The first of Rian Johnson’s contractually obliged huge payday to Netflix, with his Knives Out franchise bought for an estimated $300 mill with two follow up films attached, Glass Onion has a lot of pressure to deliver after the lofty expectations and break out success if it’s predecessor. It’s likely for that reason why Glass Onion feels like Knives Out on supercrack, for better and for worse.

Less a ‘whodunnit’ and more of a ‘what’s even going on’, Glass Onion pretty much doubles the murders, red herrings and misdirections to a degree that you don’t even know where the focus is less where things slot into place (it’s worth mentioning of the little marketing material I’ve seen, the victim isn’t even made apparent). And where perhaps the ‘games within games’ mindfuckery comes at the cost of the first films sharpness and brevity, the real talent comes from Johnson’s ability to not only keep the pace punchy with information dolled out intelligently.

But the real reason Glass Onion is a treat is that it’s very often times, hysterically funny. Playing more like a straight comedy with a more convoluted than usual plot, this is less a reconfiguring of the rule book as just straight forward great situational material, with a game cast relishing every moment. It perhaps feels like it uses Benoit Blanc a little too much here (I admit, his sideline viewpoint of the family drama in the first film with limited presence is more effective), I can’t deny practically everything Daniel Craig says and does in this film isn’t hilarious in some capacity.

And ultimately, I was pretty riveted all the way till the end, perhaps even more so than Knives Out. The dismount is maybe a little more obvious, but the ride there is absolutely sterling. Hopefully the third one manages to cap this series off with a undefeated track record.