Knives Out (2019)

[ZackM]

I'm confused by you guys saying you could see the ending coming a mile away.  Like you knew it was actually a real suicide and Marta didn't give him the wrong medicine because Ransom swapped the fluid in the bottles but then Marta swapped bottles and Ransom's real crime was killing the house keeper?  You saw that coming a mile away?

[Joyous Legion]

3 minutes ago, ZackM said:

Like you knew it was actually a real suicide and Marta didn't give him the wrong medicine because Ransom swapped the fluid in the bottles but then Marta swapped bottles

This part yeah. Didn’t figure out that Ransom killed the housekeeper at that time because Marta hadn’t even received the blackmail yet, but once Marta gets the note and finds Fran, it’s obvious that Ransom is behind that if you already have him climbing the trellis to swap the morphine and calling in Blanc.
 

Other things that were pretty easy to see coming well before they happened:  

everything willed to Marta

Medical report in the clock weed stash 

someone gets stabbed with a prop knife   
 

[Joyous Legion]

FWIW I’ve probably watched/read too many movie/TV/book murder mysteries. “Person commits suicide for some goal believing themself doomed anyway, but actually they weren’t” and “A swaps a pair of items, later B swaps that pair of items returning them to normal, later A realizes that B inadvertently undid their work (but B still thinks exactly one swap was performed) and A has to adapt on the fly” are both tropes I’ve seen several times despite probably not being super common per se. “Killer calls in detective because they need someone else to take the blame” is also classic.

 

Both play with (mis)beliefs and actions in a tragically delicious comedy-of-errors kind of way, so naturally authors will gravitate back to them. And they combine in a nice and clear fashion.

Edited November 30, 2019 by Arendelle Legion

[ZackM]

2 minutes ago, Arendelle Legion said:

This part yeah. 
 

At what point in the movie did you figure it out?  I didn't even see a reason to speculate on it until the final breakdown.

[ZackM]

3 minutes ago, Arendelle Legion said:

FWIW I’ve probably watched/read too many movie/TV/book murder mysteries. “Person commits suicide for some goal believing themself doomed anyway, but actually they weren’t” and “A swaps a pair of items, later B swaps that pair of items returning them to normal, later A realizes that B inadvertently undid their work (but B still thinks exactly one swap was performed) and A has to adapt on the fly” are both tropes I’ve seen several times despite probably not being super common per se.

Oh ok.  I didn't realize this was a thing, and the movie itself didn't give me a reason to consider it, so I was confused as to how someone would have figure out that the swap happened.

Edited November 30, 2019 by ZackM

[Cap]

36 minutes ago, Arendelle Legion said:

Yeah, this is the biggest issue (not really the right word, but 🤷‍♂️). You can kind of see the big “twists” coming from like 30% into the movie, so it lives on its characters rather than the surprise value. Of course there’s a pretty direct tension between including appropriate foreshadowing and having people figure it out early, vs avoiding good foreshadowing and having it come out of nowhere. It’s definitely better overall to have the conclusion well built up to by clues.

I feel this is why Chris Evans was so perfectly cast.  Cause if it'd be any other actors, I would have been on full "HE'S LYING TO YOU.  DO. NOT. TRUST. HIM" Def Con 1.  But cause it was Evans -- with those beautiful blue eyes, and soft sweaters -- I totally went along with it for most of the movie, almost until the cops walked him into the room.  

 

2 minutes ago, ZackM said:

At what point in the movie did you figure it out?  I didn't even see a reason to speculate on it until the final breakdown.

I figured out someone took the anecdote the second it wasn't there in Marta's flashback.  I didn't realize they were switched until the reveal.  That was the true "shock" to me. 

[Joyous Legion]

10 minutes ago, ZackM said:

Oh ok.  I didn't realize this was a thing, and the movie itself didn't give me a reason to consider it, so I was confused as to how someone would have figure out that the swap happened.

Anyone who watches Knives Out as their first murder mystery and calls it early is some kind of maniac savant.    
 

As maybe my 500th murder mystery, I suspected the morphine double swap as soon as Harlan remarks that it would be a good way to kill somebody in Marta’s Act 1 flashback where we see how he really died. Then in that same flashback, when the Mom says “is that you again Ransom” I was like “oh, okay, Ransom was the one to do the swap by climbing the trellis earlier that night.” I don’t think he’d even been on screen yet.   
 

So, yeah, not actually complaining about the setup, more so complaining at myself for having seen too many of these 😢

Edited November 30, 2019 by Arendelle Legion

[ZackM]

1 minute ago, captainwondyful said:

 

I figured out someone took the anecdote the second it wasn't there in Marta's flashback.  I didn't realize they were switched until the reveal.  That was the true "shock" to me. 

I wasn't sure on the antidote.  I thought it was suspicious, but I wasn't sure if it was just part of the tragedy.  The switch was a real reveal for me.  I guess I was drawn into the fakeout that the movie had shifted from "who did it" to "how to get away with it."  I was compelled by the "how to get away with it" story, so it made the double back to "who did it" all the more satisfying.

[ZeeSoh]

It was a pretty good movie. Quite funny too, audience I was with was lapping up all comedy scenes. 

 

Acting wise, both Daniel Craig and Ana De Armas were great. Chris Evans and Toni Colette were good too. 

 

I had gone into the movie not expecting to find out who killed grandpa till the end, but the twist that they reveal how he died right in the middle came as a surprise to me. At that part I was left scratching my head as to where the movie will go from there seeing that we already know how he died and it looked like Marta had accidentally did it. But the later twists and turns were fun to follow along. Heck at one point I thought Daniel Craigs character was somehow behind it, especially after the arson fire when he gets into the car with Marta. 

