It’s been a while since I sat down to watch a movie; to be honest, nothing has really caught my eye lately. But I ended up picking Wake Up Dead Man, the latest in the Knives Out series, since I’d seen the previous ones and had it on my watchlist. After the success of the first and second and the flop of the third, I didn’t have high expectations for this one.
¿Logra Wake Up Dead Man redimir la saga Knives Out? | Mi reseña
Tenía tiempo sin sentarme a ver una película, la verdad nada me ha llamado la atención últimamente, pero termine escogiendo Wake Up Dead Man, la última de la serie Knive Out, tras haber visto las anteriores y tenerla en mi lista de pendientes. Tras el exito de la primera y segunda, el fracaso de la tercera, no tenía grandes expectativas en esta.
Everything revolves around an aspiring young priest who used to be a boxer. After killing a man in the ring, he seeks redemption in the priesthood. Following a fight with another clergyman, he is sent as punishment to a parish that seems to be losing its congregation, run by Father Wicks (Josh Brolin)—a controversial man whose questionable methods stray far from traditional church practices.
Todo gira en torno a un joven aspirante a sacerdotes, que en un pasado fue boxeador y tras haber matado a un hombre en el ring, busca la Redención en la vida con sotana. Tras una pelea con otro clérigo, en enviado como castigo a una parroquia que parece estar quedándose sin feligreses, dirigida por el cura Wicks (Josh Brolin) un hombre polémico, cuyos métodos son cuestionables y se alejan de las prácticas tradicionales de la iglesia.
Even though Father Wicks is unconventional, he has a handful of parishioners who are loyal and never miss a service. The young Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) remains a bystander to all his antics until one day, Wicks is murdered during a break in his sermon. It's all very confusing; there’s no explanation for how someone could have stabbed him in a closed room with no windows. Nevertheless, all the blame falls on Father Jud.
Aunque el padre Wicks es poco tradicional, cuenta con un puñado de feligreses que el son fieles y no se pierden ninguno de sus servicios. El joven padre Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) permanece espectante ante todas sus locuras hasta que un día Wicks es asesinado en medio de una pausa cuando daba un sermón. Todo es muy confuso y no se explica como en un cuarto cerrado y sin ventanas alguien pudo apuñalarlo, sin embargo, toda la culpa cae el el padre Jud.
This is where the super-detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) enters the scene to help solve such a difficult crime and, if possible, exonerate Father Jud. However, he soon discovers it seems impossible, and as the investigation progresses, everything gets complicated. The movie has a great cast, and some of the performances stand out, but despite this, I felt like the premise wasn't exploited as well as it should have been.
Es acá donde entra en escena el súper detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), para ayudar a resolver tan difícil crimen y si es posible absolver al padre Jud, pero no tarda en descubrir que parece imposible y a medida que avanza en su investigación todo se complica. La película cuenta con un gran elenco, algunas de las actuaciones destacan, pero a pesar de esto, me pareció que la premisa no se explotó como debía.
Without giving away any spoilers, I’ll just say they wanted everything to revolve around controversy under the guise of an impossible crime. They included so many characters that it left little time to give them depth, leaving some of them feeling unfinished. The theme of an insufferable leader who loses his way wasn’t bad, but I think they could have made the character much more polarizing—to the point where you feel like he deserves what he gets. Instead, you end up feeling "meh," not really caring about what happened.
Para no dar spoilers, me basta con decir que quisieron que todo girara en torno a la polémica, en medio de la escusa de un crimen imposible. Incluyeron tantos personajes que eso les dejo poco tiempo para darle profundidad a algunos dejandolos en el aire. El tema de un líder insoportable que pierde el camino no estuvo mal, pero creo que pudieron hacer mucho más polémica al personaje, al punto que te sientas que merece lo que recibo, pero realmente terminas como meh, no me importa lo que pasó.
What I mean is they could have played more with the viewer's emotions. Usually, in crime stories, you take a side; you either sympathize with the victim or loathe them, and you believe the accused is either innocent or guilty. But here, it doesn’t feel that way. It’s all very open, and it's hard to focus on a character that wins your sympathy. That said, the development of the investigation isn't bad. Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc keeps that Sherlock Holmes vibe and keeps the plot interesting.
