Knives Out (Rian Johnson)

[Ezee E]

Alamo's "Be quiet" ad with Rian Johnson indirectly spoils this movie. Rian stabs his friend with one of those fake knives, and made me think that could happen in the movie. Sure enough!

[Morris Schæffer]

[

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1) I think we're just supposed to accept that a solitary drop of blood managed to get on her shoe from across the room in the instant that he cut his throat and 2) it's a call back to the line from Thrombley to Ransom that he couldn't tell a real knife from a theatrical one. the knife he grabs is fake (the blade retracts into the handle to simulate a stabbing in a play), I assume it's the one of the only knives that are fake, which makes his inability to distinguish the real from the fake all the more ironic, or maybe just the whole sculpture is fake knives

]

Thanks for clarifying. [

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That drop of blood is a real long shot, not even sure why it needed to be there, as it adds nothing. Sure, Benoit Blanc says he knew she was involved from the moment he saw her shoe, but if he's such a hotshot detective, I suppose the script would be smarter than to basically hand him the suspect on a plate. Then again, there was the dog which conveniently had a piece of the window sill in his maw, although I guess I can forgive that since moments before that, Marta threw that same piece of wood away. And what's a good doggie gonna do?

]

[Pop Trash]

[

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maybe just the whole sculpture is fake knives

]

[

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This kinda annoyed me. I went back and looked at stills of that knife wheel and they look like real knives on there. Like some Bowie style knives that wouldn't retract. And why would some rich guy have a cool knife wheel with only fake knives on it? Which leads me to believe he oh so conveniently grabbed the only fake one that retracts. It's a nice sight gag and gets a laugh but falls apart in my mind if you think about it for more than two seconds. Also, couldn't he now be charged with an additional count of attempted murder for his knife bit? Plus, who the hell stabs someone out of spite in front of a crowd like that? akjdlkncnvoieautoinmcv this fuggin' movie.

]

[Rico]

Calling this fun is giving it too much credit as most of the fun bits were in the trailer.

Would have liked to have seen the supporting cast do more.

[Ezee E]

Calling this fun is giving it too much credit as most of the fun bits were in the trailer.

Would have liked to have seen the supporting cast do more.

Def agreed on the supporting cast.

[Irish]

You all nailed it. This is a really empty movie.

Johnson is def the most overrated filmmaker around. It's weird, to me, that he lands decent budgets, writes and directs his own material, and yet his films don't say anything even remotely personal. Compare him to rough contemporaries like Waititi or Tarantino or hell even Kevin Smith --- Johnson's movies have no personality. I don't get a sense of him from watching his films.

He also has the terribly lazy habit of inserting talking point politics into his scripts and uses those points as a stand in for characters and theme.

Also, worse performances I've seen from Jaime, Don, and Jimmy Bond. They seem unmoored and, at times, like there were in a completely different movie from whatever Ana and Cap were doing.

Blech.

[[ETM]]

Johnson is def the most overrated filmmaker around.

Uh.... Umm...

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[Ezee E]

Uh.... Umm...

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I'm not going to disagree with him.

[transmogrifier]

I'm not going to disagree with him.

Yeah, as I alluded to earlier, the online critic crowd have really rallied around Johnson, and I have no idea why. He’s so boring. Knives Out is just....pedestrian in its staging and plot.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, as I alluded to earlier, the online critic crowd have really rallied around Johnson, and I have no idea why. He’s so boring. Knives Out is just....pedestrian in its staging and plot.

I think one of the reasons the online crowd is because he's one of the few directors that actually responds to their tweets and is pretty nice to everyone online.

[Rico]

Anyone else found it weird that in the big reveal scene half the characters seem to be just in the next room over? One of their family members was murdered and this master detective is explaining how it was done. What are they doing, having tea?

[StuSmallz]

Yeah, as I alluded to earlier, the online critic crowd have really rallied around Johnson, and I have no idea why. He’s so boring. Knives Out is just....pedestrian in its staging and plot.

