40 Best Murder

Sleuth: Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig)

Sleuthing style: Kentucky fried.

When it came out, Knives Out scanned like a lightweight palate cleanser for Rian Johnson after shouldering the high stakes of the Star Wars franchise. Instead, it became a phenomenon. Apparently, audiences had been waiting for someone to bring back the old-school, Clue-style murder mystery, and while it wasn't entirely obvious at the time, Johnson was just the guy to do it – after all, his first movie, Brick, was a throwback noir dressed up as a suburban teen flick. Now years removed from the leftfield hype, and overshadowed in scope by the sequel, the original is still a superior blast. Its plot is basic whodunnit stuff – a wealthy novelist (Christopher Plummer) dies suddenly and everyone's a suspect – but the execution is flawless, due to a massive A-list cast who have no problem cranking the ham levels to 11. Best among them is Daniel Craig, whose attempt at playing a Southern gentleman is so ridiculous it goes all the way around to being brilliant.