Netflix paid Rian Johnson and his team $465 million to make Glass Onion and a third Knives Out mystery (already in production) so someone thinks this entertaining mystery series will make a lot of money. I have my doubts.
Daniel Craig returns as the great detective, Benoit Blanc, with the unconvincing Southern Accent and finds himself involved in a murder mystery on a Greek Isle owned by billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton. Bron invites his old pals to join him for a “fun” weekend featuring a murder: his. I thought Janelle Monae was great! Kate Hudson was cute, Dave Bautista his usual intimidating self, Kathryn Hahn nails the role as a politician, and Leslie Odom, Jr. plays a convincing tech genius.
Yes, I figured out “whodunit” but did not anticipate the final wacky plot twist. If you’re looking for a clever mastery filled with surprising cameos, check out Glass Onion. GRADE: B+
I liked Knives Out (I think it was the last movie our family saw in the theater before the Covid shut down), and I’ve been looking forward to Glass Onion. I like those big ensemble casts (they remind me of the star-studded Agatha Christie adaptations from the 1970s—and I’m sure that’s intentional); however, I’ve read mixed reviews of the movie, so I feel no urgency to watch it immediately. Maybe I’ll watch it during Christmas break.
Deb, I think you’ll enjoy GLASS ONION and your family would, too. Like you, I enjoyed those Agatha Christie adaptions with their star-studded casts. I really liked GLASS UNION until final plot twist.
I quite enjoyed KNIVES OUT and have been looking forward to this, but I thought it wouldn’t be available until late December. Also looking forward to Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of one of my favorite novels, Don Deillo’s WHITE NOISE coming to Netflix this month.
Michael, it will not surprise you to learn I’m re-reading Don DeLillo’s WHITE NOISE right now in preparation for Noah Baumbach’s adaptation.
I liked it better than the first one but I can’t say why really. I think it was because I was sitting with my family in a nice theater with a lot of happy viewers.
Patti, our AMC Theater off Time Square was busy the night we saw GLASS ONION. We had to take FIVE escalators up to the level where GLASS ONION was showing!
I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve seen condemning Netflix for limiting this film’s theatrical release to a single week. Some news/entertainment websites have actually run multiple stories about this. Netflix could have easily not only recouped the cost of the film but made a nice profit while generating a huge amount of word of mouth in advance of the streaming release-not to mention throwing movie theaters a lifeline and making a lot of moviegoers ecstatically happy.
The streamers are all desperately struggling with the cold hard reality that subscriptions will never cover the costs of new content and that there is still good money to be made in cinema’s (witness Amazon’s recent announcement that they are committing a cool billion to producing theatrical films this year). Someday soon Netflix’s hubris will catch up with them and it’s going to be brutal.
At least you and a chunk of other people got to enjoy the movie. I’ll probably pass on this since the cast does nothing for me but I’m very intrigued by Johnson’s upcoming mystery series, “Poker Face,” starring Natasha Lyonne.
Byron, I totally agree with your analysis of Netflix’s “strategy” with GLASS ONION. Why limit theater showings to one week? Then re-open GLASS ONION around Christmas while running it also on Netflix. Wacky! I know this is probably some kind of Business Model algorithm…but it sucks!
I enjoyed the first one, and want to see this. Didn’t realize it will only have a 1 week run in theaters. Could they possibly extend it after seeing how much money it made for a short run?
Maggie, supposedly, Netflix is releasing GLASS ONION on its streaming service and allowing it to be shown in theaters on December 23. Of course, money changes everything so those plans might change. I’m sure you’ll enjoy GLASS ONION!
We just rewatched KNIVES OUT, and will see this when it streams. You talk about Daniel Craig’s “unconvincing Southern accent,” but it’s certainly fun to listen to.
Jeff, it is sure fun to listen to Daniel Craig in both KNIVES OUT and GLASS ONION. But his “Southern Accent” is a silly affectation!