The Thursday Murder Club

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ talkingfilms.net/the-thursday-murder-club-review-stellar-cast-forgettable-mystery/

"The Thursday Murder Club is a formulaic and forgettable effort. It's not a disaster - the magnetic presence of the cast ensures it never sinks that low - but it also offers nothing we haven't already seen in second-tier television productions.

For those like me who get excited about the murder-mystery genre, the experience feels like a wasted opportunity. The lighthearted humor isn't enough to make up for the lack of tension. For those looking for light, undemanding entertainment, it may serve as a decent diversion.

But for anyone hoping for more than the bare minimum, it will struggle to rise above mediocrity."

Rating: C-

I was quite sceptical about this, but I have to say that I did quite enjoy it - and its not often nowadays you go to a packed afternoon screening and hear people laugh out loud. There are more parodies here than you can shake a stick at, so original high drama it isnt, but here is a solid collection of personalities assembled to try to solve a mystery in a posh care home. Its baking-mad Joyce (why isnt Celia Imrie a dame, too?) who used to be a nurse and who is drafted in by the fastidious Elizabeth (Dame Helen Mirren) to help her small group of amateur sleuths look into a cold case from a generation earlier. Joyce is soon an eager participant alongside Ibrahim (Sir Ben Kingsley) and elderly wide-boy Ron (Pierce Brosnan) in their investigat...