Crime Time: Dead Man Hunting Season
Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
Ever since the first Knives Out came out in 2019, the world cannot get enough of the detective Benoit Blanc, famously played by Daniel Craig. Since that first mystery, the creator made Glass Onion and, and now, Wake Up Dead Man.
In Wake Up Dead Man, the story is about a young priest who was assigned to a rural parish. It is through his eyes that we’re introduced to all the key characters in this small town, a sci-fi writer, a cellist in a wheelchair, a lawyer, a doctor, a former politician, and the church lady caretaker, and the church groundskeeper. They all have motives to kill the current Monsignor Wicks… and it took almost 40 minutes before the he is found dead. The main suspect for the murder is the young priest.
So, it’s up to Benoit Blanc and the young priest to find out who murdered Wicks… and there are some real twists and turns as we uncover the mystery.
It is a very good, fun mystery. I enjoyed the ride, but on retrospect, there was a lot of unnecessary events that led us to the conclusion. And for the first time, Blanc was filmed for YouTube, that he could not solve the crime (although you soon find out that he did solve the crime, but did not disclosed it until the priest took the criminal’s dying confession with Blanc as witness).
Like I said, I really enjoyed this one, as I have enjoyed all the other Knives Out mysteries. If you want to enjoy these type of whodunit stories, don’t bother to try and guess who the killer is. The writing is done deliberately to throw you off, and sometimes, it’s the journey that’s part of the fun.
Hunting Season (2025)
The new Mel Gibson movie Hunting Season is about a father and his daughter living in house in the wilderness. One day, they found an injured woman and they saved her. Not too much longer, trouble comes to the home, and Mel Gibson has to protect his family.
The premise sounds simple, but there’s this whole backstory that introduces us to the violent Brotherhood leader… who, they show is a badass, but he just doesn’t look the part. He didn’t look terrifying or scary… and didn’t seem normal (like he’s on drugs or something). I don’t know, I felt like they could have cast another actor that looked intimidating to play the part. Nothing against the actor, but he just has a nice face and perhaps he is better suited as a comedian or in a romantic comedy lead.
Gibson is nicely cast. He’s old, rugged, and you do get a sense of cowboy-ism. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. To be honest, like Liam Neeson, I can watch Gibson all day, he’s great.
Gibson’s daughter is played by a Miss Teen beauty queen… and yeah she’s probably too pretty to be a survivalist who was raised to handle a rifle (and later a sniper rifle) to hunt and kill. Maybe it’s because she was raised in isolation, but the way she behaves and talks, I got the impression that she had special needs or cannot be near other people (that’s why Gibson had to raise her on his own).
Overall, the film is actually pretty good, if not predictable. It’s surprisingly violent with many characters shot and killed. There’s a scene with a lawnmower that is absolutely bananas. I couldn’t believe it! I thought Gibson was just trying to scare the guy, whoa!!!
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