Just saw it last night, and, man, it was terrible. Branagh modified things so that the actual mystery was absolutely transparent, but the character modifications were so confusing. I never did figure out what nationality Gal Gadot was supposed to be. Lots of added scenes – completely at odds with Christies’s Poirot – just so Branagh can emote. Waste of time.
OTOH, I wanted to watch Nightmare Alley. I’ve read the book and seen the Tyrone Power movie, but some of the comments in this thread are making me think it might be approaching Death on the Nile levels of dramaturgy. Yeah? Nay?
I was in 8th grade then, and I wanted to go the the TAMI show so bad. And I was really local, too.
I just watched The Night of the Iguana day before yesterday. I mentioned it somewhere else, and my take was that what was shocking in the early 60s is pretty tame, today. All the same it kept my interest, and all the principals (Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr) did good jobs.
FWIW, I didn’t dislike Death on the Nile, but didn’t think it added anything over and above previous versions. Nightmare Alley is true to the arc of the prior version and very truly noir. Beautiful cinematography and the actors really capture the vibe. If you are looking for a scene by scene re-creation of the Tyrone Power vehicle (like the wretched remake of Psycho), you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re looking for color version of the classic noir elements, you’ll enjoy it.
One might think of Kenneth Branagh’s new version of Death on the Nile as an origin story for the character of Hercule Poirot and, to a lesser extent, his moustache.
At the beginning of Branagh’s upcoming Evil Under the Sun there will be a flashback where Poirot liberates the mustache from Otto von Bismarck’s grave at the end of World War One and has it stitched onto his own face by a Harley Street surgeon.
We’re halfway through it because my daughter wants to watch it. Literally halfway through. Nobody is dead yet. And when somebody dies, I’m not sure I’ll actually care.
I’m finding it - and indeed the MotOE film as well - horribly overblown, overdirected, pretentious nonsense. You’re absolutely right that the whole thing is about Kenneth Branagh emoting rather than, you know, the actual mystery. There’s no tension whatsoever (nor was there in the previous film). It’s basically an episode of The Love Boat - lots of famous people you recognize phoning in performances as ridiculously overwritten characters, swanning about on the water with a bit of romantic tension. Presumably at some point there will be an actual death, which at least will separate it from The Love Boat.
Yes. You nailed it. If you make it to the end you get to see Branagh with tears in eyes over the death of a character that was added to the story just so he could have this emotional scene.
I missed it when it aired in 1996. I see you can watch the old episodes on Crackle, so I’ll be checking them out. Some pretty funny stuff in the doc and wow, what a cast he had! Smigel, Carrell, Colbert, more.
Raising Arizona - streams on Hoopla(free of charge!)
Another movie I certainly should have seen at some point, but just hadn’t. Yeah, it was OK. I wasn’t a huge fan, but the movie was pretty good. I’ve often heard this movie is very popular and held in high regard by many, but I found that it didn’t really stand out that much to me.
I have not had a lot of luck with the Cohen brothers. Here are the movies they have made that I have seen and my rating. Note: some of these might be directed by only one of them.
Raising Arizona - 6/10
Hudsucker Proxy - saw it on VHS around 1995. I was a teenager and did not like it.
Fargo - 7/10 - it was ok
The Big Lebowski - 7/10 - I expected to like this one the most. It was OK
The Ladykillers - 2/10 - terrible
No Country for Old Men - 8/10 - really good
True Grit - 6/10 - yep, it was OK
I do think Big Lebowski deserves another watch by me. I think I just wasn’t in the mood, but I do admit there were some really funny things in that movie and the character is pretty memorable. Even though I don’t love the movie, I do say, “That’s just, like, your opinion, man” fairly often so I guess it sunk in.
I had to watch The Big Lebowski a 3rd time (and fairly recently ) for it to move up in my Cohen Bros list but no love for Fargo? It’s one of my favorites of all time. If you haven’t see O Brother Where Are Thou? another favorite and great soundtrack too.
Just watched The Fugitive (muted and as background art) for the millionth time, and suddenly wondered: why was Gerard, a Federal agent, so intent on capturing Kimble- murder is a state crime. Isn’t it out of his jurisdiction?
I’ve heard this discussed before, but I can’t for the life of me remember the answer. Is he being pursued as an escaped convict, not as a murderer? Does that involve the Feds?
In the movie version of The Fugitive, Gerard and the others are with the US Marshals Service which lists fugitive apprehension among its responsibilities.
Personally, I like it. Actually, in general I preferred Coen brothers’ comedic films (Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy and O Brother Where Art Thou?) over the more serious films.
Speaking of The Fugitive: “You’ll never catch him; he’s too smart”. That’s why, in an otherwise empty subway car, he sits directly across from a guy reading a newspaper with a big picture of him on it.
“All the Old Knives.” Based on an Olen Steinhauer book. I generally enjoy his books, but this had one of the most predictable plots in history, plus an excess of melodrama. Utter waste of time. Unnecessary set up just to keep the audience oblivious. Criminally stupid ending.
Yep. Didn’t care when people started dying. Didn’t care about any of the other characters either. Branagh is fucking ruining Agatha Christie.
I also watched the new West Side Story. I have to admit I didn’t see how Spielberg could possibly improve on the original and thought it was going to be a self-indulgent mess, but I will fully admit that I called this one wrong. Usually this sort of remake “fixes” whatever issues the original had while ruining everything good about the first one, but Spielberg and Kushner absolutely kept all the charm while improving the plot and several of the songs by reframing them (“Cool” being a notable example - as iconic as the original dance sequence is, it works so much better here in showing a changing plot dynamic).
A little bit of soapboxing but not obnoxiously so. And Ariana DeBose definitely earned her Oscar IMO.
