Absolutely the worst movie.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This episode, while extremely well made technically (art direction, camera work, sound, etc.) and well acted, leaves a very bad taste in the mouth on several counts.Criminal mystery, or rather mysteries, are depended on coincidences to carry out, and are solved through coincidence.Poirot basically gets two girls to find the crucial evidence that unwittingly incriminates their father and only parent. That they can be made to search for evidence, and then can find it, are all by chance. In other words, it is solved quite by chance, in rather shoddy fashion, and not by "grey cells". But in spite of this evidence and its finding being key to solving the cases, all of this is barely on screen, compared to less important things and characters. Girls are not heard of again, after Poirot makes use of them.On top of that, Poirot and his friends, engage in simplistic moral posturing, that include actual speeches. Story and characters are morally complicated and they could have made a better episode wherein all the moral complexity is highlighted, if not explored. Noticeably camera do not focus on Poirot's reaction when blind lady points out, in reply to his speech about results of an occupied country, that Poirot will not be fighting the war to prevent occupation of a country. Remember, according to this series, he ran from his country to England in during WW1, while her sons died and she got blinded, while going out of England to fight in a war that started to protect his country. A thinking viewer, even with obvious desire of adapters not to focus on any of that, cannot but feel contempt for Poirot's moral blindness. To make major character coldly blind and hypocritical is a great idea, but then to ignore these characteristics is not.

I really liked "The Clocks", I think it's because I got all emotional over that love story! I really felt sympathetic for Rosemary Sheila Webb, and that is a sign of good acting, right? (Also, I noticed to my amusement that Tom Burke looks a tiny bit like a less-girly, more-handsome Edward Cullen.) The music also created an atmosphere that was more dark and emotional than usual. Without Hastings, Japp, or Lemon, this movie is more "let's save this young girl from being wrongly convicted" than "let's make jokes and watch Poirot be whimsical", if that makes sense. Not only is this movie more serious than most in the series, but it is also more focused on the characters Colin and Sheila and less on Poirot himself.I agree with other reviewers that it was strange how the spy plot and the murder plot actually turn out to be completely separate. I also thought the murderer became obvious pretty early on. Still, the full details of the resolution did surprise me in the end and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie despite, as some have pointed out, the extraordinary coincidences it would have taken to make it all possible.

This has to be the most disappointing of all the Agatha Christie stories brought to the TV screen by Masterpiece Theater and starring David SUCHET as the mastermind detective Hercule Poirot.The story is so far-fetched in concept and cluttered with such a lot of nonsense about a spy plot and the sinister group of people involved, with every facet of the story straining credibility from the start. And this, despite a fine central performance by ANNA MASSEY as a blind receptionist who finds a murdered man behind her sofa and is unable to explain either his identity or the circumstances of his death.As usual, the production values are excellent and the acting by all concerned is on a high level of expertise. But the story seems so absurd and is hard to follow once the various details come to light, making it appear that even Poirot will be unable to unwind the tangled mess of events.Very disappointing and certainly not one of Agatha Christie's more credible mysteries.

I am a big fan of the Poirot adaptations with David Suchet and of Agatha Christie's books, so of course I was going to see The Clocks. The series has had a few masterpieces(After the Funeral), a number of solid adaptations(Cat Among the Pigeons) and the odd disappointment(Taken at the Flood). I have to say I was very impressed with this adaptation of The Clocks, and put it between the masterpiece and solid categories.My only real complaint of The Clocks was the spy subplot, which came across as rather old-fashioned and predictable. Other than that, it was very well done and highly entertaining right from the beautifully shot prologue to the intriguing final solution. The book wasn't my favourite of The Queen of Crime, but it was a very fun read with a good story and interesting characters.I feel The Clocks is one of the better-directed recent episodes. There are times when the direction is taut when it needs to be, and there are other times when like in the prologue where it is quite elegant. The adaptation as is the case with all the Poirot episodes is very well made, the period recreation is sumptuous and the photography is consistently excellent. I feel often that music helps to enhance the mood in a film, TV adaptation or cartoon, and that's what the music does here. The music here is beautiful and haunting and never feels over-bearing or overly-grandiose.The story is faithful and interesting and it is helped by the solid pacing and the wonderful array of characters, while the dialogue has the odd wry moment while maintaining its thoughtfulness. I was highly impressed by the atmosphere too, in some ways the adaptation is quite dark and suspenseful but there is always room for some humour without it jarring too much. The acting is excellent, David Suchet doesn't just play Poirot, he actually becomes Poirot. He is brilliantly supported by Phil Daniels, Anna Massey and especially Lesley Sharp, and it was nice to see the late John Thaw's daughter Abigail here too.Overall, a solid adaptation and one of the better recent episodes. 9/10 Bethany Cox