A Haunting In Venice (2023)

Another Poirot film starring, and directed by, Kenneth Branagh, this one based on a novel actually named "Hallowe'en Party", A Haunting In Venice feels a bit different from the previous two instalments in this particular continuity for the detective. It's a moody and atmospheric piece. It also feels disappointingly light on actual Poirot moments though, our hero generally feeling sidelined in favour of the camerawork and building spookiness.

Despite trying to enjoy his retirement, Hercule Poirot has his peace interrupted by a mystery writer friend, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who hopes he can expose a medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), as a fraud. She will be putting on a performance at the home of Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), a retured opera singer grieving the loss of her daughter, Alicia. Others who will be in attendance are Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and Maxime Gérard (Kyle Allen), the former fiancé of Alicia.

On the one hand, it's commendable to have a Poirot film that feels a step removed from the other recent Poirot films. Branagh, working once again with writer Michael Green, seems intent on showing us that every Poirot tale can both follow a formula and also provide some nice variety, but he seems to struggle with the commitment required for the many scenes that don't focus on the main character.

It should also be said that the cast feels disappointingly lacking in comparison to the previous two features. Fey is a delight, as is Yeoh (the latter sorely underused), but Reilly isn't able to have any fun in her role, Allen is similarly stuck in a solemn mood for the duration, and Dornan is about as bland as he usually is (sorry, he may be a lovely guy, but he rarely works for me onscreen). Riccardo Scamarcio is an enjoyable presence playing Poirot's bodyguard, but you don't get much from the likes of Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Camille Cottin, and the young Jude Hill (playing the son of Dornan's character).

Everything feels as lush and gorgeous, albeit in a very different way, but there's certainly no doubt that the budget is lower than it was for the previous Poirot feature. We don't get to stray too far from the one main location, the cast is undeniably lacking some major star power (aside from the luminous Fey and Yeoh), and it just can't stop feeling, superficially, like an inferior adventure. The spooky fun helps a lot though, and allowed me to put this on a par with its predecessors, despite the shortcomings elsewhere.

Other plus points are the fact that it clocks in at 103 minutes, although it feels a bit longer than that, and a wonderful score from Hildur Guðnadóttir that I recommend, even if you ultimately choose not to watch the film.

Nothing great, nor truly memorable, but enjoyable enough while it's on, which can be said of every one of the Branagh Poirot movies to date. At least the man is consistent when it comes to his attempts to serve up tales of the famous Belgian detective. 

6/10

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Death On The Nile (2022)

It took me long enough to get around to this, the second Poirot adventure starring, and directed by, Kenneth Branagh, and I was wondering if I should delay it any long as the earliest scenes played out (a sequence showing Poirot in wartime action that feels far too much like a superhero origin prologue). Things did not bode well. Thankfully, the rest of the film is much better, helped by a sprawling cast that has enough welcome performers to make up for those you may be less inclined to want on your screen.

Everything is basically summed up by the title. Poirot is invited to join the celebrations of a pair of newlyweds (Armie Hammer and Gal Gadot), as well as an assemblage of friends and acquaintances. There's trouble in the air though. An angry ex (Emma Mackey), who may be out for deadly revenge.

With Michael Green back for the job of adapting Agatha Christie's work into movie form, and Branagh very comfortable as the lead, there's very little here that should deter those who enjoyed Murder On The Orient Express. I would say that this is a more showy and beautiful film, helped in no small part by the setting, and Branagh has never been someone who could be accused of lacking confidence or the ability to add multiple cinematic flourishes to very traditional material.

Hammer is fine in his role, Gadot feels very much out of her depth, and Mackey is good fun, but the best moments come from many of the supporting players. Annette Bening and (returning) Tom Bateman are both on great form, a mother and son who both view Poirot in quite different ways. It's always nice to see Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders working alongside one another onscreen again. Rose Leslie does okay with a fairly anaemic role, and Russell Brand appears just often enough to make his inclusion feel unfortunate, but both Letitia Wright and Sophie Okonedo light up the screen with their presence. Branagh remains a lot of fun as Poirot, once the film moves beyond that unwanted opening sequence, and he's allowed, as usual, to showboat and relish his dialogue in the grand finale.

It doesn’t seem right to mention plotting in an adaptation of Agatha Christie, but fans should be pleased that this feels nicely in line with what you would expect from her. I haven’t read the source material (note to self, get back to exploring more Agatha Christie tales), but Christie is such a known institution that it would be very easy to tell when something felt . . . off.

Not great, not exactly cinematic throughout (despite Branagh trying his best), but comforting and enjoyable nonetheless. I may even get around to the next film very shortly, considering that has the bonus of Michelle Yeoh in one of the main roles. Or maybe I will take as long to get around to it as I took to get around to this one. After all, they don’t exactly set my little grey cells on fire with excitement.

6/10

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Jungle Cruise (2021)

Look, not every film based on a Disney attraction is going to work. Just see The Haunted Mansion (or don't . . . I didn't hate that film and even I just rated it a 4/10). But the fact that it can work as well as it did with Pirates Of The Caribbean is probably good enough reason for film-makers to see what else they could adapt into a fun movie/franchise. And Jungle Cruise is definitely more in line with the latter than the former. It also has a very similar vibe to Fraser/Weisz The Mummy movies (no bad thing). And benefits from the absolute maelstrom of charisma that is Dwayne Johnson.

