The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
Venice Unveiled: The Making of a Ghostly Murder Mystery
Ever wondered where the fine line between murder mystery and ghostly creepiness lies? Let us take you on a thrilling journey to the eerie lanes of Venice as we dissect Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Agatha Christie's "A Haunting in Venice". Your hosts, Nathan and Katy, shed light on the enigmatic character of Hercules Poirot, the competitive box-office tussle with "The Nun 2", and the spellbinding visuals of Venice that bring the film to life. Brace yourselves as we unravel the multicursal plotline and ponder over the existence of the supernatural.
Moving forward, prepare to step into the labyrinth of intrigue and suspense as we critically assess the movie's unique blend of genres. Discover how this cinematic rendition fares against its predecessors in the series, and join us as we question its potential for a larger audience on a grander screen. As we wrap up, we extend an open invitation to our listeners to partake in our cinematic adventure, offering their perspectives and advocating for their favorite flicks. Follow our lead, immerse yourselves in the mystery, and who knows, you might just solve the puzzle before Hercules Poirot does!
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough Together. Fun will be had by all. This is Nadie and Katie at the Movies.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to another brand new episode of Nadie and Katie at the Movies. I'm your host, Nathan aka Nadie, of course, and with me is my good friend Katie. Hi, Katie, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm doing so well. I'm currently opening the top two, my third dessert of the evening.
Speaker 2:Yum, good times. Speaking of good times, let's get right into the movie we're going to review for this episode. We're talking about a haunting in Venice. The third Agatha Christie adaptation turned into a film starring and directed by the great Kenneth Branagh. But before we can get into the movie, we got to go over the synapses and post-World War II Venice. Perot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance, but when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer. A haunting in Venice stars once again Kenneth Branagh, michelle Yao, jamie Dornan and Tina Fey. So, katie, as always when we talk about movies that have more than one in a series even though these aren't really a series it's a series of books they don't really 100% connect together. But have you seen the other two Agatha Christie Kenneth Branagh movies?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have. Well sorry, I've seen one. I saw Orient Express or the Murder on the Orient Express. I have not seen the Nile one. But I will say my first thoughts on this haunting in Venice are it was good enough that it really makes me want to go back and I would like to watch now that Murder on the Nile. And I don't know anything about the books. I guess that would be my other thing. I've never read any of her books. I wasn't familiar, but I do, like you said, I do think you can watch this standalone very easily. You don't have to watch anything before. It helps to know the character a little bit, but you're fine without it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I watched the Murder on the Orient Express like years ago I think, when it came out. I didn't really like it. I didn't like the ending and apparently it ended exactly how it ended in the book. I won't get into it if you want to go watch it. I'm not going to tell you the ending. I wasn't a big fan of it. And then I just watched Death on the Nile to prepare for a haunting in Venice and I think I liked Death on the Nile better than I liked Murder on the Orient Express. I thought it was just entertaining. I just thought it was a good movie and I enjoyed the performances, even though it's kind of tainted now because of Armie Hammer and all that stuff that went on with him and Hollywood and him kind of being a crazy person. I don't know that much about it, but he got hit pretty hard with allegations of almost cannibalism. Yeah, it's crazy, so that's why that movie?
Speaker 3:That's why he's in a Murder Mystery movie.
Speaker 2:Well, and there at that time people were wondering why they weren't recasting him and reshooting stuff. But they're like, the movie was basically done and so it would have been too much of a hassle to go back and recast and reshoot. But I, like I said, I enjoyed Death on the Nile. I think I enjoyed it more than Orient Express and I think I slightly enjoyed it more than this movie, haunting and Venice. But let's go right into our likes and dislikes First off.
Speaker 2:For me my biggest like kind of like the Equalizer movies is the star of these films. I love Kenneth Branagh. He does with Agatha Christie what he did with Shakespeare he's bringing back classic literature onto film. Thanks for watching Back in the day. He brought so many Shakespeare plays onto film. Much to do about nothing.
