Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

2022 Netflix

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr 19min

Comedy ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller ~ Whodunnit

Starring: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.

Bad people. Beautiful places. Brilliant detective.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery transports the action to a luxurious private island owned by tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), where a group of his handpicked “disruptors” gathers for a murder-mystery game that turns deadly real. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back, invited under mysterious circumstances, poking at the egos and secrets of this elite crew amid opulent parties and elaborate puzzles. As Blanc unravels the threads, it becomes clear that Bron’s inner circle, each with axes to grind and alibis to fake, is hiding more than just bad ideas behind their success stories.

At the story’s core is Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), Bron’s ditzy fashionista girlfriend with a heart of fool’s gold, alongside the sharp-tongued scientist Cassandra Brand (Janelle Monáe), loyal assistant Peggy (Jessica Henwick), and others like the YouTuber Duke (Dave Bautista) and his suspicious girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). These characters orbit Bron like planets around a black hole of charisma, their loyalty tested when a key death upends the weekend getaway. Blanc’s quiet observations cut through the flash, turning the group’s self-congratulatory vibes into a powder keg of resentment and deception.

As the investigation heats up, Blanc navigates booby-trapped sets, hidden motives, and a script-flipping pace that keeps everyone guessing, all while the island’s isolation amps the stakes. Bron’s right-hand man Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.) and the enigmatic Helen step into pivotal roles, forcing everyone to confront how far they’d go to protect their slice of the empire. The mystery builds through wild reveals and chases, with Blanc piecing together a puzzle that’s as much about ego as evidence.

Daniel Craig doubles down on Blanc’s charm, blending that drawling Southern wit with sharper impatience for nonsense this time around, gone is some of the goofiness, replaced by a steely focus that makes him feel even more like the genre’s new king. His physical ticks, like the fidgety hands and piercing stares, evolve into a more commanding presence, shedding any lingering Bond shadow while owning the detective’s theatrical flair amid absurdly rich suspects.

Janelle Monáe commands as Cassandra/Helen, channeling raw grief and intellect into a role that flips from overlooked genius to force of nature, her every glance loaded with unspoken fury. She nails the duality, vulnerable yet unbreakable, making her the emotional anchor in a sea of caricatures, with chemistry opposite Blanc that sparks like flint on steel.

Glass Onion amps the satire, swapping family dysfunction for tech-bro hubris and influencer excess, using the whodunnit to skewer “move fast and break things” culture, fake innovation, and loyalty bought with NDAs. Rian Johnson twists the formula harder, early reveals shift suspicion to deeper lies, blending Clue’s playfulness with Ocean’s Eleven polish for a mystery that’s gleefully meta yet brutally on-point about power and privilege today.

Glass Onion is highly recommended for fans of clever twists, ensemble chaos, and Blanc’s brainpower, sharper and splashier than the original with 92% on Rotten Tomatoes!

Turn off the lights and devices,

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and

Stream This Movie!

Knock At The Cabin

2023 Universal Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 40min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Thriller

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint.

“Save your family or save Humanity. You have to make a choice.”

Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) are vacationing with their seven year old daughter Wen at a remote rental cabin in rural Pennsylvania. Wen is out front playing by herself and catching grasshoppers when a large man appears walking closer. He tries to make friends with her and tells her his name is Leonard (Dave Bautista). Leonard tells Wen that he and his friends have come to be friends with Wen and her two Dads. And that her Dads must let them in and listen to what they have to say. Seeing Leonard’s three friends approaching little Wen gets frightened and runs into the cabin to warn her Dads.

The Dads come into the cabin from the back where they were chilling. Listening to Wen being very upset alarms them and they button down the cabin. They see the strangers outside as they approach the door and Leonard knocks. He calls out Eric and Andrew by name and tells them they need to let them in. Eric and Andrew refuse and are alarmed by Leonard’s tone and why complete strangers have shown up wanting in. Leonard and his companions do not wait to be let in very long before they take action. By any means necessary they force their way into the cabin and tell Eric and Andrew that they were led to their cabin by visions. And they must listen to what they have to say and make a choice.

He tells Eric and Andrew that Humanity’s future hangs in the balance and that they must make a decision to help or turn their back. The choice is theirs to make but that there will be consequences either way, good or bad. The four strangers all have medieval weapons and it is all very ominous and horrifying as the movie plays out. In the very beginning of the movie, in the intro, there are drawings that the four strangers later refer to in the movie. I didn’t pay much attention to them in the beginning, but after realizing they were a part of the story, I went back and watched it again. So pay attention to those drawings in the beginning, they will make more sense later on in the movie.

