I seriously don’t understand not signing up for the further adventures of Benoit Blanc. You people are weird.
There must be a plan for the two movies, because Netflix liked something enough to throw a half-billion dollars at it.
Between this and Logan Lucky, I’m all aboard for any further comedic Daniel Craig performances.
I would also watch another Benoit Blanc Investigates.
Comedy option: Maybe the next ones aren’t more whodunits with Daniel Craig, instead they stay with family from the first movie. Just a bunch of entitled assholes being shitty for two hours, like Arrested Development with fewer jokes.
Yeah, put me on the Benoit Blanc Bandwagon! I understand the accent was outrrrrrageous, but otherwise I don’t get the hostility to Daniel Craig’s character. I don’t know that he carries a series all by himself, exactly, but give him a different set of fun local police to play off of and another incredible ensemble cast of suspects, and I can totally see it working wonderfully! Excited for more!
I didn’t even realize there was hostility towards him. Did people not like him?
I didn’t. But I know I’m one of the few. I found the portrayal all over the place. Sometimes he seemed like he was supposed to be super witty and smart. Other times he came across as mentally deficient. I don’t recall many specifics because I haven’t seen this since my first viewing. I’m down for another try though. I liked what it was trying to do even if I thought it mostly failed.
I thought Benoit Blanc was fine, but what I really wanted was more of the Arrested-Development-esque dysfunction of a family with wildly disparate modern perspectives cooped up together in a tiny place.
Has Marvel permanently broken how people approach pop-culture? How about episodic television? Does anyone even remember when that was a thing?
How do you make a sequel to Knives Out? You construct a mystery, and then you drop Benoit Blanc into it. You don’t have to bring Ana De Armas back, you construct another character that’s as engaging.
I trust Rian Johnson enough to make this work, and my only demand is that Trooper Wagner coincidentally vacations in the spot Blanc conducts his latest investigation in.
But why is that something I would want? I don’t give a shit about Benoit Blanc. The things I liked about Knives Out are mostly things that can’t readily be sequelised, as discussed upthread.
It seemed like an Agatha Christie homage/ripoff, with Rian Johnson subverting expectations.
Set up another whodunnit with fun characters. Subvert expectations.
Part of the fun of this movie was he got amazing actors, and they were willing to play against type and have fun acting, instead of jumping up and down in front of a green screen.
Because it implies a similar approach to storytelling?
“If I liked Knives out, why would I want another movie that took a similar approach to storytelling?” - “I liked the last Hercule Poirot mystery, but whyeverwould I want to watch/read another one?”
I fucking swear, It’s like self-contained episodes have been annihilated from our collective memory.
There isn’t a lot going on with Craig’s character, and that’s what make this a good starting point for sequels. We need another 8 part series with origin stories and cliff-hangers and spin-offs like I need a hole in my head, but a bunch of mid-budget self contained mysteries, connected only by the detective that happens to be around when the corpse is discovered? I’ll watch those until they stop being good.
I think the analogue would be more like: “I liked The Sixth Sense. I wish they’d make a sequel where Bruce Willis plays the same character”. It’s a nonsensical idea, since nobody actually cared about the Willis character, they just cared about the plot twist. (And indeed, The Sixth Sense never had a proper sequel despite being one of the most profitable movies of the decade.)
The Poirot stories were formulaic, and thus easy to repeat. The readers wanted a straight up locked room mystery, and 90% of the time that’s what they got. (And thanks to that, Christie could every now and then subvert the expectations with a Murder on the Orient Express or Murder of Roger Acroyd, and the reader would actually be surprised).
Knives Out was built around a trick, and unlike with Columbo, it does not seem like a repeatable trick.
This guy gets it!
I took away that he was intentionally hiding his light under a bushel at several points, as he immediately knew that the family members were not necessarily the straightest of shooters.
e: Nobody gives a shit about Sixth Sense Bruce Willis because like most Willis roles post-Die Hard he mostly sort of stumbles about looking like he vaguely needs to poop. Craig is a hilariously better actor.
That analogy falls down in that the impact of The Sixth Sense is actually contingent on who Bruce Willis is. There’s no big twist in Knives Out that hangs on Benoit Blanc being dead all along. (Apologies to everyone who hasn’t seen The Sixth Sense.
I eventually assumed that too. Just don’t think they did a good job of getting that across. Ymmv
It’s more like self-contained whodunnit episodes have been done to death. Knives Out was interesting, and Clue before it, because they weren’t just that. But they were also one-offs.
I agree that there isn’t anything inherent to the idea of Knives Out sequels that is compelling. But the idea of Rian Johnson doing more mystery movies and having Daniel Craig along for the ride? I’m there. And I trust him to be able to do more that aren’t just staid traditional mystery stories or retreads. I mean, Knives Out isn’t Brick.
So make another one that isn’t “just that”, use the existing character as a hook to lead into a new story.
It’s not like we need a sequel to Knives Out, or to any other movie. But if we’re getting them anyway, it’s better with a movie that doesn’t burden it’s sequels with narrative cruft.