Best movie of this year hands down!

Excellent but underrated film

Better Late Then Never

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I first bought this DVD when it came out. I thought so little of it at the time that I sold my copy. While the plot was fine, the British actress' American accents were not quite convincing. In the interim, I have been reading the Christie cannon in order from the publishing date and David Suchet has completed all of the possible Poirots. After reading a book, it is nice to compare it to the movie. The script writing stayed very close to Christie's work. Three of the characters got subsumed into others or dropped completely making it able to follow the characters presented in the show. What I did not like was the changing of the ending for two characters who ended up engaged in the book. It did not seem necessary.The accents did not change in the subsequent years, but I deemed them better than some I have recently seen and am thus less of a snob.

I waited years for this to get made, I always assumed that due to the success of the Ustinov version, this would always follow, quickly. Wrong, it took a good few years, I'm sure budget restraints were the issue. Boy was it worth the wait, it's a stunning production, it's beautifully written, gloriously acted and visually jaw dropping.Initially I couldn't get over how good the casting was, Emma Griffiths Malin had an almost passionate Latin look to her, JJ Feild was very hunky and perfect for Doyle, then came Linnet Ridgeway, I love Emily Blunt, but she was not right for this role, she didn't fit somehow, that was really my only gripe of the production, and it was only a miner. The rest of the cast was flawless, Frances de la tour, Barbara Flynn, Daisy Donovan etc, and I thought a stunning performance from Zoe Telford.It had an epic feel to it, but it was never overdone, it stayed remarkably true to the book, although some characters were omitted, sadly no Bowers. The actual shooting of Simon scene I thought was very well done, you could sense the mood shift when Jacqui enters singing 'love is the sweetest thing,' very well done and directed.The costumes were incredible, how sad we don't get to see much of Zoe Telford's red costume in the scene when Jacqui rushes in late for dinner, from a distance it looks stunning, she has a red dress and fantastic red head gear, out of interest Francesca Annis wore it in Partners in Crime.The music is outstanding and helps build tension in the right places, it works really well, the scenery of course is magical, they couldn't fail could they.The conclusion is hugely satisfying, I love how they did it, so dramatic, exactly as it was written, and the use of flashbacks was brilliant.All in all a perfect adaptation, as good as Ustinov's. 10/10

I started to watch this on Netflix, and stopped after Linnet snorted cocaine. Having a sex scene at the very beginning was bad enough, but Linnet is not a drug using platinum blonde. Even with the wonderful David Suchet, I could not continue. In re-reading the book (which I was before I tried to watch this version), I did detest Linnet, but not because she was a drug using witch; it was because she was arrogant, selfish and betrayed her friend. She is supposed to be truly beautiful, intelligent, rich, ruthless and completely ignorant of how the world really works. She has to have the air of a child who has never been told "no", and doesn't understand that sometimes, just sometimes, she will not get her own way. The character I saw looked like a gum chewing broad who fell into money. Don't waste your time; watch the Peter Ustinov version.

The book Death on the Nile is long and complicated, but superb all the same, and one of my favourite Christies. The Peter Ustinov film is one of the better outings of his as while it wasn't completely faithful, it boasted a superb cast and it was sumptuous to look at. This adaptation for me is slightly inferior to the Ustinov film, and the only one of two to make me feel that way (the other is Evil Under the Sun). Starting with the pros first, it is breathtaking to look at. The Egyptian scenery and the costume and set designs were top draw, the script captured the style of the book perfectly and the music was excellent. And the acting was great, David Suchet is impeccable as Poirot, and Emma Malin is a superb Jackie, gorgeous and expressive. Frances DeLa Tour gives a first rate performance as Salome Otterborne, the same character that Angela Lansbury overplayed so deliciously in the 1978 film. In fact the only weak performance came from Emily Blunt as Linnette, she looked the part (more than Lois Chiles I'd say) but she wasn't quite bitchy enough. As a matter of fact, neither Blunt or Chiles quite nailed Linnette quite right. And there are slight improvements over the 1978 film too, one is that the pacing is faster, the other is that it is more faithful to the book, the murders are closer to the ones in the book and the ending done in Romeo and Juliet style is closer too. However, there are one or two flaws, namely the direction from Andy Wilson, it wasn't absolutely abysmal, but it wasn't quite as efficient or as suspenseful as it could've been. Also there were times where I felt that I had been told too much too early, and this was a similar problem I had with Murder on the Links. All in all, this is a very good episode. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox