Poirot - Death on the Nile (2004)

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it

Every once in a while, an actor comes along who not only plays the role of Sherlock Holmes, but actually redefines the role. Well, this has now happened with Agatha Christie's detective, Hercule Poirot! In 1989, veteran actor David Suchet (b.1946) was tapped to play Poirot, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This DVD contains a classic Poirot murder mystery - Death On The Nile. When Linnet Ridgeway stole Jacqueline De Bellefort's fiancé, it seemed the perfect coup. But, when Jacqueline pursues Linnet and Simon on their honeymoon, Poirot realizes that the situation will lead to destruction. And, when Linnet Ridgeway is found dead in her stateroom, murdered, it is up to the famous Belgian detective to figure out who did it, and how. The obvious suspects have iron-clad alibis, but Poirot soon gets to the bottom of it!

This is a very good Poirot episode - my wife's favorite. (I can't help it, I think that the ABC Murders is the greatest of them all!) Overall, I found the mystery to be very well done, with me not seeing how it was done until it was explained at the end. Now, some people criticize this one as not so well done as the others, but all that I can say is that my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and do not hesitate to recommend it. August 20, 2008

Poirot should have detected this remake really Sucked.

Really rushed and other than Suchet ... the acting was terrible by most of the cast.. January 17, 2007

A favorite of mine.

Death on the Nile is an adaptation from one of the longer novels of A. Christie. Death...was adapted in the 70s, but if you want the truth, that movie sucked. And it sucked because of Mia Farrow and Peter Ustinov. David Suchet is the only actor to portray Hercule Poirot greatly and naturally. Ustinov and Finney both seemed either too stiff or ill-fit for the character we grew to know and love by reading the books.

The A&E version of the story is thoroughly enjoyable and is my favorite A&E Poirot movie. The story itself is ingenious and the guilty could have easily gotten away with it if not for a couple of eye witnesses and of course, the little grey cells of Poirot. July 19, 2006

Not as good as the film

I am a great admirer of David Suchet's Poirot, but I found this production disappointing. Despite being filmes in Egypt with breathtaking scenery, most of the touches of warmth and humour that make a Christie novel such a pleasure to read are missing from this production. The three young people in the love triangle that is the basis for the mystery all seemed to me entirely lacklustre.

The worst thing of all though, is that two of the most charming and interesting people in the book, Timothy Allerton and his delightful mother, have had their characters grotesquely distorted until they bear virtually no resemblance to their originals, and there is a quite gratuitous and disgusting implication of an incestuous relationship between them which is certainly not implied in any way in Agatha Christie's novel. The girl who, in the book, Timothy Allerton loves, has had her character changed and subdued until she barely makes any impact on the story at all.

All this makes this a very disappointing production. The Ustinov film is better. January 2, 2006

Missing Maggie.....

Poirot - DEATH ON THE NILE. The new Poirot series produced by A&E is excellent and I would encourage all Poirot and David Suchet fans to purchase these DVDs, however, when it comes to this particular story, I still prefer the Peter Ustinov version with Mia Farrow, Betty Davis and Maggie Smith.

The irony of the new series is that Suchet has literally grown into the part so he seems more natural in this episode than ever. I recall that when he made the earlier Poirot films which included his pal Captain Hastings and counterpart Inspector Japp, Suchet was padded with pillows and makeup to make him appear older. Now he apparently fills the role with no `extra' assistance from wardrobe.

In spite of the inevitable comparison with the Ustinov interpretation and missing the pals in whom he confided and who often aided his crime solving, I enjoyed this story very much. The filmography is beautiful. The BBC uses lavish sets including the river boat and costumes. The original film with Ustinov showed a good deal of actual footage shot in Egypt. This issue of `Death on the Nile' appears to have some shots in Egypt, but to tell you the truth, they could have shot most of the film elsewhere...for example Central or South America. Population growth and war have altered the terrain in Egypt considerably since Agatha Christie wrote her novel, which takes place around the 1930s.
April 13, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...