Speaker 2:Macbeth Hamlet he just loves the material so much that he wants to just let everyone see it on film, and that, I think, is what he's doing with these Agatha Christie books. He loves the material, he loves the character and he wants to expose people to classic literature and he does a really good job with this character. Now there is something I'll say in my dislikes about the character a little later, but overall I just love Kenneth Branagh. I think he's a terrific actor. I think he's a terrific director. He's directed Thor. He's directed other movies that he just has a. He has a really good visual sense of what he wants the audience to see and experience, just by the shots and everything like that. So that's my number one like about this movie he's Kenneth Branagh, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3:I like him. I think he does a great job. Is he French, or is that an accent Like? I don't know how strong his accent is, that he does for his character, but I would agree with you he's fantastic. I mean, he's the character he creates in. How do you say his name? Hercules?
Speaker 2:Hercules Peruv.
Speaker 3:Yep, so he's so likable, even though he's quirky, he's like quirky likable. He says at one point he's like I have no friends, I'm a loner, and but he's kind of lovable in all sorts of ways. So I really liked the character as well, and I did not know that he, that Kenneth, directed it also. That's interesting, I would say one of my biggest likes. I don't know that I can give movie, the movie, credit for this, but I just absolutely love a murder mystery. Nothing keeps my attention in a book or a book on tape or a movie that's having to spend most. I mean, you're just so entrenched in the movie because you're trying to keep up every detail and logging it in your memory.
Speaker 3:Oh is that gonna be a thing? And it's kind of like doing a escape room, right. You're like, is that gonna be significant later? Like, I thought there was a, there's a parrot or a parakeet in the movie. I thought that bird was gonna play a big role somehow in solving the murder, but it wasn't. But again, I think that he does a good job directing and putting all of those dead end clues. So you're actually, truly, at the end of the movie, surprised. Now I think we need to be very clear. Hopefully we do not go too deep into spoilers. We will definitely not tell you who the murderer was, what the ending is, what happens, because I really think everyone should see it. But again, I just thought the directing was very good, that you could see all these clues and I at the end was like, wow, I did not get that. Did you get it? Did you guess it correctly?
Speaker 2:Well, that is one of my dislikes. Even though I didn't guess it right away, I did feel that the reveal was kind of predictable. I still enjoyed the movie. I still felt very engaged in what was going on. Like when people, when certain characters die, I'm like, oh my gosh, that character just died. What in the world was going on? But then when it like started becoming kind of obvious who it was, and then the big reveal, like that was kind of the let down.
Speaker 2:Honestly, like I thought it was kind of like okay, but leading up to it, like the performances and everything like that. I mean I'm an actor so I gravitate towards the performances more so than the plot. I know that sounds bad, but I thought the performances were like stupendous. I think every single person in this movie. There was no weak link in this film. I will say and you're not gonna like this, katie I will say that Tina Fey's character voice that she chose at times came off a little annoying, because I know what she was going for. She was going for that hey there, handsome, how you doing. Hey, let's solve this case together. I mean that's the kind of voice I feel like she was trying to go for and it landed sometimes, but sometimes it was just like, okay, that's kind of annoying.
Speaker 3:It was so fun to see her in something that's not a comedy. She did have a few humorous lines and I did read somewhere that the character she's playing, some say in the books of the Agatha Christie books that her character, who's apparently appears in other novels, is supposed to somewhat represent the author a little bit. It's kind of like her and so, and you even think about Agatha Christie, this particular movie that was adapted from a book called Halloween Party. The book didn't really do well and so it's almost also humorous. It's like the book didn't do well and then also this is an author whose life is not going well and her books are not selling. Who was the most interesting character? So you know we're not going to give everything away, but there's all these people. There's a seance that happens at a house, so you have this medium who comes in. She's got some assistance. You've got the mother of a child who died. You've got the doctor that is there. He's got a son. There's like a maid, I guess.
