[COLOR= black]
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[COLOR= black]Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010) (Blu-ray)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Directed by Philip Martin
Studio: Acorn Media
Year: 2010
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 93 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English
Subtitles: SDH[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Region:[/COLOR][COLOR= black] none listed
MSRP: $ 29.99[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Release Date: October 26, 2010[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Review Date: [/COLOR][COLOR= black]October 9, 2010[/COLOR]
The Film
4/5
The world’s foremost mystery writer, Agatha Christie during her fifty-five year career penned thirty-three novels that featured her famous Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (and he appeared additionally in ten volumes of short stories as well). For twenty years, character actor David Suchet has been bringing the stories and novels to the television screen playing the fastidious detective whose “little gray cells” work overtime to solve the most dastardly of mysteries. For the first Christie/Poirot film to appear on Blu-ray, Murder on the Orient Express, the 2010 made-for-television version of her 1934 masterpiece, has been selected. Though the mystery is one of her greatest, this new adaptation of her novel is perhaps not the most felicitous choice for Poirot's debut in high definition as it’s a dour and humorless case, at least in the hands of this remake’s director Philip Martin and screenwriter Stewart Harcourt. Production values aren’t as rich or robust as they have been for some of the other adaptations, and the entire enterprise, while most professionally done, isn’t quite up to the standards of the story’s 1974 feature film incarnation nor of some of the other Poirot mysteries which have been given brighter, more inventive productions.
On a train voyage from Istanbul to Calais in 1938, American businessman Samuel Ratchett (Toby Jones) is brutally murdered in his private compartment, viciously stabbed numerous times. Hercule Poirot (David Suchet), who had been booked on the train at the very last minute, is asked by one of the train’s directors to investigate the crime and solve it before the corrupt Yugoslavian police have to be brought in. Poirot finds that this murder is likely connected to the kidnapping and murder of the young child Daisy Armstrong some five years previously, and with a coach full of disparate characters, he soon finds that any one of them could have been capable of the crime.
With this made-for-TV movie having to reside in the shade of the fabulously successful, Oscar-winning 1974 feature film adaptation of the novel, it’s no wonder that the director has opted to darken the tone considerably from its illustrious predecessor. With humor virtually absent from the proceedings and a heavily religious slant injected into the narrative by screenwriter Stewart Harcourt (veering away from the novel’s point of view quite surprisingly), the conclusions Poirot finally arrives at are decidedly more audacious and harrowing for him. Without the superstar line-up of suspects that glittered in the 1974 film, one must pay much closer attention to the characters since many of the actors aren’t very well known and some of the ladies especially resemble one another fairly closely. The use of CGI throughout to give the train some sense of reality show up all too obviously with the higher definition of the encode. Clues seem to be more obviously planted this time out, and the connection of some suspects to the Daisy Armstrong case is not as smoothly or as wittily handled as before. But, while this version can’t compete with the Sidney Lumet-directed masterwork, the story is recounted faithfully, and the mystery is so delicious and the denouement so astonishing for first-time viewers that the story’s innate qualities just can’t be denied.
David Suchet as the fastidious Poirot is always a pleasure to watch, and while we haven’t seen such anguished devotion to his Catholicism in any of the previous Poirot TV-films, he conveys it believably here. Also making striking impressions in this new version are Eileen Atkins as the proud, aloof Princess Dragomiroff and Denis Minochet as the earnest coach porter Pierre Michel. Toby Jones exudes evil from every pore as the pitiless victim Ratchett while Barbara Hershey as the busybody Mrs. Hubbard has been muzzled in this adaptation, her best lines and flamboyant personality subdued by the director’s more sober approach to the material.
Video Quality
3.5/5
The program is presented in its 1.78:1 widescreen television aspect ratio and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. It’s a generally smooth, clean image though with the amount of diffusion used in the photography, everything and everyone often take on a softer than usual look. Color has been slightly desaturated, too, to give the image a vintage look, but black levels aren’t at their optimum, and sometimes scenes played in low light take on an overly grainy and digital texture. The CGI-generated landscapes are so sharp that they’re easily identifiable and don’t mesh particularly well with the softer live action photography. The film has been divided into 12 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo tracks present a solid if unexceptional sound presentation. The dialogue and the discordant Christian Henson music and other ambient effects spread themselves across the front channels. It’s a clear, clean recording but lacking in any truly immersive elements that might add more atmosphere and substance to the sound design.
Special Features
2/5
“David Suchet on the Orient Express” is an engaging and entertaining 46 ¾-minute travelogue with the star of the Poirot series taking a ride on the present day Orient Express which has been slowly restored to its former glory over the last few decades. Elegant and classy, Suchet chats with passengers, eats succulent meals, gives us a guided tour of the carriages and the locomotive, and takes a look at the passing scenery as the train travels through Italy, Austria, and finally allows him to depart in Prague. It’s presented in 1080i.
“120 Years with Agatha Christie” is a text-based summary of various celebrations connected to the author’s 120th birthday and the 90th birthday of Hercule Poirot in print.
There are text-based filmographies of David Suchet, Eileen Atkins, Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Hershey, and Toby Jones.