It is more psychological horror than slasher horror, and it is definitely thought provoking. And it does keep you on your toes wondering what the heck is really going on. Are the four strangers nuts or is this for real? It is definitely a nightmare scenario for Eric, Andrew and Wen who thought they were going to have a peaceful little vacation in the wilderness. I really liked Dave Bautista in this. There was something very comforting yet terrifying about his presence and demeanor. Kristin Cui did a good job as little Wen, a good little actress she is.

The movie is based on the book The Cabin At The End Of The World by Paul Tremblay (The Book Link is an Amazon Affiliate link where we earn a small commission that does not affect your price) It is not for everyone, it is a psychological horror thriller that will make you squirm as choices and actions are made. But I liked it, it was something different and M. Night always leads us down unexpected paths, like this one.

Watch at your own discretion,

if you like the Psychologic Horror genre than you should watch it.

If you’re not a fan of the genre you are not going to like it.

Army Of The Dead

2021 Netflix

Rated: R

Length: 2 hr 28min

Action ~ Crime ~ Horror ~ Thriller

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Starring: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, and Garret Dillahunt.

“There’s two hundred million dollars sitting in a vault in the basement of my Casino in the quarantine zone of Las Vegas. Assemble a team and extract it and 50 million of it is yours. What do you say?”

A zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, Nevada has prompted the US Military to surround the City with three layers of shipping containers, effectively containing (Pun Intended) the Zombie outbreak from temporarily spreading. Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) owns a casino on The Strip inside the containment (Again…Pun intended) zone and is asking Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) to assemble a team of mercenaries to extract the money in exchange for 50 million of it. They just have to kill their way through all the zombies in the quarantine zone, make their way to the casino, crack the Götterdämmerung safe, extract the money, revive and repair the dilapidated helicopter on the roof of the casino, and fly away to safety before the military nukes the quarantine zone in 96 hours. Let’s get cracking(Pun Intended).

Scott agrees and assembles a team to execute the mission. The last man they recruit for the team is none other than our good friend Sebastian (Matthias Schweighöfer) from ARMY OF THIEVES. The scene where Scott finds him in the locksmith shop is the very last scene in ARMY OF THIEVES. And Sebastian is ecstatic about getting a chance to crack the Götterdämmerung safe, after having cracked the Rheingold, The Valkyrie and The Siegfried safes in the other movie. So Scott and his team gather and enter the Zombie zone of Los Angeles to extract two million dollars in what looks like a horrific suicide mission. Scott must also contend with his daughter who has forced herself onto the mission against his wishes.

It is everything you would expect from a zombie movie based in Las Vegas. There are lots of Zombies…..Elvis impersonators, waitresses, circus performers, dancers, police officers….even Siegfried and Roy’s Tiger has become a zombie tiger. Anyone and anything in the quarantine zone is now a zombie. There is lots of blood and gore as they eat the flesh of the living and even more as the team slaughters there way through the Las Vegas Strip. It is very realistically shot, you feel like you are in Las Vegas with them as they fight off the horde. There is intrigue, horror, double crossing and the very real fear of getting eaten alive and escaping before a nuclear bomb incinerates the crew.

Matthias reprising his role as Sebastian is just as good and hilarious as in ARMY OF THIEVES. Dave Buatista is good as Scott Ward and the rest of the crew did a good job. I liked Omari Hardwick’s role and the scene in the end with him I thought was really good. Theo Rossi is really despicable as the sexist Burt Cummings. This was the sequel to Army of Thieves even though this movie came out six months before it. It was supposed to be the beginning of a franchise, possibly a trilogy or more, but at the time of this writing Netflix has apparently pulled the plug on any more movies to follow, reportedly due to the disappointing performance of Zack Snyder’s REBEL MOON movies. ARMY OF THE DEAD was a successor to Zack Snyder’s 2004 film Dawn of the Dead, which was a remake of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (filmed in Pittsburgh and released in 1978).

I thought that ARMY of THIEVES was the better movie. This one was good but just not as good. A long one too, coming in at 2 and a half hours. If you like Zombie movies it’s a good one, well filmed and directed. And if you’re going to watch this one I suggest watching ARMY of THIEVES first, it will give you a better background for this movie. Unless you just want to watch a Zombie movie….but there are zombies in the first one, just not as many.

So that’s a, “Yeah, it was alright. But I wouldn’t watch it again.”, for me…..

No thumbs up, just a wave of the hand as in…So~So