[Music]
it is time to sort of this case hey
everybody Eric here for mojo at the
movies today we’re gonna do a quickie on
Murder on the Orient Express so this is
the big-budget whodunit from Kenneth
Branagh of course based on the book by
Agatha Christie and it’s not the first
time it’s been adapted to the big screen
in fact it’s been adapted four times
some to the small screen some to the big
screen notably 1974’s film version which
was directed by Sidney Lumet and
starring Albert Finney Lauren Bacall
Sean Connery Anthony Perkins so the
question is do we need another big
screen adaptation of Murder on the
Orient Express well here are five
reasons why this version kind of
derailed first off the cast great cast
it’s it’s like a brochette of talent
you’ve got a lot of Oscar winners and a
lot of Oscar nominees Michelle Pfeiffer
Kenneth Branagh Josh GAD you’ve got
Johnny Depp Willem Dafoe even Daisy
Ridley who we’re gonna see in the new
upcoming Star Wars and I think people
are a little more excited about her in
Star Wars than in this movie but I
digress the fact is you’ve got an
amazing cast and yet none of them really
seem to gel together it’s almost as if
the casting director just kind of took a
bunch of names and threw them at the
wall and none of it really stuck it’s
almost as if they’re all kind of acting
in a silo and not that there’s no
cohesive quality so it’s very hard to
kind of feel attached to any of these
characters it’s almost like they phoned
it in so it’s really too bad because
they have a lot of potential but it just
kind of fell flat second problem
direction so Kenneth Branagh is a very
accomplished director you know notably
for his adaptations of Shakespearean
work he did much ado about nothing he
did Hamlet but he also did Thor the
first Thor movie and he did the most
recent Jack Ryan so he’s he’s got the
directing chops he’s also got to be
acting skills but he put himself as the
principal character here he’s the main
role here cue lapaki and the the whole
thing is like one giant selfie it’s just
his face big on the screen the whole
time it is very vain I don’t know if
it’s a vanity project but I feel like he
just kind of you know it’s it’s all
about him it’s just his face the whole
time and that I
found a little bit too disappointing
although I did like the mustache
very nice work on the stack third
problem the source material as I
mentioned really good and the writer is
really good as well Michael Greene who
also wrote Blade Runner
20:49 and Logan really underrated one of
the best movies I’ve seen in a long time
and so you know that he has a way of
connecting with audiences but for some
reason something didn’t work here it
just feels disjointed and it’s strange
because the book itself is about 70
pages it’s not a long read it’s not a
complicated story and yet he had trouble
making those connections between the
characters and especially making the
characters connect to the audience
next problem cinematography very nice it
looks great
you know the shots of Jerusalem and
especially Istanbul as the train is
pulling out of the station as well as
the mountainous regions but it’s too
heavy on the CGI I kind of feel that he
could have done a lot more with
realistic photography here you know the
whole thing feels too saturated what’s
more the Train there was so much
opportunity to use the Train as a
character in the cinematography and I
just kind of felt like yeah there was a
couple of neat trickeries but the Train
wasn’t exploited as much as it could
have been and there were some weird
choice of shots all of a sudden the
camera would go to these you know
bird’s-eye view and we would see
conversations from the top down and I
like that kind of artistic moves when
there’s a reason for it but it just kind
of seemed out of place in this movie
lastly is just the sense that I never
cared about any of the characters and
that could be a combination of all the
problems I named before I just got the
sense as I was watching the movie why do
I care
none of them are likable and it’s not in
a Seinfeld Ian way where they’re
unlikable but you kind of root for them
at the same time none of these
characters they were too one-dimensional
there was there was no sense of joy in
watching any of these characters either
do well or do badly or get killed or
solve a crime and speaking of solving
the crime as my colleague Michelle
mentioned when you’re watching a
whodunit you want to have these little
clues that allow you to connect the dots
and eventually figure out for yourself
the way this movie was made you never
really have that capacity they just kind
of throw information that there’s no way
that you could have known that unless
they told it to you so you know I think
all in all it’s a fun ride it looks good
but it just kind of fell flat and never
really made it to the station
takes up the next cannot trust
check out these other great clips from
WatchMojo and subscribe for new videos
every day
it is time to sort of this case hey
