Month: July 2020

Streaming Review: Knives Out

Knives Out is a throw-back as a big-screen murder mystery. This is the type of film made all the time during Hollywood’s Golden Age. In the sixties and seventies, these sort of films began to feature all-star casts such as Murder in the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and Evil Under the Sun.

Then, the big-screen detective faded in popularity and murder mysteries became almost exclusively the province of television. There have been exceptions over the years, but in general, the murder mystery has been replaced by more Thrillers at the box office or occasionally we’ll see Sherlock Holmes re-imagined as a steampunk action film.

What Knives Out offers is an original, modern day American murder mystery that feels a lot like Agatha Christie. Mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead in his mansion the night after his birthday party. He informed family members that he was going to be making some changes to the financial arrangements that his family members enjoy, including to his will. The physical evidence points to a suicide, however Louisiana-based Benoit Leblanc (Daniel Crag), “the last of the gentlemen sleuths” has been hired to investigate the case by an anonymous client. Due to his reputation, the local police take a second look at the case and find that all is not as it seems.

Daniel Craig is good at playing this eccentric detective. There’s a touch of Columbo that has most of the household not taking him as seriously as they should. He has many quirks to his method, plus great human touches. He calls to mind Hercule Poirot. The accent is only so-so, but to be fair some Poirot actors are a bit dodgy.

Ana de Armas has a lovable turn as Marta, the dead man’s nurse and his best friend who Benoit designates as his Watson, as he has a hint that she knows far more than she’s letting on.

We also have a supporting cast with Hollywood mainstays like Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon and lesser known competent character actors, and some younger actors who know what they’re doing.

The mystery itself is something right out of a classic mystery novel and while the plot is complicated, some might say convoluted, it’s played out and resolved with a wonderful sense of style.

While this has a lot of throwbacks, it’s still set in the modern day and also includes enough modern touches to make the story work. In a lot of old detective stories, the victim is a really horrible person to nearly everyone they met. Here, I think there’s more nuance. Harlan does things that makes his family angry and provides good murder motives, but he’s still a decent guy whose actions are taken out of an abundance of concern. He’s actually an interesting person who has complex relationships. The main characters are handled pretty well in that regards.

The family is also a nice mix of modern day characters. They reflect a lot of aspects of society, including the current political divides, but the movie resists the urge to paint some family members as better based on politics or cultural alignment. In fact, with most of the family, it just means that they are equally horrid but in different ways.

There are also some great camera techniques that are used to enhance our enjoyment of the story without overwhelming us with CGI effects. It’s a well-balanced mix of classic and modern storytelling.

If I have one issue with the story, it’s that Marta has an unusual tell that means she throws up when she lies. I’m not a fan of gross out humor, and it was used to facilitate a couple of the laziest writing moments in the film.

Beyond that, this is good. This is a recent Hollywood film that lives up to its hype and I can only hope its success will lead to more films like it.

Based on its returns, I’m hopeful. It grossed $320 million at the box office. That’s not Marvel Movie money, Ant Man and the Wasp grossed $622 million the same year. However, Knives Out did this with a $40 million budget, which is 1/4-1/5 of Ant Man and the Wasp. Knives Out shows there’s still an audience for a well-made and well-written detective movie.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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EP3194: Dragnet: The Big Blonde

Jack Webb

A businessman reports that a blonde woman and two accomplices conned him out of $40,000

Original Air Date: August 23, 1955

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EP3193: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Richard Splain Matter

Edmond O'Brien

Johnny goes to Manhattan to investigate when all the evidence points to an insured man being killed. The only thing missing is a body.

Original Air Date: October 7, 1950

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EP3192: Mystery is My Hobby: Clearing Peter Wade

A woman asks Drake to help clear her brother who she says has been convicted of a murder he didn’t commit.

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EP3191: The Man Called X: No One Wins On Zero

George Raft

Ken Thurston goes to Monte Carlo to search for Pegon when he learns that he’s fraudulently claimed information for a weapon of mass destruction.

