Trap (2024)

Inspired casting and a grim sense of humour help sustain the unlikely thrills in M Night Shyamalan's latest about a family man who learns police have him surrounded at a stadium concert and are closing in, but you spend a long time waiting for this "No Way Out" scenario to pop and not only does it never pop, there comes halfway through the movie a shift into a second and then third unwelcome act, as though even Shyamalan felt trapped by his plot contrivance, and rather than maintaining the black fun in these second and third add-on chapters things become mired in some especially unfun and longwinded expositon of the Psycho-endscene type.

★★★☆☆

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Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death (1988)

Peter Ustinov's last appearance as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot was in this 1988 film version of Appointment with Death, a mystery set in the Holy Land with more characters than it knows what to do with, a threadbare plot full of inconsistent characterisation, and clues so artlessly dished out they couldn't be more obvious if they were announced by dinner gong.

★★☆☆☆

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Endless Night (1972)

I can think of three other Agatha Christie books that use the same major plot device but this film version of Endless Night, about a chauffeur whose dreams of owning a house at Gypsy's Acre come true when he marries well, is played as a thriller, not a murder mystery - the body count is still zero at the 75 minute mark - and there is a touch of the paranormal with one elderly gypsy character drifting around spouting macabre stuff about a curse, making it a more interesting film version than many adaptations of the Queen of Crime's books.

★★★☆☆

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