Emily Blunt plays Lily Houghton, a daring young woman who is determined to find a fabled tree that has leaves said to be able to cure illnesses. Having upset the proper establishment that doesn't believe in such things, and certainly won't accept such ideas coming from A WOMAN (this is the early 1900s, after all), Lily steals an arrowhead that may help her locate the tree, rushing off on an adventure with her brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall). The two get to South America, where they end up hiring a boat captained by Frank Wolff (Johnson). Danger lurks under every ripple of the river water, especially when they are being pursued by an obsessed and amoral German, Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), who also wants to find the tree. Oh, there are also some undead conquistadors (led by Aguirre, played by Édgar Ramirez) who want a chance to lift the curse placed upon them.

Jungle Cruise works as well as it does thanks to the wonderful interplay between Johnson, Blunt, and Whitehall. All three get a chance to show their comedic chops, and all three get to have at least one moment in which they show the real strength of their characters. Johnson gets to reel off a number of amusingly bad puns (the kind I always enjoy), and he's also a bit of a con artist, while Blunt has an impressively pro-active and savvy approach to her quest, even if she is given extra assistance from Johnson on a couple of occasions. There has been some praise for the fact that Whitehall's character is a young gay man in a Disney movie, but the House Of Mouse yet again make the minimum effort to show that they nowadays realise what a wonderful variety of human beings are out in the world. 

The screenplay throws together Michael Green (who has worked on films such as Logan, Green Lantern, and Murder On The Orient Express) and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (responsible for writing Cats & Dogs and, ummmm, Bad Santa). That mix ends up yielding a surprisingly cohesive result, with all three men obviously doing their best to please their Disney bosses, helped in developing the theme park ride into a movie idea by John Norville. There are a lot of little details that will please those who have been on the Jungle Cruise ride, the plotting is predictable in a way that doesn't make the adventure any less fun, and it's all just a perfectly-crafted, unabashed, blockbuster to enjoy on the big screen. 

Director Jaume Collet-Serra is generally known for the films that he has directed in the horror and thriller genres (including House Of Wax, Orphan, and The Shallows), but he feels like a great choice to be helming this material, balancing the fun factor with the dark fantasy elements, particularly when the undead conquistadors take the centre stage. It may remain more of a Disney film than a Collet-Serra film, but that is what tends to happen with every Disney movie.

Aside from Johnson, Blunt, and Whitehall, there's a lot of fun to be had with the over-the-top villainy of Plemons, who seems to be having a ball, the nature-harnessing conquistadors, and Paul Giamatti, playing a character who is owed a debt by Frank Wolff that could lead to him taking ownership of Wolff's boat.

The runtime, just over two hours, fairly flies by, there's a decent musical score from James Newton Howard, and the only thing that drags this down is the feeling of "been there, done that" that permeates many of the major story beats. I'd recommend this as superior family entertainment, easily, but I'd also like to think that it doesn't need any sequels or spin-offs that I assume are already being planned.

8/10

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Murder On The Orient Express (2017)

There's nothing inherently wrong with this all-star version of Murder On The Orient Express, the classic whodunnit from Agatha Christie that has an ending already known to most people even if they haven't read the book yet (a large group that includes myself). It's rather fun, polished, and certainly throws enough stars into the mix to help things along.

Kenneth Branagh directs, and he also lets himself take on the lead role of Poirot, the greatest detective in the world (who isn't named Sherlock Holmes, I guess). Poirot ends up on the titular train, there's a murder, and he tries to figure out who did it. Everyone has a motive, it seems, and Poirot wants to discover the culprit before the train moves on to the next station. Because the train has also been derailed by a small avalanche, ensuring that the characters are unable to flee while the detective gets his little grey cells working on the case.

Working from a script by Michael Green, Murder On The Orient Express is a film both helped and hampered by how familiar and comfortable it all feels. It's easy to enjoy but not so easy to get properly drawn into. The snowy setting, the familiar faces, the family-friendly nature of most of the main scenes, this is something that feels more like a lavish BBC production scheduled for the Christmas holidays than a cinematic experience.

My other main complaint about the film is how the resolution comes about. It all makes sense, from what I can tell, but it would have been better to see a few more links being placed in the chain by Poirot as he started to formulate his main theory. This may be a case of elements from the book that were harder to put on film, or it may be a case of Poirot simply being a character who holds all of his cards close to his chest until he is ready to set them down. My limited knowledge of the character is gathering dust in a small recess of my memory banks, sadly. Either way, and I know it would have been difficult to balance the reveals with the attempt to keep the mystery intact until the end, one or two more pieces of information would have been appreciated as viewers watched Poirot put everything together.

I'm not going to pick apart every performance by the cast. I'll just say that all of them have fun at various points. Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Leslie Odom Jr, Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Josh Gad, Penelope Cruz, Olivia Colman, Derek Jacobi, and Tom Bateman are the main players, but they all have to work under the long shadow of Branagh, clearly having a ball as Poirot.

If you're unfamiliar with the resolution to the story then be sure to see this before you have it spoiled for you. Also give it a watch if you like most of the main players (and why wouldn't you?). But it's surprisingly disposable and forgettable, especially considering the talent involved. I'll still end up watching the next adventure, however, teased at the end, and I'd even be tempted to watch some less famous mysteries featuring Branagh's take on the main character.

6/10

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