Knives Out - DVD BLURAY Digital

Well the mystery is already solved in the beginning but then there is another mystery and a twist. And vomiting! This is a modern mystery with comedy and it's a bit of a thriller. I was on the edge my seat hoping the main character didn't get caught for her role in the "murder." The rich family are duplicitous and manipulative scum bags but you don't hate them. You do dislike their behavior. At first I thought the beginning was an unreliable narrative when the family turns on the protagonist/murderer after the will reading. Did she get her claws into the old man or was she a very good caretaker he cherished? It's obvious as the story continues she's too honest and too kind to do something so heinous. ( Or is she? ) She even has a tell that wouldn't be acceptable during Texas hold 'em. It’s rare lately to watch fully fleshed out characters go toe to toe. I like the lead actress’s performance. She isn’t a trope of a weird pixie woman-child she’s just a good person dealing with a crazy situation. I also live for her character’s huge role and the “short” relationship with her very theatrical employer is endearing. Some people are complaining about "woke" politics... those people don't know what that means. This is a story of the have and have nots and the entitlement of trust fund babies. This is also the story of a neglectful famous father who likes to control everybody and everything even from beyond the grave. This story with an nearly all white cast is about class and lack thereof. Just because the protagonist is an immigrant or child of one doesn't make this movie overtly political. The film reflects our times in a very limited scope. The protagonist is a white immigrant as are many caretakers for the rich, insured elderly, or disabled with rich family. (Yes you can be Hispanic and white.) Rich people always look down on servants and the family in this flick doesn't let you down with their classist passive aggressive behavior. This is an excellent and well paced film with memorable characters and two great twists...I mean three great twists. Read more

Knives out is a murder mystery which is what you would get if you cross an Agatha Christie novel with the game Clue, and a little bit of Sherlock Holmes mixed in. The main plot is that the patriarch of a wealthy New England family, named Harlan Thormby (played by Christopher Plummer), who is a famous mystery writer, dies on the night of his birthday party, in what all appearances, looks to be an open and shut suicide. The local police as well as a renowned private investigator named Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig), who is hired under mysterious circumstances, are investigating the death looking into everyone who was in contact with Harlan, including his eccentric (to put it mildly) family. The movie was written and directed by Rian Johnson, in his first post-Star Wars movie. It has an ensemble cast of very well known actors and actresses including Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Ana De Armas, and lesser know younger actors Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell, all of whom seem to have a reason to have killed Harlan. It is a unique "whodunit" in that the audience knows most of what happened throughout the majority of the movie, but there are twists that happen that make it clear not all is what it seems, all building up to a classic third act reveal. While the entire cast does a great job, Craig and De Armas really shine in their roles, and definitely deserved their Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress. For those who get the 4k disc, the movie looks and sounds great in the UHD format. It does not have much if any, special effects, but there are a ton of wonderful New England scenery that looks great in 4k. The UHD disc also have all the extras included, of which, there are a ton. There is a making-of feature (broken up into 8 chapters that you can watch all at once, or one by one), which is nearly as long as the movie itself. Then there is a 42 minute Q&A with most of the cast members and Johnson, then several of the trailers and fictional ads for various elements of the Thromby empire. Overall, it is a wonderful movie that is well-written and acted. It is really not something that you can easily just have on in the background and give your partial attention to and still follow what is going on. But, if you are looking for a way to kill a couple of hours with a great, fairly unique story, this is definitely worth checking out. Read more