If a murder mystery revealing what happened to the victim less than halfway through the movie is supposed to be pedestrian plotting, I'd be real curious to see what qualifies as subversive.

[Irish]

[transmogrifier]

If a murder mystery revealing what happened to the victim less than halfway through the movie is supposed to be pedestrian plotting......

Um...yes? What makes that so special? If anything, it makes the rest of the film a chore while you wait for the characters to catch up. The vomiting thing is just stupid.

[StuSmallz]

Um...yes? What makes that so special? If anything, it makes the rest of the film a chore while you wait for the characters to catch up. The vomiting thing is just stupid.

It's special because, of course, it's a subversion of expectations for a work in this genre, but it's also a very clever one, and not just an empty bait-and-switch, and certainly not one that renders the rest of the film as just a waiting game, as Johnson still keeps us engaged by shifting our perspective and sympathies, and keeping the intrigue and tension up by [

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having us follow around an innocent person attempting to cover their tracks right under the nose of the investigators (with mixed success), while at the same time diverting suspicion from the most likely suspect by appearing to reveal everything he's up to by involving us with a relatively innocuous scheme of his, while also setting up smaller mysteries bubbling just beneath the surface, ones that we're subconsciously aware of, but only really become apparent when he chooses to reveal them to us, the sure sign of a good mystery (if you're looking for a Daniel Craig murder mystery where we're mostly just waiting for the film to get around to revealing who the incredibly obvious killer is, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a much better fit). Knives Out, on the other hand, was relentlessly clever material, and an original mystery so tightly constructed that Robert Towne himself would've been proud to have penned it, IMO.

]

[transmogrifier]

Obviously, cleverness is subjective, but I found the entire mystery rote and obvious, right down to [

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the final phone call fake out and fake knife.

]. I'm not sure what else to tell you; I'm glad you enjoyed it, but it was hollow, predictable, and flatly directed.

[Grouchy]

Wow, contrary to the majority here, I thought this was just a great modern take on the whodunit genre. It's fun, it's well written, it has a great cast goofing around (I'm a great supporter of Daniel Craig's accent and everything he does in this film) and it manages to turn Clue into a Columbo episode and back into the Agatha Christie murder mystery it's supposed to be a homage of. Are you guys seriously giving me shit about the fake knife thing which is perfectly foreshadowed? Or about Old Thrombey's motivations, which are just complicated enough for the type of story this is supposed to be?

I'm willing to take the bait on Rian Johnson. He's not a genius or anything but he has made some more than competent films. He's at least a better filmmaker than Christopher Nolan and J.J. Abrams combined.

[Pop Trash]

I'm willing to take the bait on Rian Johnson. He's not a genius or anything but he has made some more than competent films. He's at least a better filmmaker than Christopher Nolan and J.J. Abrams combined.

Oh HELL NAW.

[transmogrifier]

Johnson, Nolan, and Abrams? Um, you can keep all of them. What else you got out the back?

[Wryan]

Brick was great. This was good.

[Grouchy]

Oh HELL NAW.

Well, he just seems better in so many ways... Not only from an obvious writing standpoint (Johnson's movies actually present compelling characters and situations) but, while not being technically an action filmmaker, his sequences and set pieces swipe the floor with anything Nolan seems capable of doing. Nolan is just bad at putting together an action sequence.

[TGM]

I don't think I can agree with a single thing you just said, lol.

[MadMan]

This ruled. I loved the jokes, the cast, the whole package. I felt the movie was a bit long, though. Craig's doughtnut spiel is something I want to memorize and quote at work.

[MadMan]

Long ago I came to the conclusion that a lot of you around here must watch different movies than me. It's ok though I get that from people I know and meet in real life, too.

[Dukefrukem]

Overall, I was entertained, but this is super suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper flimsy logic and reasoning throughout. I give credit to Johnson for making it believable in real time, and it helps that the ensemble cast is on their A game, but I could pick this apart all day.