7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
Famous detective Hercule Poirot is on the Orient Express, but the train is caught in the snow. When one of the passengers is discovered murdered, Poirot immediately starts investigating.
Starring: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline BissetPeriod | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Sidney Lumet's "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. There are no supplemental features on this Blu-ray release. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
Something's fishy here....
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.
Despite the fact that the high-definition transfer has been struck from a dated source, the film looks quite good. Generally speaking, most close-ups boast pleasing depth, though some extremely light noise is occasionally visible. The footage from the train station in Istanbul and the footage from inside the train, a good portion of which is quite dark, also impresses with good clarity. Contrast and sharpness levels are stable. Colors are also stable, but color saturation could be better. (As it is, the film still looks very good because no attempts have been made to unnecessarily boost the blacks or the variety of prominent soft browns). Furthermore, there are no traces of compromising degraining corrections. Some extremely light noise, however, is mixed with the grain. Also, there are no problematic sharpening corrections. Unsurprisingly, even though the film looks slightly dated, it still has strong organic qualities. Lastly, there are no serious stability issues to report in this review. The high-definition transfer is also free of large debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, and warps. All in all, even though there is some room for improvement, this is a mostly decent presentation of Murder on the Orient Express that should please its fans. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. For the record, StudioCanal have not provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The lossless track is very good. The audio has plenty of depth and clarity is very good. Richard Rodney Bennett's dramatic orchestras score benefits the most as the music is very prominent during a number of important sequences. The dialog is also well balanced with the music, clean, and stable. The lack of optional English subtitles, however, is disappointing because this is a film that definitely needs them. Many of the main protagonists, including Albert Finney's Hercule Poirot,
speak with heavy accents that could make the dialog rather difficult to follow.
There are no supplemental features on this Blu-ray release.
I've always thought of Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express as a nice nostalgic film, not as an accurate adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous novel. It takes some getting used to, but it has a lovely atmosphere that makes it easy to overlook various obvious inconsistencies. The film is included in StudioCanal's upcoming The Poirot Collection three-disc box set and looks quite good in high-definition. My only complaint is that the release does not have optional English SDH subtitles. RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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