I looked up the graphic novel to see some samples, and it does look pretty nice. They make graphic novels of everything these days, don’t they? My 7 year old loves them, but this might be a smidge too dark for her.

‘MAGNIFICENTLY ABSURD’, pray forgive my clumsy fingers.

(Almost forgot to add, the Princess Dragomirov looks like Count Dracula’s older sister, as is right and proper).

Before you ask Monsieur Poirot’s moustaches are not merely Absurdly Magnificient, they are quite Magnficently Absurd.

Well, I don’t claim to be any special sort of expert, but I do love a period mystery – CADFAEL, SHERLOCK HOLMES, POIROT, MISS MARPLE, FOYLE’S WAR, INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY, ENDEAVOUR (I could go on, but would need a minute or two to summon up the other names).

🙌
Glad a more experienced Poirot observer is a fan as well.

Good call on the specification of the date, I tweaked my wording to “early 20th century”

One quibble before getting into the real meat of this review: my understanding is that the fashion in this film is 1920s, rather than Turn of the Century (Certainly this story falls between the First and Second World Wars).

Anyway, I agree with this review in the main: like Mr Guy Ritchie’s SHERLOCK HOLMES (My favourite cinematic adaptations, though wrestling with the Jeremy Brett television series for Best in Show – and with a multitude of other competitors snapping at their heels) by dint of being endearingly-unconventional without being downright iconoclastic.

Also, while I would unhesitatingly put Mr David Suchet’s take on the character ahead of Sir Ken, the latter unquestionably saunters ahead of every other Poirot (Finney is good, Ustinov is better* and Sir Kenneth is better still but Mr Suchet is Best, despite one minor weakness).

*He looks nothing like the character, yet is practically perfect in every other way.

I am, of course, referring to the fact that whilst every other Poirot merely has a moustache, Sir Kenneth has Moustaches – yes, the plural is also entirely proper to the facial hair grown by a single head, so long as it is sufficiently Majestic.

Never before have I seen such an impeccably ridiculous and ridiculously impeccable construction, truly worthy of the Greatest Belgian Detective in all of fiction.

(Cher Hercule, you are an old and a dear friend, but there’s a crafty little old lady in Saint Mary Meade who denies me even the ability to call you CLEARLY the greatest detective in Agatha Christie, never mind in all crime fiction).

…

I am now imagining Mr Jean-Claude Van Damme playing Hercule Poirot in a comic sketch and I have no idea why nobody has ever committed such a cartoonish act of parody.

For the love of pity, don’t ask me how we got here.

All praise to Sir Ken, his team and their adaptation: AWAY!

It’s a jungle out there! My family watched a lot of Monk (and Psych) but I only saw a handful of episodes. I was off in my own teenage world at the time (its initial run almost exactly spans my teen years) but I liked the bits I saw and should probably watch a bit more of it out sometime.

Would you say it’s a gift… and a curse?

I have no idea if you get the reference, but the point is, Monk’s back on a streaming service I subscribe to. Yeah!

Also yes, Branagh rules, his Murder On the Orient Express rules. And I do dig how much this version of it (dunno about any other) openly ponder, “What is, like, ‘the law,’ man?” and reminds us it’s just what a bunch of people, possibly not that large a number, agree to abide by.