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Knives Out (2019)

Started by StewartLeehaslethimselfgo, November 30, 2019, 08:38:06 PM

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#30
Well, this was an absolute fucking hoot. It also felt like a Christmas film even though its not set at that time of year (it was just all the cosy jumpers and warm fires)

Only slight disappointment was I was expecting another final twist before the credits that didn't come. Daniel Craig has become a bit odd looking, no? I dunno if it's his eyes or his face looking a bit haggard from all the workouts he must have to do to keep the six pack for Bond whilst in his 50s. I mean, I'm no oil painting and for balance I'd like to say that him coming out of the ocean in Casino Royale gave me a tingle down there. Do women still fancy him? I knew a few who were like "at last a Bond for the ladies" when he first appeared.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on December 05, 2019, 11:23:55 AM
Is this film funny then? Because the trailer was very not.

What a fool I have been. Went to see this tonight, it was very good and funny. Although I'm still not sure how I feel about Daniel Craig's accent and whether the ropeyness of it was intentional.

Ana De Armas did a fantastic job. So much said with the eyes. Lakeith Stanfield, however, I feel was underused, he sort of drifted into the background when Craig came clucking along. Jaeden Lieberher too, he did such a great job in IT, it's a shame he was reduced to such a throwaway role.

phantom_power

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on December 14, 2019, 09:21:51 PM
What a fool I have been. Went to see this tonight, it was very good and funny. Although I'm still not sure how I feel about Daniel Craig's accent and whether the ropeyness of it was intentional.

Ana De Armas did a fantastic job. So much said with the eyes. Lakeith Stanfield, however, I feel was underused, he sort of drifted into the background when Craig came clucking along. Jaeden Lieberher too, he did such a great job in IT, it's a shame he was reduced to such a throwaway role.

I was thinking earlier about how Stanfield seemed to be under-used. He is such an interesting actor that for him to play the straight man seems a waste. But then he did it very well and showed his versatility once again. Some of his reactions were pretty great as well

Sebastian Cobb

I really enjoyed this. I dunno if i've been seeing too many 'serious' films of late or what, but I enjoyed this as a daft romp.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: phantom_power on December 01, 2019, 11:26:49 AM
I think that is why it is getting so much praise. It isn't like anything else out there at the moment. It isn't super hero, franchise, adaptation or remake. It doesn't try to be too arch or ironic. It is just a well-made film in a genre that hasn't been very well served for a while

This. it's not particularly original in the grand scheme of things, but we've not had a tight daft film in a while and it's kind of refreshing to see one.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Chairman Yang on December 05, 2019, 08:22:53 PM
It suffers in the way that every Rian Johnson film I've seen does where the world of the film doesn't really exist outside what's right on screen at the moment; all his scripts are very sketchy.

Yeah I hate it when films construct their own universes; Alien, Blade Runnner, Predator, Hellraiser are all utter wank. In the bin. Unrealistic.

popcorn

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 15, 2019, 02:33:04 AM
Yeah I hate it when films construct their own universes; Alien, Blade Runnner, Predator, Hellraiser are all utter wank. In the bin. Unrealistic.

Don't think that's what Yang was saying - more that whereas you feel that the world in Alien could be real and fully fleshed out, in Knives Out it's thin and flakey. Or whatever.

Chairman Yang

Yeah, pretty much. I'll admit it's entirely subjective and in this film it's not so bad because it's 'Daniel Craig Holistic Detective', but it did remind me of how he writes when he's not being deliberately silly.

sevendaughters

good and solid if slightly convoluted whodunnit, a proper christmas telly 2025 classic and no mistake. the over-praise for this feels like a cinema audience dying for proper films and to get away from superhero straitjacket.

touchingcloth

I really enjoyed the film, even though there wasn't really a twist, not in the sense of a compelling bit of unexpectedness of the kind that can keep you guessing on a rewatch, but it was a fantastic cast and it looked a million bucks (I looked up the DP after having enjoyed the look of Johnson's Last Jedi and Looper, and yep, the same guy photographed them all).

My main criticism is how the fuck was Daniel Craig's accent not part of the plot? Even as the credits rolled I was half convinced that there was going to be some bigger reveal and that - SLIGHT SPOILER - it would turn out to be something like the crime writer having hired him and staged the entire thing as his own final twist. I wish they'd done something a little less A-to-B like that and had written in a properly unexpected twist, but I enjoyed the film a lot and would happily watch it again (though not in the manner of, say, Usual Suspects where you want to rewatch it and look for things you missed first time round).

Shaky

I dunno, for me it would've been too obvious for the writer to have hired Craig's character and orchestrated the whole thing. I was totally expecting the film to go that route then spring some ridiculous, almost meta twist on us. In the end, with the critical superlatives out of the way, I'd glad that didn't happen and the relatively traditional plot still kept me guessing.

Anyone else reckon we'll get further Benoit Blanc mysteries? I think I'd happily watch that. A far better use of Craig's time than shitty Bonds.

touchingcloth

It left it open for more, I would watch them.

You're right that it would've been too obvious to have the writer turn out to have hired Craig, but that fucking accent. I'm still in semi disbelief that it was never commented on in the film. Did no one notice that it sounded really fucking weird, or did Craig demand that he be allowed to do it, or is there a punchline yet to come?

