Knives Out | Nov 27 2019 | 18th Most Profitable Movie of 2019 | Coming to Amazon Prime June 12

[ban1o]

Lol I saw this a second time with my mom. She LOVED it and wouldn’t stop talking about it after and when I initially told her it was a murder mystery she didn’t want to see it lol.

[Legion Again]

19 hours ago, Darth Lehnsherr said:

Can I get a cinematic universe of these detective stories by Rian Johnson?

Daniel Craig's character can be the connective tissue.

RJ has expressed some interest in further mysteries with Craig/Benoit Blanc. 

[lilmac]

The actors were definitely chewing the scenery and enjoying themselves. One of Daniel Craig's best roles. 

[aladdino]

I just saw it and it was really good, but the comparison of evans picking this and hemsworth picking MIB4 makes no sense, evans didnt do anything here until the third act whereas hems was the big lead in MIB

 

ana 😍

Edited December 2, 2019 by aladdino

[JustWatching]

Saw this Thanksgiving night in a packed house so I’m not surprised it did well. Not quite the film the trailers promised imo but a good flick nonetheless. I’d definitely be in the market for a sequel.

[Valonqar]

21 minutes ago, JustWatching said:

Saw this Thanksgiving night in a packed house so I’m not surprised it did well. Not quite the film the trailers promised imo but a good flick nonetheless. I’d definitely be in the market for a sequel.

sequel scene leaked:

 

 

 

[TalismanRing]

 

[CoolioD1]

saw it yesterday. pretty fun. after this last bond daniel craig should only do comedies. like a full leslie nielsen turn to nothing but goofy shit.

[junkshop36]

Saw it earlier today. Really enjoyed it. Just a fun, entertaining movie. 
 

Craig was great. Loved the accent. Would definitely love to see him play this character again. 

[JB33]

19 hours ago, lilmac said:

The actors were definitely chewing the scenery and enjoying themselves. One of Daniel Craig's best roles. 

^ This is the best way I can describe the movie too. It was all about the actors in this one.

[SchumacherFTW]

11 hours ago, junkshop36 said:

Saw it earlier today. Really enjoyed it. Just a fun, entertaining movie. 
 

Craig was great. Loved the accent. Would definitely love to see him play this character again. 

That's the only way a continuation would work, have Craig be a Poirot-esque piece of connective tissue 

[Ryan Reynolds]

https://variety.com/2019/film/awards/national-board-of-review-irishman-best-movie-1203422503/

 

NBR - Best Ensemble

[TalismanRing]

https://www.pressacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-IPA-Nomination-24th-Satelilite-FINAL-12-2-2019.pdf

 

Special Achievement: Best Ensemble

 

Nominations: Best Comedy, Craig and De Armas best Actor & Actress in a Comedy

[lorddemaxus]

Best Ensemble Win and Top 10 films of the year from National Board of Review.

[Wrath]

On 12/2/2019 at 7:30 PM, TalismanRing said:

 

With Chris Evans in it, I'm guessing...

 

Edit - Just saw it tonight. Such a fun movie, and everyone killed it. I mean, from an acting standpoint. They're not ALL the murderer.

Edited December 4, 2019 by Wrath

[cedec0]

Ok, I have two questions for people who have seen knives out.  I keep hearing all these good things about the movie, but when I read about the plot, I am slightly horrified on the moral front.  Could someone who has seen the movie help explain more how Knives out works, morrally speaking.

 

Spoiler

1)  The optics of an elderly parent Disinheriting their heirs without their knowledge and leaving everything to their caregiver seems terrible.

 

How did Knives out make this work morally?  What did Harlan's great grandchildren do to deserve being disinherited?  Having his wealth skip all living family members was option (ie: give everything to his great grandchildren via a trust)

 

Knives out seems like textbook inheritance theft:  (something terrible that happens to real, good people)

 

Spoiler

http://pennyborn.com/disinheritedbyparent.html

 

How You Could Be Disinherited

If you have a normal, close relationship with your parents, you may assume you will inherit any property or assets they leave behind. However, as this article will explore, you may be one of the many people surprised to find you have been disinherited by an elderly parent. While estate planning law has long recognized that children are the natural objects of a parent's affection, unless the child is with his elderly parent on an almost continuous basis, that parent can easily begin to transfer his affection to a caretaker or friend that would not otherwise be entitled to inherit.
 
This discussion is specifically directed at the complex problems many adult children face as their elderly parents become subject to the influence of caretakers, neighbors, acquaintances, and other individuals that may seek to take advantage. See inheritance theft. Unless you are fortunate enough to be with your elderly parent the majority of the time and help your parent manage his or her day to day affairs, your parent may be vulnerable to the undue influence of someone that seeks to gain access to all or part of your family estate.