Me refiero a que pudieron jugar más con las emociones del espectador, normalmente en historias de crimenes tomas partido, simpatizas con la víctima o la aborreces, crees que el acusado es inocente o culpable, pero acá eso no se siente así, es todo como muy abierto y cuesta centrarse en un personaje que gane la simpatía. Lo cierto es que el desarrollo de la investigación no es mala, el personaje de Benoit Blanc de Daniel Craig no pierde ese aire de Sherlock Holmes y pone interesante la trama.
In the end, as with the rest of the saga, there is a resolution with several twists, but not many surprises. I think this movie redeems the franchise after the failure of the third one, but it didn't manage to be as spectacular and entertaining as the first.
Al final como en toda la saga hay una solución, con varios giros de tuerca pero no con muchas sorpresas. Creo que está película reenvindica la saga tras el fracaso de la tercera, pero no logro ser tan espectacular y entretenida como la primera.
Images courtesy of Netflix
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This one I had for some time in my bucket list and yesterday on my way home decided to spin it up, Wake Up Dead Man A Knives Out Mystery came out on Netflix in mid December after been in theaters for like two seconds; Netflix stuff, I gotta say Netflix really screwed the pooch on this release strategy, they gave Glass Onion way more theater time a few years back and people showed up but now they throwing this one in way fewer places witch makes zero damn sense when everyone clearly wants these movies on big screens. The whole vibe of this franchise works so much better with a crowd specially all the comedy bits and Rian Johnson physical humor stuff that lands way harder when your sitting with other people who are laughing too, I get Netflix wants eyeballs on there platform but come on man let people experience this properly first. Daniel Craig is back doing his Benoit Blanc thing and I cannot get enough of how weird this dude is with that thick southern accent that should absolutely not work at all but somehow Craig just owns it and makes you believe it, this time he is investigating a murder at this church up in upstate New York where the leader Monsignor Jefferson Wicks gets killed in what looks like an impossible locked room situation. The cast is absolutely stacked too you got Glenn Close doing her thing, Jeremy Renner shows up, Andrew Scott brings his energy, Kerry Washington plays a lawyer and there is a bunch of other solid actors filling out the ensemble, Josh OConnor really stood out to me tho because he plays this young priest Father Jud who becomes the main suspect and goes thru this whole crisis about his faith and you can actually feel how exhausted and worn down he gets as the movie keeps going, it feels heavy and real without been all preachy about religion witch I appreciated a lot.
Rottentomatoes Rating
[Source](https://www.netflix.com/title/81458424/)
The murder mystery itself kept me guessing the whole way thru because I was able to figure out like maybe one or two pieces of it but when the final solution came together it still surprised me and I was not expecting it to be so drastically, everything clicks into place in a way that makes you wanna immediately rewatch and catch all the little clues you definitely missed on the first viewing, thats how I felt but I didnt have time for a full rewatch so just look online to understand what I probably miss. I think this one is actually better than Glass Onion which felt way too silly at times almost like it was tryin too hard to be funny, this one has real weight behind it while still keeping all the humor and fun detective work that makes these Knives Out movies so enjoyable to sit thru for two plus hours. The whole religion angle adds this extra layer that Glass Onion just did not have, your watching Blanc do his detective thing but there is also all this stuff about faith and forgiveness and what it means to believe in something when the people around you are complete hypocrites, its heavier material than what we got before but Johnson handles it pretty well even if it gets a little heavy handed at times. Josh Brolin absolutely chews up every scene he is in as Monsignor Wicks this charismatic but domineering church leader who used to be kinda famous and still got that control over everyone just below the surface, Glenn Close plays this church lady Martha who knows everyone secrets and filed away every dirty detail for like decades, Jeremy Renner is a drunk doctor trying to win back his wife and failing miserably at it. All these characters got there own motivations for maybe killing this priest and the movie does a good job keeping you confused about who actually did it until the very end, altho I will say some of the twists are so convoluted that it almost becomes too much like Johnson just kept adding more layers when maybe he should have stopped.
