Knives Out was a refreshing and unexpected addition to the genre. This is an over-rated parody. I'm not sure why the critics profess to be so amused, other than the fact that they've fallen victim to group think.

Basically, the underlying joke is Daniel Craig playing a Southern detective, rumoured to be "the world's greatest" detective, although he actually does precious little detecting, and the heavy lifting is done by Janelle Monae in her role.

Unfortunately, pretty well every other character is a ridiculous parody, and the "mystery" itself wouldn't be that much of a mystery, but for the format of the film which, as the title suggests, involves peeling back the layers of the onion. You see a scene once, then you'll see it again later from a slightly different perspective, or with a bit of background info added, and so it goes, until the obvious becomes obvious. By the end, you pretty well hate every one of the characters, most of whom were unlikeable to begin with, so it isn't much of a journey. I pity the likes of Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, etc. Who were basically given one note scripts to work from.

I understand that this is supposed to be one among many such films in a resurgence of "drawing room mysteries", a la Hercule Poirot, etc. Unfortunately, in playing with the genre, the film makers overlooked the need for character development, and their idea of humour is twisted at best, so you end up with an unfunny take on a classic genre; they miss the point of what made the genre successful, and the attempt to be funny falls flat as a result.

"See How They Run" works much better, in that it respects the genre, builds the characters, and works both as a mystery and a comedy.