Death On The Nile (2022)

Set in 1937 Egypt, renowned detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) finds himself part of a group of passengers on a cruise ship traveling down the Nile. Before the cruise ends, five people will be dead. Based on the novel by Agatha Christie (previously filmed in 1978) and directed by Kenneth Branagh (HENRY V). I'm a huge Christie fan (I've read everything she ever wrote) but I was so appalled at Branagh's hideous 2017 adaptation of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS that I swore I'd never watch another Christie adaptation that Branagh had anything to do with. Well, as a Christie completist if you're compelled, you're compelled and this is even worse than the 2017 movie. The film's plot and its characters have been washed of everything Agatha Christie. In an attempt to make it "relevant" to contemporary audiences, the film adds interracial romance, lesbian love and racism to the plot, none of which are in Christie's novel. If it was Branagh's intention to bring it into the 21st century then why set it in 1937 when he's changed everything else? Unlike the 1978 movie, the film is devoid of humor (so why cast Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French as a communist and her maid?) and Branagh's Poirot owes nothing to Christie's Poirot. Poirot running after a killer and brandishing a gun? Christie would be spinning in her grave. Poirot is given a backstory to make him more sensitive rather than cerebral. Despite the attempt at an "all star" cast, none of the actors stand out. Unlike the 1978 film which was shot in Egypt, this Egypt is all backdrops and CGI. Even the normally reliable Patrick Doyle can't drum up a decent score. Among the "all star" cast: Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, Tom Bateman, Russell Brand, Sophie Okonedo, Ali Fazal, Emma Mackey, Letitia Wright and Annette Bening (along with Branagh, the closest to a "star" the film can provide).