[Source](https://www.netflix.com/title/81458424/)
[Source](https://www.netflix.com/title/81458424/)
The first thirty minutes or so dragged a bit for me because Blanc does not even show up until way later in the movie and your just following Josh OConnors priest character who is fine but becomes way more interesting once he turns into the main suspect, once Craig finally arrives tho the whole thing picks up and becomes way more fun to watch. His Blanc is just such a breath of fresh air with his weird mannerisms and that absurd accent and the way he pieces together clues that nobody else is seeing, Craig clearly loves playing this role and it shows in every single scene he is in, you can tell he is having a blast being this eccentric genius detective. The religious symbolism is all over this movie sometimes in ways that work really well and sometimes in ways that feel kinda forced, there is this whole thing about a missing fortune that the founder of the church hid somewhere and everyones trying to find it, they call it Eves Apple and its actually this eighty million dollar diamond that Wicks grandfather Prentice swallowed before he died to hide it from his daughter Grace, which is insane when you think about it. It ties into the themes about temptation and greed and all that biblical stuff and works better than it probably should because Johnson commits to it fully instead of just throwing in some surface level religious imagery and calling it a day, he actually engages with questions about why people believe what they believe and whether faith can survive when the people representing it are total pieces of shit, it does get a little on the nose at times like there is this moment where the camera goes from dark to light as someone explains why the church exists and your like okay I get it although its not subtle but I guess murder mysteries are not really supposed to be subtle anyway.
[Source](https://www.netflix.com/title/81458424/)
[Source](https://www.netflix.com/title/81458424/)
The actual murder and how it gets solved involves so many twists and turns that by the end I was almost losing track of what was real and what was fake, there is locked room mystery elements where they gotta figure out how someone got stabbed in a closet that nobody could get into, there is secret recordings and hidden motives and people lying about where they were and what they saw. Some of it stretches how much you could believe on their version by far like there is a point where your supposed to accept that someone staged this elaborate thing with demon heads and remote controls and I was just like alright sure why not at this point, but even when its getting ridiculous its still entertaining to watch unfold. The big speech at the end where Blanc explains everything is classic murder mystery stuff and Johnson plays with your expectations by having Blanc say he does not know what happened only to reveal later that he knew the whole time and was just waiting for the killer to confess, its a nice touch that ties into the forgiveness theme during the whole movie. Glenn Close character Martha ends up being the one who masterminded it all along with help from Jeremy Renners doctor Nat Sharp who actually did the killing and when she confesses she poisons herself at the same time so she dies after finally confessing her sins, its played as this redemptive moment but I dunno if it fully lands because we have not spent enough time with her character to really care that much. The diamond fortune ends up hidden inside the crypt at the end which is such an obvious place when you think about it, there is also this whole thing with the groundskeeper Samson who gets killed too and it just keeps getting more complicated as it goes.
One thing I really liked about this movie compared to Glass Onion is that it feels like Johnson was taking bigger swings here trying to say something more substantial instead of just making a fun mystery, whether he fully succeeds is debatable but I respect the ambition. The movie is like two hours long and twenty some minutes but it honestly flew by for me even during the slower parts at the beginning, once it gets going it keeps moving and throwing new information at you constantly so your never really bored. The humor works way better here too its not as goofy as Glass Onion, its more about awkward situations and people being terrible to each other in funny ways, like when different characters keep appearing out of nowhere to scare people or all the weird confessions that happen throughout. Not every joke lands but enough of them do that I was laughing consistently as I watch the movie. I think this is probably my favorite of the three Knives Out movies now even tho the first one is also really solid, it just feels like Johnson figured out how to balance all the elements better here, the mystery is complex without being annoying, the themes are there without becoming a lecture, the characters are interesting even if some of them are underdeveloped. I would give this like a solid solid 8 out of 10, its not perfect and some of the twists are too complicated for part of the audience and this is not me calling anyone out its just that you will miss some if you were not paying enough attention but its a damn entertaining movie that actually tries to be about something more than just a simple murder mystery, if your into these kinds of mysteries or if you liked the previous Knives Out movies you should definitely check this one out on Netflix.
I absolutely loved the first two movies in the Knives Out series. Not only did Knives Out bring my family and I a ton of joy, it rekindled the fun mystery genre. If it weren't for Knives out, I doubt we would have things like Only Murders in the Building or After Party.