There is a three page text guide to the Hercule Poirot novels and three volumes of short stories connected to the character.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Even fans of David Suchet’s superb portrayal of Hercule Poirot may not find his latest interpretation in Murder on the Orient Express up to some of his previous work with the character. The first ever Blu-ray of a Christie tale offers above average picture and sound, and the same bonus features to be found on the DVD release of this project.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
[COLOR= black]Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010) (Blu-ray)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Directed by Philip Martin
Studio: Acorn Media
Year: 2010
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 93 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English
Subtitles: SDH[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Region:[/COLOR][COLOR= black] none listed
MSRP: $ 29.99[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Release Date: October 26, 2010[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Review Date: [/COLOR][COLOR= black]October 9, 2010[/COLOR]
The Film
4/5
The world’s foremost mystery writer, Agatha Christie during her fifty-five year career penned thirty-three novels that featured her famous Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (and he appeared additionally in ten volumes of short stories as well). For twenty years, character actor David Suchet has been bringing the stories and novels to the television screen playing the fastidious detective whose “little gray cells” work overtime to solve the most dastardly of mysteries. For the first Christie/Poirot film to appear on Blu-ray, Murder on the Orient Express, the 2010 made-for-television version of her 1934 masterpiece, has been selected. Though the mystery is one of her greatest, this new adaptation of her novel is perhaps not the most felicitous choice for Poirot's debut in high definition as it’s a dour and humorless case, at least in the hands of this remake’s director Philip Martin and screenwriter Stewart Harcourt. Production values aren’t as rich or robust as they have been for some of the other adaptations, and the entire enterprise, while most professionally done, isn’t quite up to the standards of the story’s 1974 feature film incarnation nor of some of the other Poirot mysteries which have been given brighter, more inventive productions.
On a train voyage from Istanbul to Calais in 1938, American businessman Samuel Ratchett (Toby Jones) is brutally murdered in his private compartment, viciously stabbed numerous times. Hercule Poirot (David Suchet), who had been booked on the train at the very last minute, is asked by one of the train’s directors to investigate the crime and solve it before the corrupt Yugoslavian police have to be brought in. Poirot finds that this murder is likely connected to the kidnapping and murder of the young child Daisy Armstrong some five years previously, and with a coach full of disparate characters, he soon finds that any one of them could have been capable of the crime.
With this made-for-TV movie having to reside in the shade of the fabulously successful, Oscar-winning 1974 feature film adaptation of the novel, it’s no wonder that the director has opted to darken the tone considerably from its illustrious predecessor. With humor virtually absent from the proceedings and a heavily religious slant injected into the narrative by screenwriter Stewart Harcourt (veering away from the novel’s point of view quite surprisingly), the conclusions Poirot finally arrives at are decidedly more audacious and harrowing for him. Without the superstar line-up of suspects that glittered in the 1974 film, one must pay much closer attention to the characters since many of the actors aren’t very well known and some of the ladies especially resemble one another fairly closely. The use of CGI throughout to give the train some sense of reality show up all too obviously with the higher definition of the encode. Clues seem to be more obviously planted this time out, and the connection of some suspects to the Daisy Armstrong case is not as smoothly or as wittily handled as before. But, while this version can’t compete with the Sidney Lumet-directed masterwork, the story is recounted faithfully, and the mystery is so delicious and the denouement so astonishing for first-time viewers that the story’s innate qualities just can’t be denied.
David Suchet as the fastidious Poirot is always a pleasure to watch, and while we haven’t seen such anguished devotion to his Catholicism in any of the previous Poirot TV-films, he conveys it believably here. Also making striking impressions in this new version are Eileen Atkins as the proud, aloof Princess Dragomiroff and Denis Minochet as the earnest coach porter Pierre Michel. Toby Jones exudes evil from every pore as the pitiless victim Ratchett while Barbara Hershey as the busybody Mrs. Hubbard has been muzzled in this adaptation, her best lines and flamboyant personality subdued by the director’s more sober approach to the material.
Video Quality
3.5/5
The program is presented in its 1.78:1 widescreen television aspect ratio and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. It’s a generally smooth, clean image though with the amount of diffusion used in the photography, everything and everyone often take on a softer than usual look. Color has been slightly desaturated, too, to give the image a vintage look, but black levels aren’t at their optimum, and sometimes scenes played in low light take on an overly grainy and digital texture. The CGI-generated landscapes are so sharp that they’re easily identifiable and don’t mesh particularly well with the softer live action photography. The film has been divided into 12 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo tracks present a solid if unexceptional sound presentation. The dialogue and the discordant Christian Henson music and other ambient effects spread themselves across the front channels. It’s a clear, clean recording but lacking in any truly immersive elements that might add more atmosphere and substance to the sound design.
Special Features
2/5
“David Suchet on the Orient Express” is an engaging and entertaining 46 ¾-minute travelogue with the star of the Poirot series taking a ride on the present day Orient Express which has been slowly restored to its former glory over the last few decades. Elegant and classy, Suchet chats with passengers, eats succulent meals, gives us a guided tour of the carriages and the locomotive, and takes a look at the passing scenery as the train travels through Italy, Austria, and finally allows him to depart in Prague. It’s presented in 1080i.
“120 Years with Agatha Christie” is a text-based summary of various celebrations connected to the author’s 120th birthday and the 90th birthday of Hercule Poirot in print.
There are text-based filmographies of David Suchet, Eileen Atkins, Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Hershey, and Toby Jones.
There is a three page text guide to the Hercule Poirot novels and three volumes of short stories connected to the character.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Even fans of David Suchet’s superb portrayal of Hercule Poirot may not find his latest interpretation in Murder on the Orient Express up to some of his previous work with the character. The first ever Blu-ray of a Christie tale offers above average picture and sound, and the same bonus features to be found on the DVD release of this project.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
