Murder on the Orient Express (Kenneth Branagh)

JP Liz V1

Kenneth Branagh directing and starring as Poirot with cast so far Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Michael Pena, Judi Dench and Josh Gad

Branagh producing with Ridley Scott, Simon Kinberg and Mark Gordon

Source - Deadline

I am intrigued to see what Branagh's Poirot will be like, he will be following Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov and David Suchet

The Black Oil

Yep, looking forward to what Branagh does with it.

pixelburp

Yikes, Poirot & Kenneth Branagh: I can smell the ham already!

humanji

pixelburp wrote: »

Yikes, Poirot & Kenneth Branagh: I can smell the ham already!

But you know it's going to be the most delicious hammy ham that ever hammed! I'm looking forward to this. It'll be tough for it to knock the Albert Finney version off the pedestal I've got it on, but I'm curious what they're going to do with it.

JP Liz V1

http://ew.com/movies/2017/05/03/murder-on-the-orient-express-first-look/

http://ew.com/movies/murder-on-the-orient-express-first-look-photos

JP Liz V1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhjQyDMzKWI

humanji

I'm loving the Branagh's moustache!

Think it was a poor choice of music at the end, but there's a great atmosphere to it. Really looking forward to this.

losthorizon

Looks more like a TV movie to be honest. Unfortunately I know I'm going to be dragged along to it. Train....Thriller... Then Strangers on a Train

p to the e

Well the music for that trailer was not what I was expecting.

Also, we need a quirky, Hollywood ugly, British female. Get Olivia Coleman on the phone NOW!

pinkypinky

I can't see past the moustache. Hope this is not a disaster because it's a fantastic story.

pixelburp

That music choice at the end was just ... something. 'Jarring' doesn't even start to describe it; and the use of Johnny Depp as that video's thumbnail feels like a poor choice - he's demonstrably box office poison.

The trailer contained too little Poirot to estimate properly, but I'm still leery about how much ham Branagh will bring to the table. Either way, it's only going to invite comparison with all those previous adaptations and bearers of that famous moustache...

Rob2D

David Suchet is your only man.

B0jangles

Absolutely cannot stand 'all-star casts'; they always seem to turn into an endless succession of oversized performances, each struggling to take over the spotlight when the plot actually needs performances which interlock and work off each other to create a balanced whole. The Ustinov films were dreadful for this, the Suchet series was the polar opposite most of the time.

I usually really enjoy Branagh's work both as a director and as an actor, but I'm very dubious about this project. I'd be happy to be wrong, you can never have too many good classic murder mystery films .

Mr E

Trailer 2...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z68frP9Q7XA

Johnny Depp with funny facial hair means the movie is either going to be amazing or awful.

pixelburp

I like to think Branagh figured he couldn't compete with David Suchet's famously immaculate moustache and decided to, as the Americans say, 'go big'.

Looks definitely like a more action-infused adaptation; could be a good sleepy Sunday trip to the cinema...

Agent Coulson

Johnny Depp being it it really makes me not want to watch it.


But Kenneth's tash does

Nervous Wreck

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Johnny Depp being it it really makes me not want to watch it.

Agreed. I hate him...

cml387

Notice the BBC Sherlock subtitles on the characters.

Also, I need to say, lovely steam engine.

homerun_homer

Soooo.... they still thought it was a good idea to soundtrack the trailer with Imagine Dragons again. Idiots.

Always Be Closing

Can't wait for this - cinematography and cast looks class

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402236/

branie2

on my must-see list

Peatys

Don't know if it's me getting old, but i don't like all star casts these days. Takes me out of the film. That said, looking forward to this..

Agent Coulson

Thread on it here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=101638167

Sad Professor

Merged.

Always Be Closing

Sad Professor wrote: »

Merged.

Cheers

MfMan

Looks to be no shortage of CGI in it, going by the trailer. CGI is the botox of the film industry.

SimonTemplar

I wasn't too impressed to be honest. I know how the story unfolds but even so, I can still enjoy the 1970s version.

It felt very mechanical despite the excellent cast. I think Brannagh's portrayal as Poirot was quite bland and not eccentric enough. Christophe Walz would have been a much better, albeit obvious, choice for Poirot.. I guess Brannagh wanted the part himself.

The Black Oil

I liked the first two thirds or so. It introduces the characters in a way you know it's not going to be an ordinary journey and I enjoyed the setting. Brannagh's Poirot is as sharp as you'd expect and I thought he did a good enough job behind the camera too.

Yes, the exterior CGI train is pretty awful and on the whole it lacks the weight of the Finney and Ustinov era (haven't seen the Suchet Orient). I wasn't hugely keen on

the flashbacks.

