Just don't mess with something unless you can do it better. Kenneth Branagh directs and stars as Hercule Poirot in this rendition Agatha Christie's classic. The cinematography is worth talking about. Watching the fabled Oriental Express race through snow-swept mountains before it derails. The claustrophobic luxury train of course becomes the site of a murder that Poirot is all but obligated to solve.

Big star names flood the cast; Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer are the only two who earned their paycheck. Also featured are Willem Dafoe, Josh Gad, Tom Bateman,Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom Jr., Olivia Colman and Judi Dench. Branagh is all thumbs trying to show masculinity in the lead character.

Awful movie where Kenneth Branagh self indulges himself at every turn. He clearly believes he is a great actor, but is in fact awful and unbelievable as Poirot. His directing is even worse and why all those much better actors agreed to appear in this trash is the real mystery.

This film apparently wants to be both a classic mystery and one that appeals to the video game generation. It doesn't work. The CGI backgrounds are so obvious, there is no real sense of place. Poirot has been turned into an action figure, racing up and down a rickety trestle in a completely unnecessary scene. You may be tempted to look for the button that shoots out lasers or something. The film focuses so much on Branagh that the audience never really connects with the rest of the cast, making the summation a bit baffling. In a final insult, the closing credits are accompanied by a perfectly dreadful, doleful song.

A waste of time, talent, and money.