Sometimes you need to give it a chance.....

Rating: 9/10 (26 August 2018)

I was and I suppose, still am, loyal to the older Albert Finney version. Especially the music! The classic score seemed to make it even more amazing and glamorous. But as I have watched this newer redo several times, I have concentrated more on the characters, the dialogue, and the scenery. I love the scenes of the train going through the mountain areas with the thunder and lightening before the avalanche. Just that made me wish that I had taken a chance and gone to the movie theatre to see it. That was AWESOME! A really nice touch. And when Poirot sticks his head out of the door of his berth and asks, "Did we die?," it's hysterical.
But the beginning of the film was puzzling. I have read the book. Where did this strange small crime that Poirot needs to solve before he gets on the train come from? And the even stranger issue of his breakfast eggs not being perfectly matched, "I blame the chicken," Poirot says, as he runs off to other business, was just plain weird. But I digress.
Johnny Depp actually makes the character of Ratchet even more sinister than Richard Widmark did. And when 'Ratchet' tries to pretty much buy Poirot to be his bodyguard, so to speak, Poirot declines by telling this person who looks like a criminal, "I do not like your face," Ratchet's fate is pretty much sealed. No one would be able to keep this terrible person safe. Those of us who know the story, are clued in (pun intended) to how it ends. They all did it.
But the bottom line is this. Give this film a chance. It's very entertaining. And since our NEW Poirot is now heading to Egypt, us Poirot fans know why. And I will see the next one in the theatre. Tickets to see a movie with all the cool sound effects on a really huge screen, are not that expensive.