Talkie Tuesday: Hercule Poirot's Christmas

 

"Hercule Poirot is a detective, not a bodyguard."

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome back.

 

Tonight, we're taking a look at another slightly less Christmas-y entry, although it's STILL just festive enough to warrant being added to our list on here.

 

I seem to be on a detective kick lately, and who can blame me?

 

You gotta have some of the nitty-gritty alongside all the fluff that usually surrounds the holidays!

 

Hercule Poirot is just the right man for the job, too, if you can't get your hands on some Sherlock Holmes (although come to think of it, I might dig up one of Jeremy Brett's entries into the series and see if HE made a Christmas one ...).

 

And you just can't say no to the tiny detective, really, you can't.

 

He's impossible to resist.

 

Which is why we're having a look at Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

 

Tome Thursday: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

Hopefully you're all prepared for the holidays and don't need to go into any more stores, because even though we're in a rather dicey and unfortunate situation right now, somehow people STILL gather there en masse.

 

You would think, right?

 

But hopefully most of you are all done with every shopping expedition and you can enjoy the time at home now that the holidays are officially upon us.

 

As it so happens, the main focus of our little book review tonight could NOT stay at home despite the fact he wanted to. And isn't that just sat in the long run? Luckily for us though it does turn out quite funny along the way so it isn't as though we don't get any payoff from it.

 

If you're thinking that the title of this book is a bit weird in terms of what I've just said, you may even be right.

 

Then again, when it comes to Agatha Christie and her Hercule Poirot, it usually is.

 

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding awaits!

 

Talkie Tuesday: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

 

"There is but one Hercule Poirot, and I am he."

 

Hello everyone!

 

And welcome, once again, to the Christmas extravaganza that takes over this blog every single year, and has for, well, literal years already.

 

It's that time again, or 'tis the season, really, which means that for the remaining month of December, the only theme of the blog posts will be Christmas and everything Christmas-related you can think of. That's just the reality, sorrynotsorry.

Ahem.

So what better way to start off than with a little mystery, eh?

Sure, I tend to gravitate towards Hallmark and whatnot when it comes to these seasonal movies, particularly and especially for the end-of-the-year holidays, but I figured, why not try for something different?

After all. There's only one Hercule Poirot.

And he has just the one wish for the holidays, but alas, it doesn't get granted in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.

Talkie Tuesday: Death on the Nile (2)

 

"It takes two." 

Hello everyone!

 

You thought I was done with this, didn't you?

 

Think again!

 

Inevitably, it seems, whenever I end up watching one of Kenneth Branagh's remakes, I also end up digging out the good old David Suchet interpretations.

 

Now, I have nothing personally against Branagh - in fact, there are several movies of his which I thoroughly enjoy, Thor among them - but unfortunately he's trying to flex and take creative liberties in a canon setting where these liberties might in the end confuse people more than make the cases clear and presentable.

 

And after all, that's what Agatha Christie was all about, in the end.

 

Murder mysteries, or mysteries as a whole, and the rather psychological way our detective solves them.

 

So one last time then: we're on a trip to Egypt. Death on the Nile it is!

 

Tome Thursday: Death on the Nile

 

Hello everyone!

 

As I spent my Tuesday blog post talking about the recent remake of Death on the Nile, I figured it's only fair and proper if I have a look at the original book that inspired all these adaptations.

 

I'm thinking of doing the same as I did with Murder on the Orient Express and also blogging about the David Suchet version, but we'll see.

 

For now, suffice to say that there are differences between the original book and the Kenneth Branagh remake.

 

However, the differences themselves aren't a glaring problem as far as I'm concerned - well, other than the case being presented poorly without REALLY asking the pertinent questions that might help move it along, but overall it isn't BAD.

 

The BAD part comes at the end and with Branagh's desire to change canon, so without further ado let's have a look at the ACTUAL story, shall we?

 

After all, Agatha Christie devoted her whole life to writing these things.

 

Death on the Nile is just one of her many successes.

 

Tome Thursday: The Mystery of Three Quarters

 

Hello everyone!

 

For a little while now I've been on a sort of mystery kick, and whenever this happens to me I usually start snooping around my Agatha Christie collection, because, really, who else to read but two of the most famous sleuths of all time?

 

Okay, Sherlock Holmes is also a distinct possibility, but I'll admit I need a special type of weather for him.

