After making films based on probably all of William Shakespeare’s plays, Kenneth Branagh joined Agatha Christie and her countless screened whodunnit crime novels. Five years after “Murder on the Orient Express”, Branagh stood behind again as a director, but also as a confused Belgian detective Poirot in front of the camera, and the result is identical – at best mediocre. I don’t know if that Whodunnit concept is outdated or Branagh failed in his quest, but “Death on the Nile” was an incredibly boring film, and above average, it wasn’t pulled out by even the standard cast-laden cast.
More than half of the film has to pass here for the title of the film to happen, namely the murder on the Nile, and for those who have never read Aunt Agatha’s novel or watched any of the previous adaptations, and it’s not so hard to guess who could be to blame. The film actually begins with perhaps an unnecessary black-and-white introduction and flashback to the battle of the First World War when we find out how and why Poirot knows those twisted mustaches that Simo Dubajić would envy. We then move to Egypt where Poirot will be among the honeymoon guests of wealthy heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) and Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) who was previously engaged to the bride’s best friend, Jackie Bellefort (Emma Mackey).
There’s also Poirot’s old friend Bouc (Tom Bateman) whom we met in a previous film in the company of his mom Euphemie (veteran Annette Bening may be in the best shape of the entire cast) and a few other guests. On the ship on which the newlyweds and their guests travel the Nile, a blind passenger will appear, the situation will become more complicated, and someone will end up dead. The wise Poirot will again, with his praskaton methods, to the end, of course, conclude who the killer is, and regardless of the fact that the film was allegedly shot in real locations in Egypt, it all seems somehow artificial, unnatural.
Again, we have some illogicalities that annoyed me as much as the train that travels through the mountains in the “Orient Express”, so here the black blues musician (Letitia Wright) who is with her daughter (Sophie Okonedo) among the passengers on the steamer, asks that hard delta blues and plays Gibson Les Paula which was made at least 15, 20 years later. In fact, it doesn’t matter that much because the biggest problem is that the film is incredibly boring, dry so I almost fell asleep watching it. In fact, if I had slept through the first hour, I wouldn’t have missed much, and it’s pretty incomprehensible to me why they make such artificial, artificial films today when it’s not necessary at all. In addition, this film is obviously vaccinated against humor, so the six is actually a good grade for this easily forgettable film. Rating 6/10 .
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