 

I really liked the family dynamic and wished there were mor scenes of them together. Especially them together fighting. 

 

I also wish there was more of Chris Evans being a smug smartass. He is a natural at that. 

[Kravetz]

in all fairness, I was half asleep when seeing this. the accent that D Craig used was more annoying then not and the subposition to establish the whole crime was cool, but not that any detective could find it, rather the detective recites the cool premise of a plot from the script, they were making a cool story resolution, without setting it up. 

[Joyous Legion]

2 hours ago, Kravetz said:

without setting it up. 

It was extremely set up. Everything in the reveal was stuff you could notice an hour earlier in the film and figure it out yourself.

[ZackM]

2 hours ago, Arendelle Legion said:

It was extremely set up. Everything in the reveal was stuff you could notice an hour earlier in the film and figure it out yourself.

Yeah, I watched it a second time and every little detail is perfectly placed in retrospect.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

19 hours ago, ZackM said:

I'm confused by you guys saying you could see the ending coming a mile away.  Like you knew it was actually a real suicide and Marta didn't give him the wrong medicine because Ransom swapped the fluid in the bottles but then Marta swapped bottles and Ransom's real crime was killing the house keeper?  You saw that coming a mile away?

I noticed that Harlan wasn't acting like someone ODing and wondered if he'd somehow switched the bottles himself beforehand, along with hiring an investigator ahead of time for an added bit of theatrics. Midway through, I was thinking Chris Evans hadn't had much screentime given how famous he is right now and how much he'd been featured in the PR tour, plus his character was just too entitled and smarmy, of course he would be the killer (of someone). For me, this is the kind of movie where the journey matters more than the destination and I found it entertaining throughout.

 

Liked the running gag of all the different countries of origin the Thrombeys gave for Marta's mother, despite going on about how much Marta was like family to them. The last shot of Marta looking down on them, drinking out of the "My House" mug was great.

Edited November 30, 2019 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[glassfairy]

B-

If I were to divide the movie into quarters, the first and last were excellent, the second was ok and the third was meh. Nice acting all around and decently written but i've seen 3 movies by Rian Johnson and in each so far he strikes me as someone who, though not without talent, is suffering from the delusion that he is far more clever/talented than he actually is. Therefore where he could have tightened up the movie in the middle, he let it meander much to the films detriment being neither clever enough to not meander at all or talented enough to meander in a more interesting/well executed manner.

[filmlover]

This was a total blast and lived up to the hype, I must say. I loved that this wasn't really a standard murder mystery/whodunit? since the question of who did do it is answered before the movie is even 1/3 over, using that as a jumping point to explore a number of directions and twists laced with some interesting social commentary. It's further proof that Rian Johnson really is one of our most unique and exciting filmmakers (sit down, Last Jedi haters).

 

Johnson assembled one hell of a cast for this and all contribute the strong work we usually expect from these actors, even if most of them end up being underused. Daniel Craig and Chris Evans both clearly had the time of their lives making this, especially Evans playing very much against type (someone on the way out of the theater said "Captain America was a real dick in this" ). But the real MVP is Ana de Armas, who is finally given a proper breakout role as Johnson's sympathetic protagonist. My nearly sold out audience lost it in the climax when she puked on Evans.

 

This is the fun time at the movies that 2017's overly somber Murder on the Orient Express should've been, and would also make for a very fitting double feature with this year's Ready or Not.

 

A-

[La Binoche]

On 11/29/2019 at 6:58 PM, ZackM said:

I'm confused by you guys saying you could see the ending coming a mile away.  Like you knew it was actually a real suicide and Marta didn't give him the wrong medicine because Ransom swapped the fluid in the bottles but then Marta swapped bottles and Ransom's real crime was killing the house keeper?  You saw that coming a mile away?

Obviously the meds got switched by someone in the family. And obviously the Cuban girl could not be guilty in any way, not in 2019. 

[Jim Shorts]

On 11/29/2019 at 6:58 PM, ZackM said:

I'm confused by you guys saying you could see the ending coming a mile away.  Like you knew it was actually a real suicide and Marta didn't give him the wrong medicine because Ransom swapped the fluid in the bottles but then Marta swapped bottles and Ransom's real crime was killing the house keeper?  You saw that coming a mile away?

I’ve watched enough Scooby Doo episodes to know exactly what was going to happen at the end! 

[Joyous Legion]

1 hour ago, Jim Shorts said:

I’ve watched enough Scooby Doo episodes to know exactly what was going to happen at the end! 

Man, classic scooby doo was so great. The animation style and overly kiddish orientation of the 21st century stuff was a real turn off though.

[Hatebox]

On 11/30/2019 at 11:24 PM, glassfairy said:

If I were to divide the movie into quarters, the first and last were excellent, 

Yeah, this is close to my take. The opening 15 minutes were absolutely riveting, and the rest of the movie can't quite live up to it (though the final denouement comes close). While the bait and switch of having the nurse as the real protagonist was a nice idea, I definitely found the scenes of her on her own and/or away from the house the least compelling, so I don't know if it was worth it. 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by Hatebox

[lorddemaxus]

On 12/5/2019 at 4:46 AM, Arendelle Legion said:

Man, classic scooby doo was so great. The animation style and overly kiddish orientation of the 21st century stuff was a real turn off though.

Have you not seen Mystery Incorporated? That show is not kiddish.