Original Air Date: October 2, 1947

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AWR0126: Top Secret: Disaster in London

Amazing World of Radio

Nazi agents plot to spread a highly infectious disease into the London water supply.

Original Air Date: August 6, 1950
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EP3190: Air Mail Mystery: Episodes 8 and 9

photo credit: freestock.ca ? dare to share beauty Vibrant US Air Mail Stamp via photopin (license)

Irene Delroy confronts Powers about why he arrived at the scene of the latest crash so quickly.

Original Air Date: 1932

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EP3189: Box 13: Find Me, Find Death

Dan receives a letter to Box 13 where the writer announces he’ll kill Dan in four days.

Original Air Date: Sometime in 1948

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Video Theater 183: Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Winthrop Legend

Sherlock Holmes is called in by a brother who fears his brother will die as a result of a family legend.

Season 1, Episode 7

Original Air Date: November 24, 1954

Audio Drama Review: The Red Panda Adventures, Season 7

At the end of Season Six, during World War II, the entire Canadian Home Team of superhuman allied soldiers was wiped out. The Red Panda (Gregg Taylor), in the guise of August Fenwick, had his plane explode while heading to Europe.

The first half of Season Seven picks up where Season Six left off with The Flying Squirrel (Clarissa Der Nederlanden) having to pick up the pieces. Missing her husband and crime-fighting partner,  Kit Baxter-Fenwick has to keep the city safe while expecting the birth of her first child.  It’s decided that neither the fifth columnist or the criminal element in Toronto should know of the Panda’s apparent demise so the android John Doe (Christopher Mott) pretends to be the Red Panda. Kit has to mentor John and also help him as he tries to move on from the death of his wife.

This first half of the season works really well. While Season Six tried to develop Kit/The Flying Squirrel, those attempts came off as a bit artificial. In Season Seven, we get some really good character development, as well as a nice mix of solid adventures that we’ve come to expect.

**spoilers warning**

In the second half of the season, we learn the Red Panda survived and we pick up his story with him imprisoned in a POW camp. However, before his capture, the Red Panda (I believe) used his mental powers to segment all he knew of being the Red Panda from August Fenwick so he could not be coerced into revealing information. Fenwick meets up with former Red Panda Operative now Army Captain Andy Parker and his commando unit. He teams up with Parker, and is able to get them out of prison using Red Panda powers and abilities while denying being the Red Panda. They then make their away across Europe to the season’s denouement where the two halves of the season tie together.

There were things about the second half of the season I enjoyed, like the reappearance of a character who was presumed dead, and I think the last episode is good. However, what happened  with the Red Panda/August Fenwick is convoluted and I’m not sure I understand it right. The plot also got repetitive with the denials of him being the Red Panda and members of Parker’s Rangers thinking he was.  It felt a bit padded at six episodes. The arc would have been better if it’d been only three episodes long.

Overall, this is a still a solid season, owing to the strong first half, but it’s the weakest of the seven seasons I’ve listened to so far.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

You can listen to Season 7 of The Red Panda Adventures here.

EP3188: Dragnet: The Big Beer

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith are called in when a night watchman finds a live-in employee murdered.

Original Air Date: August 16, 1955

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EP3187: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Howard Caldwell Matter

Edmond O'Brien

Johnny looks for a missing young man from a wealthy family.

Original Air Date: September 30, 1950
When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com

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EP3186: Mystery is My Hobby: The Waiting Game

A woman and her lover plan to kill her husband and make it look like an accident.

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EP3185: The Man Called X: The Throne of Tay-Ninh

George Raft

Ken travels to Saigon  to investigate when an anthropologist who disappeared on a lost scientific expedition six weeks previously shows up murdered.

Original Air Date: September 4, 1947

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AWR0125: Top Secret: Story of the Unknown Mission

Amazing World of Radio

Kerin is ordered to kill a French Count who’s a Nazi Agent. But she refuses to act until she knows what his assignment is. Unknown to her, his assignment is to kill her.

Original Air Date: July 30, 1950
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