Sorry, this movie sucks

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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.

It is good to see Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) back in action in the first TV movie after the Murder, She Wrote TV series ended. This time, Jessica meets a woman named Sarah (Mel Harris) while on a train to El Paso. Sarah disappears and leaves her purse behind, setting a stage of events where Sarah is believed to have witnessed a homicide and a criminal is pursuing her to reclaim a possession, leading the involvement of the FBI and leaving Jessica caught in the middle of the mayhem.This movie possesses the same charm, sleuth tactics and plot twists and turns of the TV series, and is filled with some intriguing plot points and daring investigation scenes that puts Jessica all over the map that one would find compelling. The direction and pacing are pretty good, aside from the plot that tends to drag a little towards the middle of the movie. The acting is also pretty spot on.With all the finger-pointing and unpredictability elements in the movie, you would be eager to find the truth of the matter and who is behind the all the criminal activities. It is a good TV movie that is a nice throwback to the heyday of the TV series.Grade B

This story full of suspense. It starts off with a man being murdered and a woman walking her dog sees the murderer. The woman tell the police she is afraid because the killer knows what she looks like.JB Fletcher goes on a train a makes friends with a Mrs Taylor not knowing the lady is the witness to the murder who later disappears.There are men that get on board and they all look suspicious. You start to think maybe they will kill Mrs Taylor.The story is about secret codes for Satellites that are worth a lot of money. They are being sought by a number of people some working for the government and some from other countries. The man that was killed was meeting a reporter because the codes where in error and the higher ups would not listen to him to correct the problem so he was going to give the reporter the story.It kind of reminds me of what happened recently with the NSA. The NSA was spying on people and countries and Snowden not like what the NSA was doing so he started to reveal internal things that happened to news reporters.The story has a lot of suspense and action that takes place on the train. It has lots of persons of interest. Good to watch.

Without a doubt the best! of the 4 spin-off TV movies from the 'Murder, She Wrote' TV series.Superb styling. A great story that pans out well, with a couple of surprising plot twists at the end. More worthy of Lansbury's dramatic scope than, sadly, the rest of the TV spin-offs, this is one film that is well worth setting the set-top box to record.With wonderful subtle references to other 'train crime' movies: the film noir 'Double Indemnity'; 'The 39 Steps' (the rural train station at which Jessica Fletcher disembarks is amusingly named 'Hannay' after that film's lead character Richard Hannay); and of course another famous Hitchcock train movie: 'North by Northwest'. Plus there are elements of 'The Lady Vanishes' when one of the lead characters disappears; all the more poignant, of course, as Angela Lansbury herself starred as 'the lady' in the 1978 film version of the 'TLV'!Indubitably a fun film for die-hard fans of the TV series. And the most watchable of the spin-offs. Maybe this is because it was the first (made in 1997) of the 4 movies. But in any case the other 3 spin-offs in this TV franchise are little more than self-indulgent, rambling & soporific TV 'dross'. This initial TV movie, however, is a more 3-dimensional film.A well-scripted story in which the plot gives Lansbury the chance to really act. Enjoy. It offers a fun couple of hours' viewing.

Disappointing show that doesn't showcase the acting talent of Angela Lansbury as sleuth Jessica Fletcher.The show starts off well with Jessica on a train bound for El Paso Texas. There, she is supposed to deliver one of her lectures. While on the train, Jessica becomes involved with absolute mayhem. A woman, who witnessed a killing is on the train, and soon disappears. A newsman on the trail soon gets killed. Jessica had befriended the woman and soon finds her and goes on quite an adventure with her.The show deals with sub-plots about important information being stolen, and as a result the FBI got involved. It reaches the point that you don't know whose good and who the bad guys are. Everyone seems to have an agenda, but in the end, nothing really works here.