A Haunting in Venice (2023)

[Mike Blakesley]

This is the latest in Disney's long line of "Fox movies they don't really give a shit about." Proof of this is in the one-sheets, which are about the dumbest-looking and least-imaginative things in the modern history of cinema. Besides this one, we also got another one that has a skull on it. Nice work, guys.

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As for the movie, it's a smart adaptation of an Agatha Christie story. At first I thought it was going to be a horror movie, due to the title, but when I found out it was more of a murder mystery I was more excited to see it. Unfortunately it didn't do much for me.

I found it kind of hard to follow, as the whole movie seems to operate on a kind of monotone with the voices (especially Kenneth Branaugh's) just sort of droning along. It's mostly talk, not much action. I had a hard time staying awake.

I figured with it being set in Venice, we might see a lot of great Venetian locations, but the majority of the movie takes place in a dark "palazzo." There is Venice footage at the beginning and the end, but other than that you're in what looks like the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland most of the time.

Having said all that, I'll say that audiences for this one have come out saying they really liked it, so maybe I just wasn't in the proper frame of mind. But for me, 2 out of 5 stars and I would have only made it one star but the sound mix was cool, lots of surround action.

[Frank Cox]

Personally, I've never seen the appeal of those "who committed the murder at the tea party" books and movies, but they obviously have an audience.

This one had more action in it than I expected. Most of this stuff starts with people standing around talking, continues with the same people standing around talking and concludes with more standing around talking and by the way the butler did it. I jumped when that chandelier fell down!

While it's certainly not a John Woo movie, at least a few of the characters did something other than just yack and drink tea.

And as you said, great sound mix!

[Marcel Birgelen]

This is the latest in Disney's long line of "Fox movies they don't really give a shit about." Proof of this is in the one-sheets, which are about the dumbest-looking and least-imaginative things in the modern history of cinema. Besides this one, we also got another one that has a skull on it. Nice work, guys.

They only paid $71.3 billion for it, you can't expect any commitments for that sort of loose change, can you?

As a Disney stockholder it's hard to watch this trainwreck unfolding in super-slow-motion. I sometimes suspect someone of slowly, but willfully poisoning the company from the inside, to snatch it up for cents on the dollar later on... On the other hand, Hanlon's Razor comes with sharp edges: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity...

Peak stupidity we have reached, indeed...

[Mike Blakesley]

They only paid $71.3 billion for it, you can't expect any commitments for that sort of loose change, can you?

As a Disney stockholder it's hard to watch this trainwreck unfolding in super-slow-motion.

At our recent regional NATO convention, one of our committee members called the various film companies to ask for donations of prizes for our scholarship benefit raffle. While Paramount, Warners, Sony and Universal all responded immediately with prizes like signed one-sheets, clothing, movie themed gift baskets (Warners gave a big basket full of Barbie stuff), etc., Disney came back with "We can't afford anything like that right now." So she said "Seriously?" and read off their recent list of movies and their grosses, and basically shamed them into sending a gift basket. The only one that didn't respond at all was Lionsgate.

[James Wyrembelski]

The only one that didn't respond at all was Lionsgate.

That doesn't surprise me