I have seen a few whodunnit films recently and of those films, this one succeeds in having a good ensemble in its cast and just for being sort of original and fun compared to
See How They Run and the Poirot films that Kenneth Branagh has done (both of which being distributed by Disney's Fox assets) which are both based on something that already exists. The first film was a huge success which led to Netflix making further films, of which one we are looking at today alongside the very first film. This may actually be where Daniel Craig will be known for following his retirement from the James Bond 007 franchise. Let's take a look:
Knives Out
A wealthy mystery novelist called Harlan Thrombey (played by Christopher Plummer) hosts a 85th birthday party for himself at his Massachusetts mansion and invites his family to celebrate. The next morning, he is found dead by Fran, the housekeeper (played by Edi Patterson) as a result of his throat being slit open. Two police lieutenants arrive to investigate and interview the family, while accompanied by a private detective called Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig). The trio of detectives learns a few things, make out a few theories and all that stuff before pointing the finger at the true culprit of the crime with a few laughs, shocking revelations and more along the way. While there are many whodunnit films that follow everything on the nose without really bringing anything new to the scene as it were, this film makes good use of its ensemble cast and sharpens up the tropes that many are too used to seeing at this point in time. Very entertaining from beginning to end with some very good acting, and it kind of makes me want to forget that the director was responsible for the mess that was
The Last Jedi. 9/10
Glass Onion
So my friend was able to secure tickets to see preview screenings of the sequel before it releases on Netflix in a month's time from now. So in the sequel, the pandemic is happening and the billionaire owner of Alpha Industries, Miles Bron (played by Edward Norton), hosts a murder mystery party on his private island which is also home to his mansion which is called the Glass Onion. He sends each invitee a box with puzzles to get at the invitation. The people he invites are all people he helped make famous with one person called Andi (played by Janelle Monae) not being quite as she seems, but at the same time, has a dark history with Miles. Blanc also attends with his own agenda and sure enough, one thing leads to another with shocking truths, destruction and chaos and the humour that we've come to know and love from the first film. The film manages to once again be a darn good time with another great ensemble cast that all act their parts well, plenty of humour and just another great film that doesn't quite start out as a whodunnit at first. The only criticism I have is if you are going to do a story that falls in line with present events, why not do them together and not do what
The Last of Us Part II did. But apart from that, another great film in this steadily building franchise. 8/10
Whodunnit films and TV shows can learn from these two films. It doesn't matter if you use old tropes, just as long as you make good use of your talented cast, add a bit of humour to balance out the serious stuff and just have fun with it. They are not quite as quirky as See How They Run, but still fun all the same. 9/10
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