Death on the Nile - 4K Digital Review

[Michael Scott]

Death on the Nile

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
Agatha Christie has permeated the world of novelized mystery stories and become a legend like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, penning some 66 mystery novels and 14 short story collections over her illustrius career. There’s been a fee attempts to revive her stories into movie form (one of the most famous is Death on the Nile back in the 1970s, starring Peter Ustinov and David Niven), but Kenneth Branagh has also made it his mission to bring Hercule Poirot to the silver screen with 2018’s Murder on the Orient Express, and now a remake of Death on the Nile. I wasn’t a wild fan of Murder on the Orient Express, but found it a reasonably fun bit of puff piece mystery entertainment. Branagh ate up the scenery as the vain and eccentric Belgian detective, and aside from Daisy Ridley’s awful acting it was a perfectly serviceable movie. Fast forward 4 years and we get to head back to a secluded area where the infamous detective is allowed to ply his trade once more. This time, with a slightly better blended cast, and a story that kept me entertained even more than it’s predecessor.

Hercule Poirot (Branagh) is introduced to us in tandem with the focal point characters of the movie. He’s in Egypt on vacation when he stumbles across smitten lovers Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) and Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey, making her first big movie debut). The two are head over heels in love, but Simon’s eyes get pulled away from his fiance to that of her rich friend Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot). In the blink of an eye Jackie is a jilted lover, leaving Linnet and Simon to get married and head off to Egypt for their Nile based Honeymoon. However, Jackie keeps following them everywhere they go, intent on winning Simon back. Hoping to get rid of the crazed ex lover, Linnet and Simon invite the rest of the Honeymoon guests on board a luxury cruiser known as the Karnak, where they hope to evade Jackie and finish out their lavish cruise in peace.

However, Jackie finds her way on board the cruise, and before long a murder occurs. A murder which requires the use of Hercule Poirot’s legendary deductive skills in order to find out whom among them could possibly want the victim dead (I’m keeping the victim’s identity a secret on purpose). What he finds is a web of conspiracy, deceit, and jealousy that has infected the entire cabin, and soon one murder turns into another, and soon another still.

Death on the Nile is much like it’s predecessor in that it’s a puff piece mystery story. It’s a cotton candy bit of pulp fiction entertainment that keeps the audience going, and gives enough twists and turns to be entertaining. The movie isn’t exactly ground breaking with it’s intertwined Clue level of motive filled people, but it is certainly a blast to watch. Armie Hammer delightfully chews the scenery like he is prone to do, and Branagh is having an absolute ball as Poirot. Surprisingly Gal Gadot gives a rather flat performance here. She’s not BAD per se, but she doesn’t seen to really be giving it a whole lot of effort, or at least is directed to be a rather 2 dimensional character. Which is a tad surprising considering how charismatic she usually is. The rest of the star studded cast does a great job, with Sophie Okonedo giving a fantastic ying-yang performance to Branagh’s. Russell Brand actually surprised me at playing a straight man for once. I’m so used to seeing him play his over the top self that him playing a mild mannered (and well groomed) doctor was almost shocking to see.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence, some bloody images, and sexual material




Video:

Being that this is a digital STREAM and video quality can fluctuate depending on bandwidth I’ll forego an official star rating for it, but needless to say it looks QUITE good on my 85 inch Sony X950h. The Dolby Vision enhanced film looks great in 4K streaming, with lots of amber and sandy hues along with pale blues for interior shots. I noticed the obvious streaming bitrate issues like banding and some black crush, otherwise this is an excellent looking encode with great details and a lusciously stylistic landscape.








Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track is quite good, but I noticed a litle bit of Disney "Atmouse" in the stream. I can't verify this is how the 4K UHD Atmos track will sound, but I felt it was recorded a tad low (shocking, I tell you, shocking) and the bass wasn't nearly as punchy as I was hoping for. However, the discret sounds used for the atmos directional shifts are quitie impressive, allowng us to hear the cogs in paddle boat to creak and groan from multiple directions, and to fill out to a richly saturated level with the score. You can hear birds fluttering above and to the side of the listening position, and like always, dialog is locked firmly up front with crystal clear vocals.






Extras:

• Death on the Nile: Novel to film
• Agatha Christie: Travel Can be Murder
• Design on the Nile
• Branagh / Poirot
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailers

Final Score: ​

Death on the Nile is nothing super fantastic, but it is the definition of a fun popcorn flick for mystery fans. It’s got it’s twists and turns (some you see coming, some you don’t), and a great array of actors filling out the cracks and crevices. I personally really enjoyed it as a friday night bit of pulp fiction, and look forward to Branagh hopefully directing another set of Agatha Christie novels in the future (rumor is that he’s working on another on as we speak). Since I am only able to get ahold of the digital copy from Disney right now, it means I can’t give a full breakdown of the audio and video, but from what I could see it’s quite the looker. Worth checking out.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Gal Gadot, Kenneth Branagh, Annette Bening, Armie Hammer, Russell Brand, Tom Bateman
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Written by: Michael Green (Screenplay), Agatha Christie (Novel)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos
Subtitles:
Studio: Disney/Buena Vista
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 127 Minutes
Digital Release Date: April 5th, 2022

Recommendation: Check it Out

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I like mystery and detective oriented movies so will check this out.

 

[Grayson Dere]

I've watched a number of the older Poirot films/shows and I really enjoyed how this film went into the character's backstory a bit; something I haven't encountered previously. Thanks for the review!

 

[Asere]

Thanks for the review. The movie wasn't great but watchable. I do not know if it was me or if it was purposely done but some of the background effects looks unreal and so did the frozen hams in the freezer.