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Murder on the Orient Express Review

What I liked: Inspector Poirot was very fun. I'm always a fan of Kenneth Branagh but usually I don't get to see him in what I would characterize as a comic role. I like stunning scenery. I like absurd mysteries with crazy elaborate plots that materialize out of nowhere. I love the Inspector's mustache cover. I like that the whole train only has 6 cars including the engine, this may not be the most effective money making venture. I liked how much Poirot liked Dickens. I liked that the train got derailed on a really tall trussel bridge which withstands that impact only to sustain significant damage during a fist fight. I like how incredibly dramatic the whole thing was. I  like that there are as far as I can tell no limits on Poirot's jurisdiction.

What I didn't: I am concerned that Poirot did not consider the possibility that he was drugged. Early evidence in the film indicates that he is a light sleeper and as he says he would not be likely to sleep through someone being brutally murdered in the next compartment. I am left to conclude that either he was drugged and never thought to check or that he is suffering from a very specific case of amnesia. Neither possibility was addressed. I don't like looking a beautiful scenery that has been airbrushed within an inch on a Kinkade painting. I do feel like the murder plot was kind of like a Rube Goldberg machine: the most elaborate and inefficient way possible of accomplishing a simple task all for the spectacle and the sheer fun of it. Not necessarily a bad thing when you are constructing a melodramatic mystery but there are about 758 better ways to actually accomplish the murder if staging a murder that is difficult to solve were your actual goal. 

Who should watch this? People who like fun murder mysteries with an absurd endings.

Would I watch it again? sure.

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