Speaker 2:I think the most interesting character even though they didn't really dive into him that much was the doctor slash father, because he's dealing with PTSD, Because he's a soldier, just like Perot was. So they have like that camaraderie going on. I feel like they could have, and I kind of wish they did like dive into his character a little bit more. I feel like he was interesting enough that part of me was wishing that he had something to do with what was going on. But I mean, this isn't really a spoiler because he's not the killer. So I guess that is a spoiler, but he's not the killer. Wow, Okay.
Speaker 2:I don't know he was interesting enough, and I feel like they kind of wasted his character a little bit. The son was kind of interesting too, and what they kind of did with the son in the movie was interesting. Michelle Yau's character was somewhat interesting but, like I said, I mean every character in the movie was interesting because the performances were so well done. I kind of think the assistants were kind of a waste. I'm sorry they didn't really add anything to the movie, but other than that, like I said, they still did a good job. I mean the performances were good. I just think they were kind of pointless.
Speaker 3:I do think, michelle, she plays the medium, so this is the person that's doing the séance and at one point she's like doing a séance and she gets possessed by the spirit of the little girl that died and I thought her performance in that scene was incredible. But, man, just everything about her character I thought she nailed. And I would say you know my favorite. But the one that was most interesting to me was the little boy. I mean, he was like straight out of the movie, the sixth sense, like she's this creepy little kid who was like I see dead people. The children talk to me, they are my friends.
Speaker 3:And on that note, speaking of someone who refused to see the nun too, there was definitely I mean, it's called a haunting in Venice. I did not love, I mean, I didn't jump out of my seat and cry, but there was definitely some creepy, haunting, ghosty type things. There was definitely several moments where you're like waiting something's about to pop out, something's about to pop out. I will say for anyone listening who hasn't gone and seen it, first of all stop so we don't spoil anything. But it's not overly scary. Even I could handle it. It didn't give me nightmares, it didn't make me have heebie-jeebies, but there's some some of the creepy stuff. What did you think about this? The? Because it's kind of like a mystery, murder mystery combined with a scary movie a little. So what did you think? Did they nail the scary movie part?
Speaker 2:I mean I I mean, you know me, I go see scary movies all the time. I didn't think it was that scary. I think a lot of the quote unquote jump scares were like just random stuff. The one that got me, funnily enough, the one that got me was at the beginning, when there's like a crow and it gets eaten by another bird or something, or like a bird gets eaten by a crow and it just comes out of nowhere Like I actually jumped at that. I actually jumped at that and I just finished going to see it and then, to which I didn't really jump at anything in that movie.
Speaker 2:I think they did it this way on purpose because, from what I read about the Halloween party, the Halloween party isn't as like supernatural Creepy stuff as this movie is. Like they dived a lot more into that in the film than they did in the book and so I think they did on purpose because they knew they were competing with movies like the nun and All these other creepy movies that are coming out soon, like Saul and all these other things. So I think they did that on purpose to Draw that crowd in, and the theater I went into wasn't super crowded, I think, like this movie is in a tug of war With the nun to right now in the box office, so it's not doing bad but it's not doing. I don't think it's doing like as well as they were hoping. But, that being said, I think they did do pretty well with balancing the murder mystery and the creepiness. But, like I also said, I I didn't find it that Scary. I think you just you know you find this thing, every, everything scary.
Speaker 3:Right, I do, I do, and I guess if I had to go to some some more of the negatives, it would not even be a negative for the movie as much as for the going and seeing it in theaters. These types of movies are Are the kind that I would like watch on a plane, or the kind that I would watch on a weeknight with my husband, or One that I would like you know game this would be. I love to listen to murder mystery books when I drive on long road trip. I don't know that there was anything from a visual standpoint that needed to be seen on the big screen, so I think that would be my other maybe dislike would be the haunt that you know, this creepy stuff, maybe even the nun to, not that I saw it, but some of those big scary scenes are like the demon, like in your face. That might be cooler big screen. But again to this, it's so cerebral that I felt like it's not a movie, theater movie and maybe that means it will have more success.
