A new whodunnit starring Daniel Craig has been hailed by critics, achieving a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes before it’s even been released. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third instalment in the “Knives Out” franchise, written and directed by Rian Johnson.
The acclaimed first film, Knives Out, was released in 2019 and was followed by Glass Onion (2022).
Craig, best known for his portrayal of iconic super spy James Bond across five films, returns as famed private detective Benoit Blanc, who joins forces with “local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis)” to “unravel a mystery that defies all logic”, according to the film’s official synopsis.
The star-studded ensemble cast also includes other big names like Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, and Andrew Scott.
While the film’s release in cinemas is still a couple of months away, it’s already received glowing reviews.
The film currently has a 96% score from 26 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, which reflects the percentage of approved critics who had a positive assessment of it.
According to MailOnline, the movie previously had a 100% score on the platform, and it’s been lauded by Roger-Ebert.com as “a film so rich in ideas that it’s the rare whodunit that seems likely to play even better the second time when following the mystery can take a back seat to considering how Johnson has crafted one of his best screenplays.”
David Fear of Rolling Stone magazine said: “Everyone seems to be having a blast, and the filmmaker knows how to take both the ensemble he’s assembled and his congregation of Knives Out fans — call us Blanc-heads — to church, literally and figuratively.”
Meanwhile, The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee said Knives Out is a “series that’s really found its footing again, a wealth of fun to be had in ways that are constantly surprising, a franchise fully woken up”.
Meanwhile, Collider said Wake Up Dead Man is “twistier, darker, and more emotional than the previous two instalments, in which Johnson explores ideas of faith and logic and the mythologising that gets us through the day — all in a brilliant murder mystery”.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will be released in select UK cinemas on November 28 and on Netflix from December 12, 2025.