I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I would go so far as to class The Clocks as superb, it's such a wonderfully clever and intricate mystery, loaded with great characters and red herrings, it's bound to have the viewer tied up in knots. It's the closest Poirot gets to investigating espionage, the mystery is first rate, and gives a broad range of opinions from people terrified by the threat of war. The opening is brilliant, it's so dramatic and intriguing, it really does set the tone.It's a beautifully styled episode, it's so classy looking, the costumes, sets etc, all first rate. There's one scene where Poirot is stood by the coast, with the sea full of ships, I thought that looked fantastic.Great performances, Anna Massey and Tom Burke both fantastic in particular, Frances Barber also makes a small role into something great, hugely charismatic.The pacing on this story is excellent, it moves by very quickly, with no dull moments.I really enjoy reading The Clocks, and think they did a fine job dramatising it, great episode, 9/10

As with Jeremy Brett's "Sherlock Holmes"; Peter Davison's "Campion"; and Joan Hickson's "Miss Marple" stories, "Poirot" started out with a big budget and good intentions, to faithfully reproduce Agatha Christie's Poirot stories for a society too lazy to open a book.Naturally, "Poirot" had to be altered in places in the change from one medium to another. Unfortunately, as the series moved into novels, it made unnecessary changes. For instance, "Peril at End House" from the early days did an admirable job (with slight alterations) and while it's one of my favorite Christie books it is also one of my favorite "Poirot" dramatizations. Unfortunately, the series grew darker and even changed some of the endings, using different characters as the murderers! However, the producers of "Poirot" made one improvement over Christie. Dame Agatha's Poirot stories started in 1920 and ended in 1975, a span of 55 years where society changes but Poirot doesn't, even though he started out as a retired police detective! When his last mystery appeared he must have been more than 100! Wisely, the "Poirot" series remains set in the 1930s. "The Clocks"--set in 1963--is now given the more exciting setting of Dover on the verge of the second world war, with Hitler across the channel.Another improvement is this: in the original book, Poirot proves his adage that with all the facts one can find the solution without leaving one's chair. This leaves most of the foot slogging to an MI-5 agent (here, altered to be the son of Poirot's old pal Col. Race) and Poirot rarely showing any life. Here, Poirot is summoned from his chair in London and has to go to Dover and interview all the people himself.Apart from these cosmetic changes, the story remains remarkably faithful for a later Poirot. Furthermore, it's beautifully shot in a way almost reminiscent of the earlier Poirots, when he bumbled around with Hastings and Japp. Also unlike some of the later Poirots, the gratuitous swearing is reduced to one "bitch." If there's anything more I didn't hear it.It even has fascinating shots that are supposed to be the secret tunnels dug beneath Dover Castle. Whether they are or not, it's still interesting to think that existed during the war.

"The Clocks" premiered in America on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery tonight, June 26, 2011, two years after its filming and release in the U.K. in 2009, and I must say that it was a thrill to watch. David Suchet dons the role of famed Belgium detective Hercule Poirot once again, and we are treated to amazing revelations regarding spies, national stakes for England before WWII, and a classic murder mystery set in the English seaside town of Dover.The adaptation by Stuart Harcourt, whom I previously berated for his foolish perversion of Hercule Poirot in "Murder on the Orient Express" (2010) into a devout Catholic, is much better two years earlier. The detours from the original Christie novel heighten the stakes of the story well, especially changing one of the main characters, Lt. Colin Cray, into the son of Colonel Race, a Poirot associate from "Cards on the Table" (2004) and the Christie novel "Death on the Nile". Another logical change made by Harcourt was the inclusion of Poirot in the interviewing of the witnesses and visitation to the scene of the crime. In the novel, Lt. Colin Cray performs most of the investigation. "The Clocks" novel may stand as one of Christie's greatest works for mixing facts with red herrings. The number and complexity of the clues are handled well in this adaptation.David Suchet is again magnificent in the role of his career -- meticulous, eccentric and insightful. These later editions of Poirot are void of humor and are filmed as dramatic thrillers, and have long lost the charm of the early episodes. However, watching Poirot is still as exciting to me as they were when it premiered in 1989. I find it hard to believe that Mr. Suchet has been playing Monsieur Poirot for over 20 years, but I hope he does it for as long as he can.

Some nice shots of Dover as Poirot investigates the case of a dead man found in a blind woman's home. A young lady enters the empty house, having been called for some temporary secretarial business, sees the legs of the corpse behind the setee, and rushes out hysterically into the arms of a handsome passing stranger who happens to be the son of the now-retired Colonel Race. Young Race acts as Poirot's sidekick in this episode and he also falls for the young secretary whose love in return is pure, though she herself has a slightly shady past.I kept thinking I'd like to know more about that shady past. This dark young woman is attractive enough but has been "working" for one of her agency's clients twice a week for some months. It develops that she is no virgo intacta. I, frankly, don't think she's pristine enough for the son of the devoted and dull and respectable Colonel Race, although it might have been entertaining if the old Colonel himself had a fling with her.There isn't too much to say about the plot, or rather plots. Christie often threw in some other subplot involving people who are particeps criminis. In this case, they don't simply divert the investigators, they confuse the viewers too. One of the plots is about the equal in importance of the other and they have nothing to do with one another. An opening scene, in which two women chase one another and are both run down and killed, hangs irrelevantly in the air until the final few minutes.I won't give away too much, I don't think, if I say that it all has to do with the approaching war with Hitler's Germany and with the inheritance of a great deal of money.