everybody Eric here for mojo at the
movies today we’re gonna do a quickie on
Murder on the Orient Express so this is
the big-budget whodunit from Kenneth
Branagh of course based on the book by
Agatha Christie and it’s not the first
time it’s been adapted to the big screen
in fact it’s been adapted four times
some to the small screen some to the big
screen notably 1974’s film version which
was directed by Sidney Lumet and
starring Albert Finney Lauren Bacall
Sean Connery Anthony Perkins so the
question is do we need another big
screen adaptation of Murder on the
Orient Express well here are five
reasons why this version kind of
derailed first off the cast great cast
it’s it’s like a brochette of talent
you’ve got a lot of Oscar winners and a
lot of Oscar nominees Michelle Pfeiffer
Kenneth Branagh Josh GAD you’ve got
Johnny Depp Willem Dafoe even Daisy
Ridley who we’re gonna see in the new
upcoming Star Wars and I think people
are a little more excited about her in
Star Wars than in this movie but I
digress the fact is you’ve got an
amazing cast and yet none of them really
seem to gel together it’s almost as if
the casting director just kind of took a
bunch of names and threw them at the
wall and none of it really stuck it’s
almost as if they’re all kind of acting
in a silo and not that there’s no
cohesive quality so it’s very hard to
kind of feel attached to any of these
characters it’s almost like they phoned
it in so it’s really too bad because
they have a lot of potential but it just
kind of fell flat second problem
direction so Kenneth Branagh is a very
accomplished director you know notably
for his adaptations of Shakespearean
work he did much ado about nothing he
did Hamlet but he also did Thor the
first Thor movie and he did the most
recent Jack Ryan so he’s he’s got the
directing chops he’s also got to be
acting skills but he put himself as the
principal character here he’s the main
role here cue lapaki and the the whole
thing is like one giant selfie it’s just
his face big on the screen the whole
time it is very vain I don’t know if
it’s a vanity project but I feel like he
just kind of you know it’s it’s all
about him it’s just his face the whole
time and that I
found a little bit too disappointing
although I did like the mustache
very nice work on the stack third
problem the source material as I
mentioned really good and the writer is
really good as well Michael Greene who
also wrote Blade Runner
20:49 and Logan really underrated one of
the best movies I’ve seen in a long time
and so you know that he has a way of
connecting with audiences but for some
reason something didn’t work here it
just feels disjointed and it’s strange
because the book itself is about 70
pages it’s not a long read it’s not a
complicated story and yet he had trouble
making those connections between the
characters and especially making the
characters connect to the audience
next problem cinematography very nice it
looks great
you know the shots of Jerusalem and
especially Istanbul as the train is
pulling out of the station as well as
the mountainous regions but it’s too
heavy on the CGI I kind of feel that he
could have done a lot more with
realistic photography here you know the
whole thing feels too saturated what’s
more the Train there was so much
opportunity to use the Train as a
character in the cinematography and I
just kind of felt like yeah there was a
couple of neat trickeries but the Train
wasn’t exploited as much as it could
have been and there were some weird
choice of shots all of a sudden the
camera would go to these you know
bird’s-eye view and we would see
conversations from the top down and I
like that kind of artistic moves when
there’s a reason for it but it just kind
of seemed out of place in this movie
lastly is just the sense that I never
cared about any of the characters and
that could be a combination of all the
problems I named before I just got the
sense as I was watching the movie why do
I care
none of them are likable and it’s not in
a Seinfeld Ian way where they’re
unlikable but you kind of root for them
at the same time none of these
characters they were too one-dimensional
there was there was no sense of joy in
watching any of these characters either
do well or do badly or get killed or
solve a crime and speaking of solving
the crime as my colleague Michelle
mentioned when you’re watching a
whodunit you want to have these little
clues that allow you to connect the dots
and eventually figure out for yourself
the way this movie was made you never
really have that capacity they just kind
of throw information that there’s no way
that you could have known that unless
they told it to you so you know I think
all in all it’s a fun ride it looks good
but it just kind of fell flat and never
really made it to the station
takes up the next cannot trust
check out these other great clips from
WatchMojo and subscribe for new videos
every day
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