Agatha Christie’s 1934 whodunit gets the big screen update in this over-produced remake of the 1974 Sidney Lumet classic. After a man is murdered aboard the exotic Orient Express, it’s up to the infamous Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot, played by an eccentrically mustachioed Kenneth Branagh (who also directed this version), to investigate the grisly crime and find out who among the train’s 12 passengers is the culprit.

Like the earlier production, director Branagh stacks his cast with a bevy of A-list heavy hitters including Michelle Pfieffer, Dame Judi Dench, and Penelope Cruz, who bring a sense of gravitas to the collection of colorful suspects. This is no small feat, considering they follow in the footsteps of Ingrid Bergman, Albert Finney, and Lauren Bacall. Branagh’s production design also does a meticulous job of evoking Old Hollywood as his costumes and sets bring each compartment of the Orient Express to life in glamorous style.

But where Lumet’s production was a tense boilerplate mystery, Branagh’s plays out like a dime store thriller, keeping the main story much the same, but sprinkling in superfluous action set pieces. The film is at its best when the characters have some time to breath and the story can revert back to a chamber piece, allowing the tension to build as Poirot rubs up against the long list of suspects. In these moments Christie’s original story shines through, but for the most part it’s hidden beneath the bloat of modern blockbuster filmmaking.