Murder on the Orient Express (2010)

I love this movie so much

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I have enjoyed the Poirots immensely but this and the few surrounding it have puzzled me. Poirot seems so much more angrier in these episodes than I remember him being before. Instead of charmingly uncovering the murderer he has been yelling at them and judging them. Not what I remember. This made the movie difficult to watch and the ending done badly, if you ask me. Otherwise, I recommend David Suchet in the role of Poirot highly, view all of the earlier seasons and enjoy them, but I think I will skip this one next time around.

This should be viewed as part of the complete 'Sutchet' catalogue of Poirot. In the same vein, with the same closed main character. Apart from the short cuddly stories Mr S plays the character as written. Endorsed by the Christie descendants and widely regard as the most authentic interpretation. She disliked Poirot herself! It cannot, like the rest of the the Hollywood interpretations be regard as 'charming', "so English" and other platitudes! However credible and entertaining the Finney version is it lacks bite. Most of the perb's are bitter rather than angry & vindictive. Poirot is methodical but not avenging. Please read the books, visit Devon. This is real Agatha Christie. For those slagging this off, watch the last Sutchet episode Curtain. Then re-watch this. Then you'll understand.

The struggle Poirot goes thru...before he puts forth his "solution to the murder of Ratchett"...is complex. He is torn...as he is asked to do something he has never ever condoned nor done...in his long life of crime solving. Thus, this movie corrects a flaw in both the book and in the 1974 movie. Poirot would not come to such a decision...easily. Despite my "spoiler" check, I'm trying to not give away the solution to the crime which is perhaps being avenged here (the original crime is based on a real life crime of the 1930s which horrified the world).---------------- But this movie is WORSE because...(listen up playwrights) Some do NOT really understand the protestant/catholic Christian faith. So some errors and UNREALISTIC behaviors show through...like the scene where Ratchett is "praying" and where Poirot is praying.Ratchet repentant? Really? Sounds like he's just hedging his bets with some "fire insurance". And the way he hits on a young woman and...tries to bully Poirot into doing a job for him...sounds like the old, brutal unrepentant Ratchett.And the Swedish woman "with Jesus"? Weird. Bizarre. As she describes her religious experience, I was repelled. Persons of faith I know don't really sound like her!!! More and more in some TV/movie scripts you can see....that Too many writers/directors/actors have either left their childhood faith training behind...or maybe were born to parents who were lightly or non religious...and the lack of basic knowledge of how persons of faith think/act SHOWS THROUGH.Thus, while I agree with the protracted agony Poirot goes thru (surely the biggest faith/ethics/justice crisis of his life)...the movie gets a mediocre 6/10 rating for their POOR and somewhat ignorant portrayal of various persons of faith.I'm a person of faith also. Respecting those who research this topic, even if they are not religious. A lack of research/experience with genuine persons of faith...shows thru in this partly flawed film.

It seems to me that neither the director, Philip Martin, the screenplay writer Stewart Harcourt, nor David Suchet himself quite understood the book or Agatha Christie's point. In particular, after all his sterling work as Poirot over the years, Suchet should have known better how Poitot would feel and behave. When a director departs so far from the original story, with so little comprehension of his main character, he must expect criticism.A major disappointment to Suchet's Poirot fans, and I am one. I echo the other reviewer's comments about Albert Finney's 1974 version: superior in all respects, except, in my judgment, for the main theme music, which was poor at best and failed to capture the glamor and grandeur of the Orient Express.