Speaker 3:Long-term, it'll be that one that's on Netflix that almost every single person watches.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I think with this movie, the purpose of seeing in it on the big screen is just the visual of the location. This movie was beautiful. I mean, just the sights of Venice, we're just stunning to see on a big screen. So I don't think necessarily like the creepiness, the jump scares or or what the reason to see this in theaters is. I think it's just to see Just the set.
Speaker 2:The setting is just stunning to see on a big screen and I don't think you would get that full effect on a TV or on an airplane. So I think that would be the reason and and I'm not even saying that that's what's gonna draw people into the theaters is oh look, it's a beautiful building on a big screen. But to me I thought that was stunning and I was like, oh my gosh, this is really good and I thought like the angles that he chose to do were interesting to see on a big screen, like it was just a really Interestingly shot film and I think to fully appreciate it you do have to see it on a big screen.
Speaker 3:That's fair and I will say too, I guess it does. It's hard to get that same atmosphere right, like you want it to be really dark, you don't want there to be any lights on, you want to feel like you're in that house, that they're all stuck in. Because, again, the whole, the whole movie basically takes place in this one haunted house and all these people are kind of trapped there because a murder happens. And I really liked this. It felt like there's two storylines. He's trying to solve a Murder of a girl that happened, like this was like a long time ago. This little girl was murdered or Died, they don't know what happened.
Speaker 3:And then a murder happens at the house the night he's there. So that's a second mystery. And then there's sort of this third mystery of, like our Ghosts real, is there such thing as a spiritual realm? And that's and that's something I don't know if you want to speak to like at the end of the movie you sort of there's not really a close tie-in, like there's some hauntie stuff and some spiritual stuff and it really leaves it open. I like that. It does, did this, but it leaves it open ended. You're not sure if curricula is Goes right back to his everything has a reason, everything has an explanation, or if there's a little tinge of doubt now that he's like, I don't know, maybe there are some things that I don't understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that it left it open. I think it does kind of reveal a little bit, though, that he does become a little bit open-minded near the end, just because and again don't want to get into spoilers just because of the things that he did experience, whether they were, quote-unquote, real or not, it still made him question everything, which I thought was cool, and it kind of rejuvenated him at the end and it was just a cool thing. Like you said, it was a cool thing to experience in a movie, because you don't really experience those kind of topics in movies nowadays and it's cool as Christians to see that even be touched on, even just a little bit. It doesn't need to be in your face, because I'm not a big fan of that. It's nice to see it being touched on just a little bit. So let's go into our dislikes.
Speaker 2:I think you kind of went over some of yours, one of mine going back to the fact that I love Kenneth Branagh to death. I think he's great, he's British, he's not French and so the accent in this movie. The other two weren't as bad. For some reason I found myself having a hard time understanding what he was saying sometimes, because he tends to talk really fast and with an accent on top of that, it's kind of hard to understand. And so, going back to yes, you should see it in theaters. Just because of visual, it will be nice to watch this at home.
Speaker 1:We'll be able to watch it with captions.
Speaker 2:He talks really fast and that's part of his character too, though. Like that's part of his character and part of his quickness and his snarkiness and stuff like that. So I get that it's part of the character, but someone who's trying to understand what he's saying it's kind of difficult at times. I think what you were saying. It's one of those movies that, again, visually it's stunning, but it is a very slow paced movie at times and so seeing it in theaters can kind of get kind of daunting a little bit. But other than that I still thought it was a really good movie I wanted to do well, because I know Kenneth Brown loves the material so much and he wants to continue to do these movies. He kind of wants to make it its own kind of universe of Agatha Christie novels, and there's plenty to choose from. So I'm excited to see what he does next and I just, I just I'm just a big Kenneth Brown fan, so anything he does I want to see?
Speaker 3:I think you're right in terms of the future of this series. I would go see it Like if I think, now that I've seen a second one, I'd only seen one one before. Now that I've seen a second one and I liked both of them, even though you know, the ending is kind of weird. In the Orient Orient Express one, I like the character and I like the murder mystery. I would go see like if they came out one every two or three years, I would definitely go see it in theater and catch those, especially to make sure I don't have the ending ruined.
