Thursday murder club

[Magicmonster]

I couldn’t see a thread re the Netflix movie. Im only 15 mins in but Elizabeth in particular is rather different to how she is in my head! What did everyone think of the film?

I wish Joyce’s voice had been stronger. It missed her narration. It made sense with her only slowly getting to know the different personalities.

I feel we missed out on that slow reveal.

We felt it was all a bit slow and could have been so much better. It felt as if we might have liked it more if we had watched it on a winters night or
Christmas rather than an august Saturday!

I agree that Pierce Brosnan wasn’t right. What accent was he using?
Joyce was nothing like the image I had build up in my mind. My Joyce was a more homely looking, cuddly grandma type.
Daniel Mayes is stating to play the same role now in whatever part he gets cast in.
The books aren’t that good though, Agatha Christy rip offs.

i couldn’t believe that with such good actors, a decent story, a chunky budget and an experienced director… they ended up with that. It was so wooden and stilted.

I found the book quite dull so never made it to the end

i enjoyed the film. Helen mirren was great, as usual

Brosnan was crap. As usual

Brosnan was ridiculously crap- it was like they’d empty chaired Ron- neither he nor the Director seemed to have any idea about the character.

Ingrid Oiiver as Joanna, whilst blatently nepotism she did at least understand the s assignment.

Cooper’s chase going that blingy ruined Joyce- Joyce from the book could never/would never live there.

giving Elizabeth an Aston Martin was stupid too.

poor Bogdan.

Tom Ellis was better than I imagined as Jason.

overall a nice watch but not a replacement for the book.

Is Ingrid Oliver RO's wife? She was not acting the part of Joanna well imho. Far too poshly spoken to be living in Hackney imho! I did like her navy trouser suit with stripey shirt though. Very City worker!

I have read the book. I liked Helen Mirren as Elizabeth, you could totally believe she was a former spy. Pierce Brosnan as Ron, the London ex-union official was the oddest casting ever. They should have cast someone either genuinely British, or who can do a convincing accent.

I think part of the charm of the books is the constant reference to British popular culture like them enjoying a Hobnob or the Taste the Difference range. Because Netflix are making for a worldwide audience it lost a lot of its "Britishness". The setting of the castle as the retirement village was all wrong, far too grand and far too Downton Abbey. David Tennant was poor (and why does he always do his Dr Who voice and not his proper accent?) and the whole thing just sort of missed the mark I think.

Yes she is.

I believed Joanna would live in gentrified Hackney and be putting on that voice. It would have been a good contrast to Joyce if Joyce was more convincingly a retired working class nurse!

I haven't read the books but watched this yesterday.

I definitely found PB's accent odd and like my brain couldn't get a grip on it. I kept trying to figure out where he was from which ruined his scenes for me somewhat.

And David Tennant's too, a little. He didn't feel quite fully cockney or whatever accent he was trying to do. Usually his English accent is flawless but this one didn't work for me.

Everything else was okay. Just small bits like an immediate text reply rather than a few seconds' delay as there would be naturally. And how did the guy get stabbed by a needle in the crowd for long enough to administer enough of the legal injection?! And how come nobody noticed Bogdan leaving the car with a shovel?!

And at the end Joanna considering buying the whole place?! It would be in the high millions, surely? It's a massive estate. That confused me - would she have that money?

Also, I thought Elizabeth's apartment was on the ground floor so was surprised by the ending showing it to be upstairs. A small niggle but just made me confused.

I pictured someone older for the male copper around 60ish given he ends up with Donna’s mum

I read all the books years ago & really enjoyed them & watched this yesterday & loved it too. Thought it was great & loved all the cast (except David Tennant but I’m not a fan of his anyway!)

I thought it captured the cosy, ,charming village murders very well but for a two hour long film it took too long to get going and then the end was rushed. Pierce brosnan was dreadful. Richard e grant was awful and his scene was completely unrealistic. The end was poor and bodrun was poorly developed. I also agree the home was nothing like imagined.

Phew, thank goodness it's not just me! I thought it was below average. Too long, and miscast quite badly, and the home was nothing like I imagined too.

I agree Pierce Brosnan was dreadful, I had to keep muting the TV when he kept roaring and shouting. And what was his accent?!

Very annoying that they used mostly the typical 'posh' and middle class English actors and actresses for it, that they often use... Would have been better with a bunch of unknowns IMO. The ending was shite too.

I was watching it last night, and thought I was about an hour and a quarter in, and it turned out I was just 37 minutes in. It was dragging that much! 😬

3 and a half out of 10 from me. 1.5 stars out of 5.

Agreed. It felt like they gathered a bunch of big names and shoehorned them into roles rather than casting roles properly

Absolutely. And he was portrayed as thick. Chris in the book is excellent at his job (he just doesn’t have the resources of Mi5 or the ability to break the law like Elizabeth). He is a middle aged man gone slightly to seed because he’s not got much of a personal life at the start of the first book.

I really enjoyed it, but I haven’t read the books.

I have to agree about PB, Ricky Tomlinson would’ve been more Ron.

On the bright side, I am looking forward to No 5 being published next week!

Donna is 26 i think, @autienotnaughty so her mum could be late 40s or maybe 50, iirc she is a couple of years older than Chris, the actor is 47 so that feels about right to me, though I agree he was smarter in the book. I enjoyed the books for what they are, light entertainment, and feel much the same way about the film, though it doesn't quite capture the wit or cosy charm of the novels.

I read the book but a long time ago. Didn’t they arrest him in the book? Why not?

If Bogdan wasn't arrested in the book, who was & why wasn't he?

PB sounded Irish (which he is I believe) but then had a weird London accent at other times. A bit Dick Van Dyke

Ron is obviously a Londoner

I enjoyed it although didn't think Brosnan was right for Ron. It was an easy watch for us, just like the book was an easy read. I'm 68 and husband 70, my elder daughter is 37 and she loved it probably more than usual!

I gave up on the book which I was really sorry to do but I just couldn't get interested in it, despite LOVING the premise of the story. So I watched the film. I liked the Brosnan/Mirren duo in Mobland but disliked both of them in their roles in this film. I love Celia Imrie and feel no particular attachment to the book characters so I think she was fabulous playing this role. I'm not a fan of Jonathan Pryce generally but he was very touching in this role (I also liked him in Evita, but not in much else he has done...

I was really disappointed, liked the characters even Ron (who I thought wasn’t going to work) but the issue for me is the storyline. It’s so simplistic, not remotely like the book, it sums up what happened and misses all the twists and turns. It really was a huge disappointment, as the books are brilliant!