 

Hercule Poirot or Jane Marple, however, don't give me those hangups.

 

Besides, there are still some books I never managed to get to even though I've more or less gone through the entire collection before, a number of times.

 

BUT.

 

I'm not talking about an Agatha Christie original tonight, oh no.

 

No I'm going with a Sophie Hannah Poirot resurrection, of which there are now four new books altogether.

 

Tonight's pick is thus titled The Mystery of Three Quarters.

 

Tome Thursday: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

 

Hello everyone!

 

Hopefully you're all prepared for the holidays and don't need to go into any more stores, because even though we're in a rather dicey and unfortunate situation right now, somehow people STILL gather there en masse.

 

You would think, right?

 

But hopefully most of you are all done with every shopping expedition and you can enjoy the time at home now that the holidays are officially upon us.

 

As it so happens, the main focus of our little book review tonight could NOT stay at home despite the fact he wanted to. And isn't that just sat in the long run? Luckily for us though it does turn out quite funny along the way so it isn't as though we don't get any payoff from it.

 

If you're thinking that the title of this book is a bit weird in terms of what I've just said, you may even be right.

 

Then again, when it comes to Agatha Christie and her Hercule Poirot, it usually is.

 

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding awaits!

 

Murder on the Orient Express (Booktober)

 

"I do not approve of murder."

 

 

I once again saved the very best for last, at least in my opinion, but who can deny that Agatha Christie really remains the Queen of Mystery? And the silly movie with Kenneth Branagh aside, Murder on the Orient Express remains one of her best works to this day. What happens when an American household is shaken to its core by a senseless brutal act, and the staff decide to take matters into their own hands? As they have just the luck of finding themselves on the fabled Orient Express alongside Hercule Poirot, famous mustachioed detective extraordinaire, we have the privilege of experiencing it all first-hand. And if reading about it isn't enough, I highly recommend the television series starring David Suchet!

 

 

 

Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer—in case he or she decides to strike again ...

(from Goodreads)

 

xx

*image not mine

 

The Avalon Café Mysteries (Booktober)

The Lost Legion (Booktober)

The Bourne Trilogy (Booktober)

Becoming Mrs. Lewis (Booktober)

Lord John Grey (Booktober)

The Last Wish (Booktober)

The Inheritance Cycle (Booktober)

His Dark Materials (Booktober)

The White Queen (Booktober)

The Thorn Birds (Booktober)

The Bourbon Kings (Booktober)

Cop of the Year (Booktober)

Nefertiti (Booktober)

Timeline (Booktober)

The Murder at the Vicarage (Booktober)

Persuasion (Booktober)

The Longest Ride (Booktober)

Midnight Sun (Booktober)

Percy Jackson & the Olympians (Booktober)

The Chronicles of Narnia (Booktober)

Atlantis (Booktober)

Origin (Booktober)

Quo Vadis (Booktober)

Death on the Nile (Booktober)

The Little White Horse (Booktober)

The Sign of Four (Booktober)

Harry Potter #2 (Booktober)

Troublemaker (Booktober)

The Lord of the Rings (Booktober)

Talkie Tuesday.: His Dark Materials

"The fate of more than this world depends on her."

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to another recap Tuesday as opposed to a general review. I have a few on the backburner still waiting to get their chance to shine, and honestly I should have done this one a couple of months ago after the show first premiered, but life and other creative decisions on the blog interrupted.

If you've ever heard of Philip Pullman, you've probably heard of the movie The Golden Compass, too.

And if you've heard of THAT, then you know there's a show to follow afterwards as well.

BBC and HBO partnered up to bring us another adaptation of Pullman's book trilogy, which tells the story of an alternate world, or well WORLDS, and how there's going to be a second coming of the Original Sin, which a lot of people are trying to prevent.

Of course, one should note that the author himself is anti-political and anti-religion, so you can definitely see influences of that throughout his work.

His Dark Materials, however, remain absolutely amazing.

Talkie Tuesday: Hallowe'en Party

"Old sins cast long shadows, Madame."

Hello everyone!

One day before Halloween evening on the 31st, and a big, big holiday in my country which has nothing to do with Halloween and everything with the Reformation period in Europe, and here I am with a VERY witchy, Halloween-y movie review. 

