Details from IMDB:
Wake Up Dead Man
Detective Benoit Blanc teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history.
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Initial Thoughts:
Daniel Craig is a great actor; he is my favourite Bond, and I have immensely enjoyed his performances as Detective Benoit Blanc. So while I didn’t see this in the theatre (and I certainly didn’t have much incentive as it came out on Netflix shortly afterwards), I always intended to watch it, and this morning I did.
Main Points:
I have never been a big fan of mysteries/whodunit films (or at least I’m less of a fan now), but I do enjoy a movie with twists and turns that can surprise me; this film certainly did. Daniel Craig is excellent. I missed him for the beginning of the film, and I really hope we get another “Knives Out” movie. This one is almost like a stage play; it’s confined to a small number of characters and takes place almost entirely in a small town, which is something not many movies do, and I quite enjoyed it. As always, there is an excellent mystery with layers, twists and the surprise of who did it towards the end. Everyone is fantastic here, especially Glenn Close, whom I haven’t seen in anything for a while, and Josh Brolin is also always great and does a great job here as a firebrand priest and a nasty guy.
I would agree that this is not quite as good as the first one, but it’s an improvement over the 2nd and a worthy entry in the series. I won’t spoil anything, I’ll say, as always with a murder mystery, look carefully at a lot of the little details (and the big ones), and maybe you’ll find some hints/pick up on things I didn’t. I loved how there are some cool dream sequences, and it can be hard to separate the real from the fiction. I always quite liked how honest this movie is about the Catholic Church and its many flaws. Benoit Blanc remaining a heretic is a great touch, and his observations on the church are spot on. There are references to online influencers/scummy people who would make money by spreading hate and lies, which I thought were also a great touch, and perhaps even some references to the kind of people in the White House today. I also quite enjoyed the humour here; hearing Benoit Blanc talk about Scobby-Do was a nice touch.
Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this movie, and while it’s maybe a smidge long (almost 2.5 hours), the time did go by pretty quickly. If Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig do another “Knives Out,” I’m totally in and will do my best to see it in theatres. Until then, I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a good murder mystery with a sprinkling of humour. I give it a solid eight out of 10. Please don’t let your kids see this, as there is blood, violence, lots of coarse language and some sexual situations. Otherwise, if you saw the first two “Knives Out”, you need to see this one.