A great murder-mystery with fun characters and twists that keep you entertained.

Rating: 8/10 (1 April 2020)

To put it simple, if you like murder mysteries, you'll like this movie. It's fun, it's clever, and it's got some good twists in it, unlike The Last Jedi (2017). Rian Johnson, who also directed Brick (2005), a film I liked, has proven himself to be a good writer/director, who just happens to not like, care about, or understand Star Wars. But that's OK, because this movie makes up for it.
At first I wasn't sure about Daniel Craig being cast as a classy dramatized private eye with a southern accent, but he did just fine - though I still think I would've liked the character better with a different actor, simply because I just can't see
Daniel Craig as anyone but a cold, emotionless British guy (a role he plays so well). Everyone else does a great job however. My only complaint would be that some of these characters were underutilized.
I went into this movie expecting a kind of canned dinner party mystery set in an old mansion during a rain storm, à la Clue (1985), a personal favourite of mine. This did not turn out to be the case. But still, I was surprised at the film and enjoyed every minute, finding myself somewhat disappointed that it was ending so soon.
So why only an 8? Probably because I think the film is somewhat lacking in style. There are some elements that push the movie into a comedic dramatized universe (which I liked). Examples include the silly accent done by Daniel Craig, or the strong and ridiculous personalities of some of the family members. These things are one of the reasons I really loved this movie. But it doesn't feel like it goes far enough. There isn't enough screen time for most of these characters to make this film as fun as it could have been. If the screen time of these characters must be so limited, then perhaps even stronger personalities would have filled in these gaps (if that makes any sense). Either way, the movie simply felt too tame, and too realistic. It needed to go all the way.
I had the same problem with Brick interestingly enough. That movie takes place in a high school but the students are so unrealistic it's as if they'd been pulled straight from a clichéd 1940's noir film. I always thought that in order to top off the farce that Johnson was clearly going for, why not simply cast adult actors as the kids, and never address how ridiculous it in the movie. I would have loved to have seen someone like Jon Hamm play a 16 year old kid, and play him just as Joseph Gordon Levitt did in that movie.
Regardless, Knives Out was well written, not very predictable in my opinion, but still allows the viewer to solve the mystery themselves if they pay close enough attention. It was well made and well acted. Perhaps it deserves more than an 8, but that's what I'm giving it for now.