I think the only one you need to absolutely root for for the movie to work is Maverick, the others are just there to be schooled by him.
As for whether or not you have to like him “unironically”, this is an interesting question. For me I think Tom Cruise is at a point where everything around him is so over the top that this transcends this distinction and that I’m amazed both sincerely and ironically.
Like, all this movie’s characters are obviously ridiculous/cartoonish, and the movie is definitely aware of it, so for me it’s almost a comedy and I’m laughing at half the lines. But it also fully commits to the bit, never taking any distance from its characters, in a way that is almost admirable.
And obviously the action / mission plot is much better than in the first one.
I will say that I’m not really feeling much emotional impact from non-TC or Val Kilmer characters. The Rooster stuff in particular fell flat, especially on rewatch, which isn’t surprising since it really plays on nostalgia for the 1st one which isn’t there for me.
The star of Murder, She Wrote, Angela Lansbury, pops up playing Among Us with detective Benoit Blanc.
In the very same scene, we can see a copy of Edward Powys Mathers’ murder mystery puzzle Cain’s Jawbone lying on the floor of Blanc’s bathroom
Musical theater nerds may have noticed a little nod to the to the play when Duke spills out the truth to Helen/Andi in Miles’ living room: seemingly innocuous, the line “Now you know” is actually a reference to the title of one of the songs of Merrily We Roll Along. A poster of the musical production can also be seen behind Phillip (Hugh Grant) when he opens the door to Helen (Janelle Monáe).
According to Johnson, the film’s entire structure as well as the pier scene in which the disrupters meet on screen for the first time were inspired by the 1973 thriller The Last of Sheila, in which a murder mystery party on a yacht turns into a real crime scene. Andi’s character was entirely modeled after Mia Farrow’s Jacqueline de Bellefort in 1978’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. The fact that the movie’s first murder - Duke’s (Dave Bautista) death by pineapple - happens at the one-hour mark was also borrowed from Sheila and Death on the Nile. Last, but not least, the hourly “Dong!” that marks the passage of time at Miles’ villa is a nod to the noonday gun that goes off every day at 12 p.m. in yet another Hercule Poirot film, 1982’s Evil Under the Sun.
Edward Norton Came Up with Miles’ Frank T.J. Mackey Outfit
For Johnson, ‘Glass Onion’s Message Isn’t Eat the Rich
As the commentary track comes to an end, Johnson speaks a little of what he thinks the main point of Glass Onion is, and, shockingly, the director isn’t a big fan of the “Eat the rich” approach to his films. "To me, it’s not very interesting the notion that rich people are jerks…
Yeah, that scene definitely got a solid laugh from me. Natasha Lyonne was in it, too, as well as I think Steven Sondheim? I didn’t recognize him, but the name on his screen said “Steve S” and he was really old.
Most importantly, Sondheim co-wrote (with Psycho star Anthony Perkins) a murder-mystery movie called The Last of Sheila, which was Rian Johnson’s most direct inspiration for Glass Onion, according to the director himself.
OK, I was wrong, according to the trailer this collection does have Yes, Ma’am and also Police Story 3, my hype levels are off the charts. This “Crouching Tiger” movie looks interesting too.
Can someone who has seen this tell me what this means? It just started and it’s been nothing but music and this for a good five minutes. Should I reboot my cable box??
Fuuuuuck, this movie rules. Chinese knockoff version of Indiana Jones that perfectly manages to capture the goofy fun vibe of the original. Michelle Yeoh as Indy. It’s astonishingly well-made; it looks great, the pacing is snappy, the story is fun, the action is top-notch. It;s like if Spielberg had to do Indiana Jones on a reduced budget. Honestly, if you don’t care about martial arts movies but you’re a big Indiana Jones fan, this is a recommend.