The interviewing of the passengers didn't do enough to drive home the finger of suspicion and may have been more of a checklist to work through, leading to a largely innocous effort overall. Still, it's got some nice unexpected splashes of humour early on.

Shelga

Just back from it. Very underwhelming. Overly stylised and not gripping. I found the tone inconsistent too- one minute Poirot’s neuroses are played for laugh, the next, he’s staring gloomily into the distance and pondering an existential crisis as the sad music swells. Branagh’s was the hammiest performance I’ve seen in a long time, maybe it’s a bit of a showy role but I thought he overdid it.

It had the decent enough bones of a film to make me want to see the 1974 version, so I suppose that’s something.

pixelburp

Full disclosure, I've never seen either the Finney or Ustinov versions of Murder... so I can't comment about how this latest version stacked up, but on its own merits I thoroughly enjoyed a distinctly old-fashioned murder/suspense thriller, albeit one with definite digital accentuation. The phrase "They don't make 'em like this anymore" seemed apt. Branagh's ludicrous moustache matched the same kind of exaggerated embellishment seen outside the carriages of the train, but the telling of the story was so openly bold and larger than life I could forgive the borderline cartoonish look & feel. Like I said, I haven't seen the other adaptations, but if you're going to add yours to the roster you might as well go for something with a bit of its own personality.

My only real quibble - and it's pretty - was the use of that laziest of visual clichés for ensemble castings: the 'Last Supper' imitation - if a cast list goes over 10 people, there seems to be some irresistible inclination to set a scene aping that famous painting; it's always so brazenly done as well, there's often little subtly or cleverness applied.

FunLover18

I enjoyed but I couldn't really recommend going to the cinema to see it. It's very much Sunday afternoon TV fair. I guarantee it'll make a Christmas debut on network television. I enjoyed Brannagh's performance more than any other although I felt there actually must much detection involved, maybe it was just undeplayed, maybe it's because I knew the ending but the big sit-down revelation didn't work for me.

darkdubh

pinkypinky wrote: »

I can't see past the moustache. Hope this is not a disaster because it's a fantastic story.

I can't get Kevin Costner in Wyatt Earrp out of my head.

branie2

Or Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York

Spon Farmer

I really enjoyed this - a good, old detective story and some great performances. And an incredible moustache.

My enjoyment was doubled by the fact that I had misunderstood some comments by Branagh in an interview before production began and thought they changed the

"they all did it"

to something else entirely. Although it did become obvious long before the gathering.

There is something I'm unclear about.

The doctor shot Poirot but deliberately only grazed him. Why was he shouting "why aren't you dead yet?" as the struggled with each other. And what did Poirot say about it when he had them all gathered in the tunnel. There was bit of a ruckus in the audience and I missed what was said.

branie2

I saw it this evening, and I really enjoyed it.

Gwynplaine

I really want to see this. Can anyone tell me how much screen time J Depp has in? I avoid his films, but i want to see this. I can't stand him. So as little as possible would be great. Hopefully he's the one that's murdered, and it happens in the first 2 minutes.

FunLover18

Gwynplaine wrote:

I really want to see this. Can anyone tell me how much screen time J Depp has in? I avoid his films, but i want to see this. I can't stand him. So as little as possible would be great. Hopefully he's the one that's murdered, and it happens in the first 2 minutes.

he gets murdered but he does get some screen time and his character is very annoying

homerun_homer

I really didn't care for this movie at all. I had been looking forward to seeing it and have never seen any version of the story before. For all the boasts of how it was filmed on 60mm film, there was a hell of a lot of bad CG to screw up any benefit they may have thought they were giving the film for an epic scale.

Branagh's fake mustache was very distracting, from being able to see where it's glued to the face throughout to just the look of it. I understand it has to be a standout mustache but how fake it looked took me out of the movie each time.

None of the supporting cast stood out. There was a severe lack of interesting drama and all of a sudden the ending was happening with little to no build up.

The backstory that tied them all together and was the reason for Depp's murder was not explored well enough for me to care, especially given how it seemed like they wanted to play up an emotional angle from his final deductions. And don't start me on the stupid forced Last Super imagery. Why do people feel compelled to rip on this when it's not necessary?

homerun_homer

Spon Farmer wrote: »

The doctor shot Poirot but deliberately only grazed him. Why was he shouting "why aren't you dead yet?" as the struggled with each other. And what did Poirot say about it when he had them all gathered in the tunnel. There was bit of a ruckus in the audience and I missed what was said.

It wasn't elaborated upon from what I could tell. I found that bit bizarre too.