Speaker 3:I liked I don't have a ton of dislikes. I will say it might just be any murder mystery edit that at the end he of course has everyone in the room and he explains what happened, you know. So he tells you all the things that lined up and explains it all and then tells you who it was that did the murder. And I'm like I think I could. It's very realistic to me that he would know who did it, but I think it's you know. Of course he's just speculating on how it all happened. So things that he was saying were done on purpose may have genuinely been accidents.
Speaker 3:So I just think it's funny. They're all like nodding their heads and like the person that did it's nodding their head and I'm like there's got to be some detail. He's wrong on Like you can't be, because he's literally tying together like six storylines. He's not just explaining why the murder did what they did, he's explaining why this other person did the actions they did and why this person did the actions they did and how these people work together. I'm like you must be a sentient or not sentient. You must be all knowing.
Speaker 2:I know what you're talking about because I saw the movie too. But I think he does acknowledge that some of what happened is an accident, like and I wish I could say it and but we already say we weren't going to spoil things. But he does acknowledge that what ends up happening Is the fault of the person who wanted it to happen, but also it was because somebody Accidentally did something too, does that?
Speaker 3:make sense, that's true, yeah because I kind of we really solved the murt we did.
Speaker 2:It reminded me of knives out. Did you ever see that movie, daniel?
Speaker 2:Well it kind of reminded me of that, because if you've seen that movie, it kind of was like an accidental, accidental killing and that's what this movie kind of hinted at too, and I'm not spoiling anything, but like it kind of he did, he does acknowledge that it wasn't fully this person, this is what this person wanted, but then somebody else came in and kind of like sealed the deal on Accident well and, like we said, we're not just talking about one murder, this.
Speaker 3:The orient express that I saw had one person died. This movie has three people that are dead we're trying to solve mysteries of. So yeah, again, it's just like a while to think he gets all three of those figured out perfectly. But I liked the movie, so I do. I do want to go ahead and rank it. I would give it a 5.5. That's really high up on my scale and that's because I was entertained. I Chuckled a few times. I wasn't overly scared but still kept me in grist. And I'll tell you one big perk that I didn't mention earlier the.
Speaker 3:The runtime was spot on. I mean, I know you said it got slow in some parts, but to me I felt like even the slow parts I'm paying attention, because what if I missed something and is there gonna be a clue? So I love a good movie. That's like one was an hour, I think in a half or hour. 45 minutes. That's the sweet spot. Didn't feel like it was rushed, um, and I liked the ending. I like that. He was inspired to Come back and be himself again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll give a haunting in venice a 4.5, which I don't know if you're surprised that or not. It's because of the accent kind of took me out of it sometimes, the predictability, in my opinion, of the ending and the slowness of the pace at times. That's why I'm giving it a 4.5. So that is a haunting in venice. Go see it. We tried our best not to spoil it. I don't think we did so. You can still go and see it, even after listening to our review of it. So that is the end of september crazy already at the end of september. So we're gonna start our october with a mixed bag of movies, like if you follow our truly everywhere.
Speaker 2:If you follow any of our social media platforms, you'll see that we are seeing things like expendables for sol 10, paul patrol faith-based film, ordinary angels and the killer of the flower moon killers of the flower moon, which I'm actually I'm excited about. That wasn't originally on our list. We had to switch some things around because movies got delayed and things like that, but I am Really excited. I'm excited about every single movie on this list. I know katie said she's interested in maybe three of them, but it's going to be a fun month. I'm excited. It's my birthday month. It's the month I got married to my lovely wife, it's my father's birthday month and it is my mama's birthday month. May she rest in peace.
Speaker 2:Happy birthday mama so Thank you for listening everybody. Katie, do you have anything to end us for a haunting in venice?
Speaker 3:Call the police, tell them to calculate the rules on the case.
Speaker 2:I couldn't understand a word.
Speaker 1:You said thanks for listening to natie and katie at the movies. Feel free to leave us a review so people can find the show. Follow us on all our social media platforms and if there's a movie that you want us to watch, feel free to contact us at natie and katie at gmailcom. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
