Murder on the Orient Express

In recent years Hollywood has been producing a plethora of remakes and reboots of past films. I would list them, but the list would continue endlessly. Usually I feel like remakes are a cheap way to make a film, but when I saw the trailer of "Murder on the Orient Express", I felt this would be the exception.

In 1930's Europe, legendary detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) probes a murder that occurs aboard the luxury train known as the Orient Express. As the thirteen passengers, including Pilar Estravados (Penelope Cruz), Gerhard Hardman (Willem Dafoe), Princess Dragomiroff (Judi Dench), Ratchett (Johnny Depp), Hector MacQueen (Josh Gad) and Mrs. Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer), grow paranoid that the killer will strike again, Poirot realizes there's more to the case than meets the eye. Whodunnit? Will Poirot ascertain the identity of the murderer?

Others to round out the cast are Tom Bateman as Bouc, Derek Jacobi as Edward Masterman, Leslie Odom Jr. as Dr. Arbuthnot, Daisy Ridley as Mary Debeham, Marwan Kenzari as Pierre Michel, Olivia Colman as Hildegarde Schmidt, Lucy Boyton as Countess Andrenyi, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Biniamino Marquez and Sergei Polunin as Count Andrenyi.

This was directed by the incomparable Kenneth Branagh ("Henry V" '89, "Much Ado About Nothing" '93, "Hamlet" '96, "As You Like It" '06, "Sleuth" '07, "Thor" '11, "MacBeth" '13, "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" '14, "Cinderella" '15) plus others. This is an actor that has  successfully made the transition from actor to director effortlessly. Others have succeeded: Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and others. As with these directors, Branagh has earned his dues as an actor and knows actors who can trust him. This is definitely an important aspect in that director's chair--knowing your actors. He truly is able to extract the most subtle of emotions out of his actors. If you enjoy this artist's direction, "Artemis Fowl" is in pre-production. It was written well by Michael Green ("Green Lantern" '11, "Gotham" (TV movie) '12, "Logan" '17,  "Blade Runner 2049" '17) plus TV and shorts, based on the classic novel by Agatha Christie. This was creatively developed and concise both in storyline and expertise of script. Although the 1974 version written by Paul Dehn was slickly executed, this new version was even improved over its predecessor. There were a couple of small places about mid movie that were a bit slow, but certainly not enough to detract from this script. If you find this film well written as I thought it was, not to worry. "Call of the Wild" is in pre-production for a 2019 release. And what can I say about Branagh's role of Poirot? This has got to be one of his meatier, inventive roles of his career, and this actor is consummate! When I listened to Patrick Doyle's sweeping score, it was reminiscent of the haunting score Richard Rodney Bennett wrote for the 1974 version.

I loved the 1974 version of this film, so when I went to the multiplex to see this it, my expectations were certainly high. I know this can backfire on you, but after seeing this, this definitely matched my expectations. It's lavish, stylish, well directed, acted and photographed. This is one that surely needs to be seen on the large screen, so head to the theater and enjoy.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                      Rated: PG-13                                    115mins.