taking and a noticeable change in Freddie's attitude. In 1981, after a lavish party in Freddie's home, he falls for Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker), one of the waiters at the party who has stayed back late to help clear up. After a couple of drinks early into the morning they part company, with Jim telling Freddie to look for him when he learns to like himself . . . a noticeable issue that had led to the rift between him, Brian, Roger and John.

The band's press conference to promote the release of their 1982 album 'Hot Space' is doggedly and aggressively hijacked by the press, who bombard Freddie with questions about his personal life and his sexual leanings, rather than concentrating on the music much to Brian's disdain. Freddie bites back in no uncertain terms to the gathered room of Reporters all of whom are frantically clicking away with their cameras. Shortly afterwards, he fires John Reid very unceremoniously for courting CBS Records behind his back for a solo deal worth US$4M and a commitment to two albums. At this point, Freddie recruits the band's long term Lawyer, Jim 'Miami' Beach (Tom Hollander) to carry the mantle as their Manager too, which he accepts. 

Over time Freddie's relationship with his band mates goes progressively south. He then announces that he signed a US$4M deal with CBS Records to go solo. In a heated argument in which he does his best to alienate his former band members and 'family' forever, he walks out on them all. He moves to Munich in 1984 to work on his first solo album, with which he struggles, and later by his own admission does not have the same creative chemistry with his new band as he did have with Queen. While in Munich he hosts non-stop drug and alcohol fuelled gay orgies with Paul. Paul meanwhile refuses to pass on telephone messages from Jim Beach or Mary who have been desperately trying to reach him. One night in the pouring rain, Mary pays him an unexpected visit and urges him to return to the band, as they have been offered a spot in Bob Geldof's African Famine Relief benefit concert 'Live Aid' at London's Wembley Stadium. Upon hearing that Paul withheld this news from him, Freddie instantly severs ties with him as Mary pulls away in her taxi to go home. Out of bitter retaliation, Paul goes public about Freddie's sexual proclivities on primetime Television. With AIDS spreading seemingly rapidly around the world, Freddie secretly has himself medically checked out and learns that he is infected with the disease.

Freddie hastily returns to London to ask for forgiveness from his band mates and Manager Jim Beach for his behaviour, for alienating them, and for thinking that he was better off without them. Freddie is prepared to make almost any concessions to get them back together and to get them a slot at the Live Aid Concert. They reconcile and are given a last-minute slot by event organiser Bob Geldof (Dermot Murphy). Immediately following a rehearsal for the concert, Freddie reveals to Brian, Roger, John and Jim that he has AIDS. They are devastated by this news, but Freddie puts on a brave face saying that now he will live everyday as he was meant to, and that together they will punch a hole in the sky when they perform on stage in front of a global audience of 1.4 billion people. On the day of Live Aid, he reunites beforehand with Jim Hutton and Mary, and then reconnects with his family at their home with his new 'friend' Hutton. Queen's Live Aid performance is a huge success as Freddie has the global audience eating out of his hand. By the time Queen come off stage after their twenty minute set, Bob Geldof's target of one million pounds raised for the day, is surpassed by late afternoon for the UK event alone - attributed in no small degree to the power of Queen's performance.

Freddie died on 24th November 1991 at the age of 45 from bronchopneumonia as a complication of AIDS. Just ahead of the closing credits, we are told that following his death, Jim Beach and Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon organised The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, the proceeds of which were used to launch 'The Mercury Phoenix Trust'. The organisation has been active ever since and the current Trustees are Brian May, Roger Taylor, Jim Beach, and Freddie's closest friend and former girlfriend Mary Austin.



I enjoyed 'Bohemian Rhapsody' more than I thought I would, and I think you will too. Exploring the life of the great showman, Rami Malek puts in a convincing turn as Queen's frontman, as does Gwilym Lee as Brian May especially. Whilst their more popular songs are explored in some detail from inception to recorded end product - 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'We Will Rock You', 'Another One Bites the Dust', 'Love of My Life', much of their other equally notable back catalogue is merely glossed over, and I couldn't help thinking as well, that so too were the struggles the band endured over time, and the triumphs they celebrated. That said, we gain an insight into Freddie Mercury into what made him the man and the rock icon he was/is, his inner demons, his fears, his anxieties and the deep loneliness he felt despite his fame and fortune. As for Brian, Roger and John, we gain no such insight, but don't let that detach from the films impact because their performances are all solid too. The films closing Live Aid sequence to which all events lead us to this point on 13th July 1985 is authentically and faithfully recreated and if, like me, you grew up in the era of Queen and sat glued to your TV for every minute of Live Aid back in '85, or simply like their music which still endures to this day, then this is surely a must see film for you.

'Bohemian Rhapsody' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-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-