Tag Archives: Murder Mystery

A Haunting in Venice – Movie Review

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TL;DR – The stronger of the three so far that explores faith, mystery, and, of course, murder.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

skellington

A Haunting in Venice Review –

I love a good murder mystery film, and when you want a good murder mystery, you can’t go past the Queen of Murder Mysteries, Agatha Christie. She has a way with words that have made it through the ages, and the latest interpretation of her work on the big screen has been helmed by Kenneth Branagh with their Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and Death on the Nile in 2022. Today, we get the third instalment in the series, and what, spoiler alert, is my favourite of the three.

So to set the scene, it is now 1947, and it has been ten years and one world war since we last saw Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) on the Nile. After a lifetime of investigations, Poirot has taken to seclusion and retirement in a house in Venice with only his bodyguard Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio) and the daily pastries boat making their way past his door. It is a life of quiet solitude that is punctured when an old friend/acquaintance/annoyance, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), arrives at his door with a conundrum. There is a medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), going around claiming that she can talk with the dead, and no matter what Oliver can do, she can’t work out Joyce’s tricks. Joyce is doing a séance for local celebrity Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) to speak with her recently lost daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson) as it is Hallowe’en. All Poirot has to do is work out her tricks, and surely there won’t be any other deaths …

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Deadloch: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – This might be one of the most absurdly fascinating, profane, and profound shows I have watched.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this series.

Looking down at a murdered body.

Deadloch Review –

I always wonder how profoundly Australian things translate to a more global audience. Can you make the jump across the ocean without getting hacked to pieces? Well, anything is possible in the era of Bluey, but today might be the biggest test yet.

So to set the scene, Deadloch is a small coastal town on the tip of Tasmania in Australia. Once the purview of loggers and fishing, it is going through a sort of renaissance as those from the big cities look for a country escape. There, two teens, Miranda Hoskins (Kartanya Maynard) and Tammy Hampson (Leonie Whyman) stumble across a naked body missing a tongue washed up on the beach. The Mayor/Doctor Aleyna Rahme (Susie Youssef), is upset because the Winter Festival is about to start, and Phil McGangus (Shaun Martindale) and the old guard are upset that a good-old-boy is dead. The local police force Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box), Abby Matsuda (Nina Oyama), and Sven Alderman (Tom Ballard) are stuck in the middle, made even worse when the brass sends in detective Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) from Darwin who just wants to close it and leave. It is a recipe for disaster, which is when a second body appears. Now we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Silo: Truth – TV Review

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TL;DR – Murder, politics, and conspiracies, oh my.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Truth.

Silo Review –

Murder, political intrigue, and conspiracy, well, now you are speaking my language. I have enjoyed my time down in the depths of the Silo, but so far, we have been given whispers as to what will be the primary drive as we advance. Well, today, we get more than whispers because someone just murdered the mayor, and that tends to be a catalysing event.  

So to set the scene, in Machines, we learned that Holston Becker’s (David Oyelowo) last act as sheriff was to appoint Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) as his successor. However, on her first day, she is presented with the most significant challenge the Silo has ever faced. Someone has murdered Mayor Ruth Jahns (Geraldine James). Deputy Marnes (Will Patton) is distraught, Robert Sims (Common) from judicial and Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) from IT are trying to manage the political fallout. But everyone knows that the Silo is about to change. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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Poker Face: Season 1– TV Review

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TL;DR – This was a delightful romp across America where we solved a murder each week in almost the same way, and I was captivated for the whole run.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

Charlie sees something off.

Poker Face Review –

At times, the modern TV landscape is perpetually stuck in a state of cognitive dissonance. People tend to use the word ‘old-fashioned’ in a pejorative sense as if it has nothing of value to give us. We do this while living in perpetual nostalgia cycles that are morphing into nostalgia spirals. But if there is ever an artist that lives in the overlap between those two extremes, it is Rian Johnson, and I was fascinated to see where this show would go every week.   

So to set the scene, we open in a casino as the maids try to get the rooms ready for the next occupants, or at least clean for the day, when a maid sees something horrifying on a laptop. Something that needs to be reported. So Natalie (Dascha Polanco) tells her boss (Benjamin Bratt), who tells the head of the casino, Frost (Adrien Brody). But instead of protecting her, they did the unthinkable. The only problem is that working in the Casino, Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) has the impeccable talent of always knowing when someone is lying. Now we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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The Post-Truth World (罪後真相/Zui Hou Zhen Xiang) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A compelling tale of murder and coverup, where there are many potential suspects, and in the end, the truth might be the biggest casualty.     

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

The computer monitor.

The Post-Truth World Review –

One of the most essential topics in modern times is the notion of truth and whether we can find it in our news anymore. Can you trust what you see in the news, read in the papers, or skim from the internet? With people yelling fake news at everything, how can you find the real in all the noise? Does the media care about the truth or just a narrative that can sell papers or subscriptions? It is within these questions we find our film today.  

So to set the scene, it is 2012, and all the bases are loaded, as a stadium dresses in yellow to support their team. As the game plays out below, different people’s lives start intersecting and collapsing. It is here where Zhang Zheng-yi (Edward Chen) walks out covered in blood, the blood of his now-dead girlfriend Wang Shi-yun (Tzu Hsuan Chan) and is promptly arrested and incarcerated for life. In 2019, Chang escaped jail by luring Liu Li-min (Joseph Chang), a journalist who ran the popular Dissecting the Society program back in 2012 and was at the stadium at the time of the murder. Today Li-min is trying to get a new title, True Standpoint, off the ground, and the biggest story of the year just kidnapped him. As the city begins a manhunt for Li-min, it is a moment of reflection on whether the truth matters.        