I think the only thing that could be more on-point would be the Addams Family.

As it happens, however, I have quite the fondness for a certain Belgian detective.

Yes, he's BELGIAN people, he's NOT French!

And of course Agatha Christie was more than kind to focus one of her books right around the time of Halloween and the festive period.

Then it got adapted and the marvelous David Suchet portrayed the detective in question, so what more could you ask for at this time of year?

Let's dig our teeth right into Poirot's Hallowe'en Party!

Talkie Tuesday: Murder on the Orient Express (2)

"I do not approve of murder."

Hello everyone!

So a little while back I sat down to watch the re-make of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, helmed by Kenneth Branagh and some other famous film stars. 

Unfortunately, you may also know that one did NOT go off without a hitch.

In the spirit of trying to cleanse my taste buds from that foul thing, I ended up rewatching the David Suchet version with my friends (and then to top it off a couple of days ago, I also hunkered down for Death on the Nile, also with Suchet playing the titular role of the Belgian detective). Needless to say, the final consensus was that the Suchet apparition was much better than the Branagh one.

This does not necessarily have everything to do with the role of the sleuth, however, but with everything else happening around him, and how it's portrayed.

And while I will agree that, story-wise, there weren't that many differences between 2010 and 2017, the presentation of said story remains wildly opposite.

Back on the Orient Express we go!

Saturday Snippet: Poirot Problems

xx

*images not mine

Talkie Tuesday: Murder on the Orient Express

"I do not approve of murder."

Hello everyone!

First off, greetings from a VERY cold place. I swear, all that cold that seemed to have given the Koreans so much trouble during the Winter Olympics relocated up to Europe now. I can't remember the last time it's been this cold! 

Luckily, however, temperatures SHOULD rise by next week, though I doubt they'll go as high as mine did while I was watching the movie featured in tonight's blog post.

Many of you will know (or you're about to learn) that I am a devoted Agatha Christie fan. I have her entire book collection in the electronic version AND all of her Hercule Poirot-centered books in physical copies as well. Which does remind me that my padre needs to give me the books of hers he's hoarding so we can make one shelf of it.

Anyway.

As a fan, then, there's no way you can miss out on her most famous case involving Belgian detecive Monsieur Poirot. But while Murder on the Orient Express has the flare, it doesn't quite have the bang it might have wanted.

Talkie Tuesday: Assassin's Creed

"Your destiny is in your blood.

Your blood is not your own. It belongs to the Creed."

Hello everyone!

A regular movie review for you this week, and I picked one of the newer ones I watched, though even this one couldn't exactly be called BRAND NEW, either.

That is to say, I picked it because I very recently watched a trailer for another movie entirely and the wordplay reminded me of this one. But I can't help myself - I accidentally stumbled across Dylan O'Brien and his trailer, saw a glimpse of David Suchet in it, and watched until the very end to try and figure out why, specifically, all these names and happenings are so familiar to me.

Of course then it turned out to be American Assassin, which, for those who don't know, is the first in the series of Mitch Rapp novels written by the deceased Vince Flynn.

At which point, I squealed.

I'm not ashamed to admit it! But that being said, I will share my endless enthusiasm for Mitch Rapp at a latter point, as right now we have a movie to review. Namely, Assassin's Creed.

Sunday Snippet: Murder in Mesopotamia

xx

*image not mine

Tome Thursday: Hercule Poirot

Hello everyone!

Okay, so, there is no one book titled 'Hercule Poirot'. But. There is a full SERIES of them, written by the brilliant Agatha Christie, and all of them now brought to the small screen by the amazing powers that be who had enlisted the incomparable David Suchet into the role of our favourite Belgian detective (even when I say it right, I can hear the dainty little cough that explains 'I am not French. I am Belgian.') I remember seeing these books when I was little, and my mom was putting them on the shelf, and in my country they were printed in hardback, one by one, and in very lively colours, all the spectrum of a rainbow I think. I have them in my room now (because our house is as full of books as a library is), and I still smile every time I look their way. They just bring back so many memories. 

When I got my Kobo E-Reader as a degree present, I realized I could expand my personal library to electronic versions, and one of the first things I did was get my hands on the electronic library of Agatha Christie, snagging her books and making sure that the approximately forty ones dealing with Hercule Poirot's cases were definitely included. Because I do love the little egg-head.