Book vs. Movie - Murder on the Orient Express

This will be a first in just another one of the types of blogs I'll be writing - part book report, part movie review.

Murder on the Orient Express is a classic who-dun-it tail from Agatha Christie. A strange choice for me but when you are at the library and a book catches your eye, it is always a good choice to give it a try. The movie is where I was first introduced to the story though. As you know I am a huge James Bond fan and from that stems a love for Sean Connery (as you might guess Sir Sean is in the movie). The funniest part of this review is that I watched the movie first and it really didn't even make sense to me, which actually turned me off from the story all together. It turns out the things that made the movie tough to follow were the amazing amount of plot twists, which of course are much easier to follow through the book.

Hercule Poirot is a world famous detective who gets into a murder mystery on route back home from the middle east. Poirot I believe is in many of Agatha's novels, this possibly being the most popular. There is a little pre-text about a murder that occurs in America that kind of shocked the world, it involved the kidnapping of a little girl, family pays the ransom and then the girl is found dead. Most of the story revolves around that murder because the man that is murdered is in fact the same man responsible for the kidnapping. That is about all of the plot I will give away, I do encourage you to read the book, it is a fairly easy read not too long and has some good plot twists.

The battle begins!

The book starts off with a left hook of detail and scandal, but is quickly blocked by the movie's visuals. A bob and a weave and boom the book is right back with nicely broken down chapters that flow well, making the movie stumble over some awkward story telling at the beginning. Just when you think the movie is going to come around with a big hook with the acting, the book ducks and dodges with better character development and comes back with an uppercut which hits the movie square in the jaw for the way Hercule Poirot is portrayed (more as a parody of a French detective) the book comes forward again with a Poirot who is methodical and a master of criminal psychology. It is looking grim for the movie...1...it is...2...having...3...trouble getting...4...up, tries...5...to pull itself...6...up on...7...the ropes...8...but slips...9...it looks...10...like the movie has been knocked out! The book wins hands down! If you are interested, I would say read the book then watch the movie, it makes much more sense.

On a side note, Sean Connery plays a very small roll and as a fan I enjoyed him!