 

2)  Isn't Harlan sentencing his family to live out the rest of their lives in destitution and shame?

 

This isn't about his heirs losing their inheritance

The entire world is going find out that the family has been disinherited for the reason that "they are terrible people".  If an admired, famous person hates something, their fans will hate you it too.   Seems to me the fallout from this movie will be the entire family losing everything they have in fallout (Forget being a "lifestyle guru and influencer" after being disinherited, lol).  Twitter is going to laught while their lives fall apart (that is what twitter does when someone famous denounces someone).

 

If Harlan was giving his wealth to charity or something like that, the situation might be salvageable for the family.  They might be able to spin it in a way so that it doesn't destroy their lives.  However, having his nurse inherite everything makes things as clear as day:  Harlan hates his family because they are bad people.  His heirs are going to die early, in poverty, while being ridiculed by the world.  How exactly does knives out sell this as a happy ending?  (Harlen's great grandchildren are going to be answer the question "if great grandfather was Harlan, why are you so poor?" for the rest of their lives)

 

--------------------------

 

I am not trying to knock the movie.  This is just something that bothered me enough to ask.

 

I understand that the movie is fun.  how does it work morally speaking?

 

 

Edited December 4, 2019 by cedec0

[WittyUsername]

18 minutes ago, cedec0 said:

Ok, I have two questions for people who have seen knives out.  I keep hearing all these good things about the movie, but when I read about the plot, I am slightly horrified on the moral front.  Could someone who has seen the movie help explain more how Knives out works, morrally speaking.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

1)  The optics of an elderly parent Disinheriting their heirs without their knowledge and leaving everything to their caregiver seems terrible.

 

How did Knives out make this work morally?  What did Harlan's great grandchildren do to deserve being disinherited?  Having his wealth skip all living family members was option (ie: give everything to his great grandchildren via a trust)

 

Knives out seems like textbook inheritance theft:  (something terrible that happens to real, good people)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

http://pennyborn.com/disinheritedbyparent.html

 

How You Could Be Disinherited

If you have a normal, close relationship with your parents, you may assume you will inherit any property or assets they leave behind. However, as this article will explore, you may be one of the many people surprised to find you have been disinherited by an elderly parent. While estate planning law has long recognized that children are the natural objects of a parent's affection, unless the child is with his elderly parent on an almost continuous basis, that parent can easily begin to transfer his affection to a caretaker or friend that would not otherwise be entitled to inherit.
 
This discussion is specifically directed at the complex problems many adult children face as their elderly parents become subject to the influence of caretakers, neighbors, acquaintances, and other individuals that may seek to take advantage. See inheritance theft. Unless you are fortunate enough to be with your elderly parent the majority of the time and help your parent manage his or her day to day affairs, your parent may be vulnerable to the undue influence of someone that seeks to gain access to all or part of your family estate.

 

2)  Isn't Harlan sentencing his family to live out the rest of their lives in destitution and shame?

 

This isn't about his heirs losing their inheritance

The entire world is going find out that the family has been disinherited for the reason that "they are terrible people".  If an admired, famous person hates something, their fans will hate you it too.   Seems to me the fallout from this movie will be the entire family losing everything they have in fallout (Forget being a "lifestyle guru and influencer" after being disinherited, lol).  Twitter is going to laught while their lives fall apart (that is what twitter does when someone famous denounces someone).

 

If Harlan was giving his wealth to charity or something like that, the situation might be salvageable for the family.  They might be able to spin it in a way so that it doesn't destroy their lives.  However, having his nurse inherite everything makes things as clear as day:  Harlan hates his family because they are bad people.  His heirs are going to die early, in poverty, while being ridiculed by the world.  How exactly does knives out sell this as a happy ending?  (Harlen's great grandchildren are going to be answer the question "if great grandfather was Harlan, why are you so poor?" for the rest of their lives)

 

--------------------------

 

I am not trying to knock the movie.  This is just something that bothered me enough to ask.

 

I understand that the movie is fun.  how does it work morally speaking?

 

 

Spoiler

The way the movie presents it is that Harlan wants his family to learn to be self-sufficient. He wants them to make a name for themselves, instead of piggybacking off his success. It helps that, with the possible exception of his granddaughter, his family members weren’t exactly portrayed as likable people. 

