Clevercell Very disappointing...

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

BaronBl00d There really is not anything wrong with this adaptation. Good acting. More than competent direction. Clever scripting. Nice settings. Joan Hickson. I love Margaret Rutherford and love her Miss Marple movies. I say that unequivocally and unabashedly, BUT Joan Hickson is the embodiment of what Agatha Christie wrote in her Miss Marple novels. Hickson is that good. She is barely in the first hour and a half, here and there - but comes on strong for the final act. Lucky for us most of the detecting is being done by Inspector Craddock played very capably - and nicely - by John Castle. The suspects are all played with unusual skill. Ursala Howells plays a woman who has her house overrun when the local newspaper announces a murder will take place at her home at 7:00. Things go as the newspaper plans - two more people additionally die in the course of the investigation - and red herrings litter the sidewalks where the characters walk in this film. Howells is very good in her role, as is Renee Asheron as her live-in companion. The young leads are all good and easy on the eyes(especially Nicola King). What I really was impressed with was that though this was made for TV, it in no way seems to compromise anything that would stand in its way of putting a cheaper product out there. Much of that credit should go to director David Giles - he has a very professional background preceding this vehicle. At the heart of all this is a quaint village, a cast of victims and suspects, a ripping mystery, and one Joan Hickson as Miss Jane Marple. I love her line to the inspector qualifying why she might be a good person to go nosing about - "An old lady asking questions is just an old lady asking questions. The music is also wonderful.

gridoon2018 I saved "A Murder Is Announced" for last in my Joan Hickson - Miss Marple viewing marathon, because I've read more than once that it's the best of the series. Personally I wouldn't go THAT far - I'd still rank "The Body In The Library" above it and "Nemesis" about equal - but it is certainly one of the better entries in the series. Not so much for the plot, which is filled with twists ("I'm Pip"!), false identities, coincidences (the killer just happens to be visiting Miss Murgatroyd EXACTLY when she's remembering crucial information about the night of the first murder), but the identity of the killer won't impress any longtime Agatha Christie fans who have learned to be suspicious of repeated unsuccessful murder attempts. And not so much for the direction either, which is at times inspired (the "lights out" moments are really well done) but mostly just functional. No, it's the characters that make "A Murder Is Announced" stand out among most Hickson-Marple films: just about everyone, from the sarcastic, witty Samantha Bond & Simon Shepherd to the tough Paola Dionisotti and from the slightly nutty Mary Kerridge to the calm, smooth-voiced John Castle, they're all strongly drawn and vividly acted. (***)

bob the moo In the small village of Chipping Cleghorne, the local paper carries a small notice that a murder will be committed that very day at Little Paddocks cottage at 7pm. The residents of the cottage know nothing about it but decide to put on some drinks in case the joker, or anyone else, pops in. Several people do just happen to be "passing by" and pop in shortly before seven. At exactly 7pm a masked man comes in the door shining a torch in everyone's face and saying words along the lines of "hands up" or "this is a robbery". The lights go out and three shots are heard; when they come back on there are bullet holes in the wall, Miss Blacklock has a cut on her ear and the man is dead. Despite it not making any sense at all, it appears to DI Craddock that for some reason the man was trying to kill Miss Blacklock and, when he failed, killed himself. It is all very confusing but when Craddock is advised to speak to a certain Miss Marple, who has some quite helpful insights into the whole affair.Although it runs very long, this entry in the BBC Miss Marple series of films is actually pretty enjoyable and wasn't anything like the long slog I worried it would be. It helps that the plot keeps moving forward well with what seems like a lightening pace in comparison to some of the other Miss Marple films from the same series. As others have commented, the plot may not be the strongest that Christie ever produced but it does provide enough forward motion to keep the film interesting. The conclusion involves loads of revelations that I wasn't overly pleased by because it seemed to just take all the patient investigation done up till then and just p1ss it all up the wall. It is a pain because up till then I had enjoyed the 140 minutes prior but the "out-of-the-blue" stuff meant that I was just being spun a yarn for a while. I still enjoyed it in the delivery but this was a problem.The cast are mostly good. Hickson is the classic Miss Marple and her performance here is as assured as always and she is a good presence. The film doesn't really bring in her until the end of the first hour and it is to the credit of the rest of the cast that I didn't miss her that much. Castle is as reliable as Craddock and it was a strange find to have Whately as his DS (Whately being better known as Morse's Lewis). Howells, Asherson, Sims and others are all very good and I personally was quite taken aback by Samantha Bond – not so much by her performance but more by the fact that she only looks slightly older twenty years later.Overall this is quite a good Miss Marple that has a strong plot and a consistently well-paced delivery. The cast are all up to the task and it feels quite brisk and engaging up till the end when all the rabbits are pulled out of hats and I struggled to keep up with it or indeed work out why I should given that the final scenes seemed to be separate from the rest of the film. Still enjoyable but 160 minutes is a long time to stick with something and then feel a bit cheated at the end.

rathbone-2 This is one of those movies where you will need the rewind button if you are watching it on tape . The plot is so complicated that it would be otherwise unwatchable . The cast of characters who aren't what they seem is hard to swallow and so the implausibility of it all eventually spoils what are otherwise good performances and nice production values . Too many contrived coincidences and highly unlikely behavior patterns make it a little annoying to watch . But fans of the genre , with a rewind button , will enjoy it .