Cuellar

"Ahm just a casyal OBSWERVWER"

beanheadmcginty

I heard that it was a deliberate decision agreed by the director as a homage to Poirot, who is often played with an over the top Belgian accent.

touchingcloth

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on December 18, 2019, 09:30:19 PM
I heard that it was a deliberate decision agreed by the director as a homage to Poirot, who is often played with an over the top Belgian accent.

Yeah but

Quote from: Cuellar on December 18, 2019, 09:12:41 PM
"Ahm just a casyal OBSWERVWER"

Mental. How was that left uncommented on?

popcorn

that's just how americans speak isn't it?

phantom_power

It does get commented on. Doesn't someone mention Foghorn Leghorn?

Wet Blanket

The bad guy calls him Kentucky Fried Sherlock or something too


Shaky

His accent is utterly ludicrous but the cunt owns it pretty early on and his decent performance helps enormously. He actually looks like he's having fun for the first time in Christ knows how long.

Small Man Big Horse

This is now available thanks to the glut of dvdscreeners currently leaking. I thought it was an extremely well acted murder mystery which is pretty fun and everything but not that special, script wise it's the kind of thing that you'd normally see as maybe a Bank Holiday or Christmas-y murder mystery on BBC1, except with a Hollywood cast, and so though it's definitely worth watching it's really been over hyped. 7.4/10

Also: As to whodunnit - Given that he's hardly in it for the first hour when Chris Evans character started chuckling away during the will reading I presumed he was the murderer given his star status, so in some ways I wish they'd cast a lesser known actor in the role.

And: Riki Lindhome is massively underused, and it's a shame Johnson didn't make more of her character. And the nazi masturbating teenager, he amused me a lot when he did pop up.

Famous Mortimer

I enjoyed it, although mystery movies / books aren't normally my cup of tea. Great acting, fun plot, some twists, some subverted ones, I have nothing particularly interesting to say about it.

Alberon

It's a good film. Not a great one.

One of the dying breed of non-franchise films in the cinema though, as said above, it might be trying to start its own. It didn't fulfil its potential for satire and humour and is really just an updated Agatha Christie film.

Bennett Brauer

I was stuck in the cinema between two couples who thought it was fine to openly discuss their theories as to who did what in the second half of the film. That apart, I enjoyed it, but I agree with sevendaughters' point above about the reason for it being a little overrated. (La La Land is another example.)

Any road, the vom tic and label ignoring were unrealistic, but forgiveable in the light of everything else. Craig was good, Ana de Armas and Toni Collette were great. Would watch again at home.

phantom_power

It is definitely being highly praised because it is so refreshing to have that sort of film in the cinemas, but I also think it is very well written, acted and directed as well. I do think you have to give it credit for its (for the current time) originality as well. It is good films like this get praised, even over-praised, because it makes it more likely for other different films to get made

Schnapple

I thought this was OK, but I find Johnson's films a bit... trite? I think somebody said that the worlds and situations he portrays often feel like they don't exist beyond the edge of the frame, which is as a good way of putting what I'm attempting to reach for.

I can't say I was particularly intrigued beyond the sequence in which the incident plays out. I like a whodunnit to fill me with conflicting feelings towards the characters and who might have been responsible, whereas I simply strongly suspected who it transpired to be and had neutral feelings towards the rest of the cast. I also thought that while some of Johnson's class satire was amusing, and the film's awareness of the precarious situation of working immigrants was right-minded, the lead nurse character didn't really have much of a character beyond a resourcefulness and a 'kindness', which was patronising in it's own right.

Also, surely a renowned mystery writer and a hugely attentive medical professional would clock that morphine acts on the body almost immediately?

Still, good to see something fairly original resonating with audiences and making a shit load of cash.

Zetetic

What would people suggest as better (or equally as good) "updated Agatha Christie" films?

(I thought it was fairly fun but, as others have said, let down by feeling slightly thin, both regarding characters and the world. Issues like morphine onset periods and so on I could set aside.)

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I finally got around to watching this earlier and enjoyed it a whole heck of a lot. It wasn't quite what I was expecting though. For one thing, while the whole cast was good it felt less like an ensemble thing and more a star vehicle for Ana De Armas. More to the point, it kind of stops being a whodunit pretty early on, only getting mysterious again fairly near the end.

What was with Blanc pinging the piano during the interviews? I was waiting for it to pay off later. Was it just to highlight when he thought they were lying?

Quote from: Schnapple on December 27, 2019, 07:49:01 PM
Also, surely a renowned mystery writer and a hugely attentive medical professional would clock that morphine acts on the body almost immediately?

In this world the carer states that it takes 10 mins to have any effect and then when it's repeated in the laundromat it appears to have taken even longer. I don't know why they didn't choose or invent another drug that had the effects required for the plot.

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on December 30, 2019, 01:44:36 AM


What was with Blanc pinging the piano during the interviews? I was waiting for it to pay off later. Was it just to highlight when he thought they were lying?

watched the 1978 death on the nile film the other day - poirot does something similar, - maybe a reference to that>?