Death on the Nile (Movies Anywhere) review

[David Vaughn]

Studio: Fox
Release Date: March 29, 2022
Rating: PG
Film: 3/5
 
Plot
Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot’s (Kenneth Branagh) spectacular Egyptian vacation aboard a river boat becomes a terrifying search for a murderer after a picture-perfect couple’s honeymoon is cut tragically short. Based on Agatha Christie’s novel, this tale of passion and jealousy is filled with wicked twists and turns until its shocking finale.
 
Barry’s Thoughts
This is a non-spoiler review, but this is also a “whodunit.’ You probably know then that someone is going to be killed and a famous detective will solve the case in the last ten minutes.
  
 This is a sequel to the recent “Murder on the Orient Express” and stars Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot. The beginning of the movie is shot in black and white and give the WWI history of Poirot.  It then switches to the mid-1930s and looks like a “B” movie when the rear screen projections of the Pyramids are used.  The photography then gets better.
  
 We see a couple, Armed Hammer and his girlfriend dancing at a club.  In walks Gal Gadot making one of her usual fantastic entrances and catches Armed’s eye.  Next thing the Lone Ranger and Wonder Woman are married and are taking everyone on a cruise down the Nile.  This is introducing the first “mystery” Who is going to be murdered?
  
 Gal is beautiful, and she knows how to play a beautiful lady.  But sadly, she and Hammer have no chemistry together…or apart. Her entrances are great but she, and Armed, never convince me of their characters. Annette Benning stands out for me because she gave a charming and funny performance as usual.
  
 It also struck me a weird that someone who commit a murder on a boat where there would not only be limited suspects but the world’s greatest detective.
  
 On the Barry ratings scale, I give this movie a “good” rating for those who like whodunits. It drags a bit and could be a bit shorter because we know what will happen at the end.
  
 After the beginning the photography was good on HBOMAX but the sound on it needs to be improved.  It sounds like just two channel stereo a bit too often.
  
 Ratings Scale
 Really Bad
 BAD
 Sit-through able
 Good
 Very Good
 Great
 
My Thoughts
I agree with many of Barry’s thoughts. I found the first act to be a bit slow and clunky as the plethora of characters are introduced. Godot is gorgeous and looks like a movie star, but I don’t consider her to be a great actress by any stretch and her and Hammer have zero sizzle in their onscreen relationship. Thankfully, director/star Kenneth Branagh does a great job as the famed detective and the rest of the supporting cast is more interesting than the lead couple.
 
I went into the film completely forgetting that it was a sequel, which shows how forgettable the first entry into the franchise was, and it took me nearly half the film to get interested enough to pay full attention. Once the proceedings move to the boat on the Nile River, things pick up and I found the latter half of the film to be enjoyable as I tried to figure out who the culprit was.
 
I streamed the movie from Movies Anywhere and it was in 4K with Atmos sound. The stream looked more along the lines of Blu-ray quality but with some HDR thrown in. The Atmos track was very understated and a bit flat, but I presume the disc version will sound a lot better.
 

 
 
Conclusion
Barry and I both found the experience enjoyable, but not top-shelf entertainment. Adapting these types of stories to the big screen is a heavy lift due to the multitude of characters and balancing the line on giving the characters enough screen time to develop them versus getting bogged down in the details. For the most part, Branagh succeeds, but his two leads seemed miscast with each other and there was a lack of sizzle between them. Thankfully, the supporting cast is good enough to overcome this flaw. If you like these types of films, then you’d probably enjoy sitting through this at least once.
 
Reference Review System:
JVC DLA-RS2000 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
(Calibrated with Portrait Displays CalMAN color calibration software & C6-HDR Meter from Portrait Displays)
Stewart Filmscreen - Firehawk 88” 16x9 Fixed Screen
Trinnov Altitude 16 Audio/Video Processor
ATI AT527NC Powering Bed Channels
ATI AT524NC Powering Atmos Speakers
Panasonic DP-UB820 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
System Controller: URC MX-990
M&K S-150 THX Ultra (R-C-L Speakers)
M&K SS-150 x4 (Surround Speakers)
Atlantic Technology IC6-OBA x 4 Overhead Speakers
SVS PC-Ultra Cylinder Subwoofer
HSU VTF-15H MK2 Subwoofer
JL Audio Dominion F110 Subwoofer x 2
Mini DSP HD controlling all subwoofers
Audioquest and Monoprice - Audio/Video/Speaker Cabling
PureAV PF60 Power Conditioner

 

[bmoney]

Hopfully watching  this soon. Been on a 2 week movie hiatus due to having a new puppy in the house 

[David Vaughn]

Hopfully watching  this soon. Been on a 2 week movie hiatus due to having a new puppy in the house

Time to upload a puppy picture

[bmoney]

Here ya go

[David Vaughn]

How adorable! What kind of dog?

[bmoney]

How adorable! What kind of dog?

Thanks!

burnese mountain dog

He’s doubled in size in the 2 weeks we have had him lol. Gonna be about 100lbs

[bmoney]

Watched this last night on 4K disc

I liked it. On par with the first.

Image was pretty blown out though in spots. They def used a weird filter possibly it was the poor cgi green screens but other shot were outstanding looking with deep blacks and great colors. And agree the atmos sound was flat as can be. Oh well