Currently browsing the "Rian Johnson" tag.

Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

I may be one of the few people who was not blown away by the original Knives Out. Which is not to say I didn’t like it. I just wasn’t all gaga about it. So imagine my delight when I watched this follow-up and enjoyed the hell out of it! Daniel Craig is back as the one-step-ahead-of-everyone, Deep South detective Benoit Blanc. He’s been invited to an exclusive murder mystery weekend on a Greek island that belongs to uber-wealthy biotech CEO Miles Bron (Edward Norton). All the rest of the guests have a history with Miles: his former business partner Andi (Janelle Monáe), his head scientist Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), Governor Claire (Kathryn Hahn), men’s-rights influencer Duke (Dave Bautista) with his girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline), and former model Birdie (Kate Hudson) with her assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick). What seems like a fun COVID-free escape will be anything but!

Review: Knives Out

I caught this one at Middleburg, and sadly it was my biggest disappointment of the festival. As whodunits go, the jig is up pretty early on. But it has so much going for it, with a killer cast — Christopher Plummer, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette and Ana de Armas — and a fun setup, that I kept hoping.  It is of course difficult to review since it depends on the element of surprise, and director Rian Johnson (Star Wars:The Last Jedi) even filmed a “don’t tell anyone the secret” spot to go before the movie. So here’s what I can tell you:

Spoiler-free review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Don’t worry Star Wars junkies. You’ll love The Last Jedi. Problem is, I’m not a Star Wars junkie – I’m just a casual fan – so (gasp!), I wasn’t as blown away by “Episode VIII” as the somewhat Comic-Con-obsessed crowd that I saw it with. Not that I didn’t enjoy most of my two-and-a-half hour visit to a galaxy far, far away. I just happened to like 2015’s nostalgia-fueled The Force Awakens a bit more. The Last Jedi picks up right where that one left off. The franchise’s young new heroine Rey (Daisy Ridley) finds herself on a distant planet, face to face with the elusive Jedi master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). She’s there to return his light saber, get some Jedi training, and convince him to rejoin the Resistance led by his sister, Princess/General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher). You know the rest. I’m just kidding. You don’t, unless you’ve seen the film or read the spoilers. I’m not enough of an expert to know what constitutes a spoiler, so I’ll just err on the side of caution and keep it brief.