Death On The Nile

Death on the Nile (2022)

66% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 185 reviews)

Runtime: 127 minutes

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

Starring: Sir Kenneth and an all star cast, some of whom got in hot water between the time this was filmed and it was released

From: 20^th Century Studios... I'll probably never get used to the “studios” part

Featuring a mustache origin story.

The main reason I saw this: Sir Kenneth's first turn as Hercule Poirot was watched by me theatrically back in late '17 and I found it to be fine-although the '74 version of Murder on the Orient Express I prefer-so might as well see this. My opinion on the story won't be colored by the novel nor the '78 movie as I haven't experienced either. Plus, we've literally seen trailers for the movie for a few years now. What a nightmare for the star/director & the studio that this was filmed in '19 and because of the delays mainly due to the plague, since then one of the stars voiced her opinion on the whole Israel/Pakistan conflict that made many people unhappy, two others are apparently “anti-vaxx”, and then there's Armie Hammer's WTF downfall... the whole cannibal thing inspires many people to unleash one-liners but his alleged crimes are still quite grievous. At least the director/star can focus on publicizing Belfast.

The drama involving some of the actors did not color my opinion of this mystery tale, mainly sat on a riverboat traveling down the Nile River in Egypt. A rich heiress elopes with a man she barely knows (how unfortunate for the movie that Hammer is the one who plays this key role), their honeymoon is in the land of the pharaohs, his ex becomes a stalker, and various people who have had issues with the heiress happens to be on the ship. The detective interviews the suspects after one death occurs, and after a few more murders his grand deduction is revealed. Personally, your opinion of Branagh's first go-around in the role will more likely than not be the same for this sophomore effort.

There are many famous faces in this cast; some performances are better than others. Aside from the star, the most impressive turns for me came from Annette Bening, Emma Mackey, Tom Bateman and Sophie Okonedo. No complaints from me about this being good instead of great as it was an interesting mystery which of course is a twisty tale, the Egyptian setting is exotic, and as Okonedo plays a jazz singer, a few genre songs are heard throughout—believe it or not, there's no version of Depeche Mode's Policy of Truth. Disney likely being relieved they can finally put this out before someone else in the cast causes everyone embarrassment should not affect you checking this out in the future if you dig the classic mystery films of old.

Believe it or not, this actually has a mustache origin story, which has to be a first for me. Believe it or not, that is responsible for character development so that wasn't done just for bonkers reasons.