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The Pale Blue Eye – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It has a mood and the performances to match, but the narrative just didn’t hook me.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Cadets in formation.

The Pale Blue Eye Review –

It is time to jump back in time when women’s dresses came in many layers, the army was dressed in blue, and mutton chops were everywhere. It is an era I like when we jump into mysteries because it feels like a world where everyone is prim and proper, but that is just a veneer. It is in this world we find ourselves in as people start dying in the most unpleasant ways.   

So to set the scene, it is a foggy night, but from the gloom, we can see a man hanging from a tree. It is 1830 in Hudson Valley, New York, and Det. Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) has just been summoned to West Point Military Academy by Superintendent Thayer (Timothy Spall). They need someone with discretion. A cadet killed himself, and then his body was violated. This is a political timebomb, and the academy is desperately trying to get the case solved before certain senators in Washington find out.                   

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7 Women and a Murder (7 Donne e un Mistero) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A whimsical romp of a film that I wish just had a touch more substance.    

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are some mid-credit scenes

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

A murder most foul.

7 Women and a Murder Review –

The stampede of new murder mysteries comes onto the scene. I have gotten a chance to see a lot of English-language films dancing in this space. But it is time to branch away from that and explore how the rest of the world is dabbling in this space. Our first stop is Italy, where the bigger scandal is not that someone is having an affair but that someone has an unrequited love.  

So to set the scene, it is a cold and wintery Christmas Eve as several women make their way to an estate in the Italian countryside. There are seven different women in that house that day. The Daughter Susanna (Diana Del Bufalo), The Maid Maria (Luisa Ranieri), The Mother-In-Law Rachele (Ornella Vanoni), The Wife Margherita (Margherita Buy), The Aunt Agostina (Sabrina Impacciatore), The Little Sister Caterina (Benedetta Porcaroli), and The Lover Veronica (Micaela Ramazzotti). But when they wake up the patriarch of the house, Marcello (Luca Pastorelli), The Maid finds him dead with a knife in his back. A murder most foul. But who is the killer? Is one of them? Or is someone else prowling the house, waiting to strike? Which is right when the electricity starts to flutter.   

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See How They Run – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A delightful romp through post-WW2 London as a murder reaches into the heights of polite society.    

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed the film.

Mousetrap

See How They Run Review –

We are seeing a resurgence of the Murder Mystery on our screens, which I have generally found to be an absolute delight. We have witnessed straight adaptations like Murder on the Orient Express, musical romps like The Bob’s Burgers Movie, and genre deconstructions like Knives Out. Today we’ll look at a film that is a lover of the genre and dances with a light touch while delving into some delightful meta-commentary.    

 So to set the scene, we open on London’s West End in 1953, where Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap is playing its 100th performance. Hollywood has tasked Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) to create a film adaptation of this dull play. After flirting with the star of the show Richard Attenborough’s (Harris Dickinson) wife, Sheila Sim (Pearl Chanda), Leo ends up backstage, where he is brutally murdered by someone dressed in black. But as Leo states as the narrator, it is always the most unlikeable characters that get bumped off. Now Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are on the case, but as Leo laments, if you have seen one Whodunit, you have seen them all.

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Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery – TV Review

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TL;DR – This special shows that they have learned from performing the first season and put those lessons into designing one of the funniest things I have seen in a while.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this show.

Santa's Dead.

Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery Title Review –

Earlier in 2022, there was the odd show that dropped on Netflix. It was a bunch of comedians being dropped in a murder mystery, but they don’t have a script. I thought the first season of Murderville was fine, but you could feel the story wrenching people in one direction rather than organically developing. I didn’t think much of it after I watched it. However, when I saw there was a Christmas special, well, I had to give it a look.

So to set the scene, Detective Terry Seattle (Will Arnett) is home alone, feeling bad about Christmas. Still, Mayor Palmer (Tawny Newsome) needed security at a Christmas event, and Chief Rhonda Jenkins-Seattle (Haneefah Wood) ain’t gonna do it because she is on holiday. But Seattle can’t do this by himself, bring on his new trainee Jason Bateman (Jason Bateman). Everything was going fine until lights went out, and when they came back, Santa, aka John ‘Johnny’ Blaze, aka Sean Hayes, was dead with a candy cane sticking out of his chest. They need to find out who the killer is, but they have to do it before the Sun comes up, or the orphans will not get their presents.  

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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it took a long time to get started, it triumphed when it found its voice.    

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Everyone looks in shock as Benoit Blanc arrives

Glass Onion Review –

It is no secret that I love the first Knives Out film, one of those rare films that improve with each rewatch. It waltzed onto the screen full of pomp and circumstance before subverting the whodunit genre. It could have worked perfectly as a stand-alone film. It would have been satisfactory to quit while you were ahead. But to be honest, I always wanted to jump back into this world, and I am glad we did.

So to set the scene, one day, Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), and Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) all received a mysterious parcel in the mail. It is from reclusive billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), a long-time friend and controversial figure. The box invited everyone to a murder mystery, his murder, in Greece. But when everyone turns up at the dock, surprisingly, there is a Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) there as well. Even more surprising is that Cassandra “Andi” Brand (Janelle Monáe) also arrives. Because Andi was just betrayed by everyone, publicly, and well the stage is set for murder.    

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