 

[cedec0]

2 hours ago, WittyUsername said:

  Hide contents

The way the movie presents it is that Harlan wants his family to learn to be self-sufficient. He wants them to make a name for themselves, instead of piggybacking off his success. It helps that, with the possible exception of his granddaughter, his family members weren’t exactly portrayed as likable people. 

 

Thanks for the answer.

 

Spoiler

Final thoughts

 

1)  Maybe I am weird.  I still can't believe that I haven't seen any comments by people who had issues with the things that are bothering me.  It is a little disturbing, but hopefully I will understand this better when I eventually see the film. 

 

2)  If "Harlan wants his family to learn to be self-sufficient" then leaving all the money to  Marta Cabrera was the worse possible choice, because it makes his will contestable due to "unduly influenced".  If he left his money to charity for example, there would be no grounds to contest it.  As it is, Marta will probably be forced to give everything back after years of lawsuits that tear the family apart...  The only winners here are the lawyers which are going to make a fortune...

 

3)  Disinheriting someone causes harm beyond the simple loss of money.  Deep phychological scars.  The only "legitimate reason" for completely disinheriting someone is wanting to hurt someone, wanting to cause them harm.  It is never "in the interest" of the heirs to be disinherited (ie: virtually guarranteed to have a negative impact on the lives and psychology).  Using a trust to limit accesss to the money is the correct way to "force heirs to fend for themselves".  A trust also serves an emergency fund that can save lives.  (ie: If a family member develops a costly medical condition they can't afford to treat on their own).  Leaving the money to Marta only makes sense if it was Harlan's intent to reduce his entire family to ruin in a way that maximized their pain and humiliation (if that was his intend, then I have no problem with the movie)...

 

Anyway, the moral of all this is that family members should insists on nurses and caretakers who are complete assholes.  You can't trust the elderly to nurses that are "nice", as they will "nicely" screw you out of your inheritance.

 

Edited December 4, 2019 by cedec0

[Porthos]

8 minutes ago, cedec0 said:

Thanks for the answer.

 

  Hide contents

2)  If "Harlan wants his family to learn to be self-sufficient" then leaving all the money to  Marta Cabrera was the worse possible choice, because it makes his will contestable due to "unduly influenced".  If he left his money to charity for example, there would be no grounds to contest it.  As it is, Marta will probably be forced to give everything back after years of lawsuits that tear the family apart...  The only winners here are the lawyers which are going to make a fortune...

 

Spoiler

The bolded is addressed in the film.

 

As for the rest, with the exception of a couple of people, they're all assholes. Some more than others, but more than a few give good cause to be written out. One is a total leech and totally deserves what happens to them.  One is actively stealing from him.  One, admittedly, didn't do anything wrong.  But that person also was completely living in Harlan's shadow and Harlan figured he deserved a good kick in the pants.  Finally one other person already had their own successful business.

 

More to the point, Harlan saw Marta as his one true friend he actually had left in his life.  So why not give it to her from his viewpoint.

 

(Also, Marta was completely and utterly shocked at the development)

 

===

 

Also, this IS a comedy on more than one level.  Furthermore, this type of development (crazy ol' coot does something to piss off the heirs) is a very old trope in mystery fiction. 

 

So, ultimately, a convention of the genre.  It may not work for you, but it absolutely isn't that unusual for this type of work.

 

 

[Porthos]

Let me try a slightly different tact here, @cedec0:

Spoiler

The film goes out of its way to show that nearly the entire family including Harlan is one messed up group. 

 

Like, really really dysfunctional.  Frankly, one really isn't supposed to take Harlan as a role model in this film, IMO.  Maybe view him sympathetically.  But he's absolutely shown to be Eccentric Rich Old Guy.

 

And those types of folks do wacky things in mystery fiction.  Tends to get them killed, for that matter. Especially if they love drama too much for their own good.

 

It's basically like arguing about how cops act in Buddy Flicks or how Mildly Military folks are in various Space Opera shows.

 

When it comes right down to it, Marta is one of the few truly sympathetic folks in the entire household.  Maybe not the only one, but there's a reason why she's the protagonist of this film, narratively speaking.

 

===

 

As a side point, if this had happened in real life, Marta would be in a whole heap of trouble.  Starting from the cover up, then when it came to actively hindering the police investigation by tampering with evidence, not to mention the police chase.

 

Oh yes, and harboring an undocumented immigrant.

 

But none of that is really important when it comes to the genre.  So even if the 'undue influence' might happen in real life, this film left "real life" behind about one-third of the way into the film.  If not much much sooner.

 

As is typical, really, for this type of work.  Doesn't mean it has to work for you.   But just something to keep in mind.

 

Edited December 4, 2019 by Porthos