Death on the Nile (2022) review

Famed detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) - who, in this version, was battle-scarred from World War I - just so happens to be in Egypt and accompanies a newly married couple, wildly wealthy heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) and her husband Simon (Armie Hammer), along with several friends and acquaintances on a vacation that includes a trip on the S.S. Karnak where, as one might guess (based on the title), there's some killin' going on.  It's always nice to have a character like Bouc (Tom Bateman) in place to methodically list all the side characters' possible motives in advance ... and the rest of it lacks any form of subtly, making it borderline cartoonish (I was waiting for our Belgian gumshoe to twirl his moustache and raise an eyebrow).  The fact that Branagh released the very personal and earnest Belfast just last year shows there is a poetic side to him that just so happens to get shut off when he's making things like Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit ... and this.