The simulation will occasionally throw you a curveball. Murder Mystery 2, Netflix’s follow-up to the completely worthless 2019 Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston comedy Murder Mystery, looks about as imaginative as its title. Sandler and Aniston reprise their roles as husband and wife Nick and Audrey Spitz, two New Yorkers who were up in the thick of a wealthy European family’s blood-soaked inheritance high jinks in the previous film and sought to solve the case.
Now that they’ve started their own not-so-successful private-investigation agency and are practically destitute, they jump at the chance to attend the wedding of their billionaire buddy Vikram (Adeel Akhtar, one of the few survivors from the previous film).
With the first Murder Mystery’s half-hearted, point-and-shoot approach, it’s reasonable to expect virtually little from its sequel. Sandler doesn’t usually make live-action sequels; the only one I can recall was Grown Ups 2, which was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Yet, by all appearances, Murder Mystery 2 looks to be another of the star-efforts producers to take himself and his cronies on a studio-paid holiday.
The first part of the film is set on a beautiful but unremarkable island (it was shot in Hawaii), and the second is in Paris. Yet, in an era when even the most costly films’ notion of an exotic locale is either a gigantic LED screen in Burbank or a converted parking lot in Georgia, the concept of Sandler and company traveling to another part of the globe is refreshing.
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As does the enjoyable sight of movie stars becoming movie stars. Each feels like a perfect embodiment of a certain strain of celebrity, with Sandler in full untucked beardo zhlub mode and Aniston looking like she’s been kept in bubble wrap since 1999; you can create a complete inner life and background for both personas. Nick and Audrey are well aware of each other’s flaws, yet they are also protective, kind, and trustworthy. Their squabbles are continuous yet lighthearted. Each is aware of the other’s boundaries. They feel more like a real married couple than they did in Murder Mystery.
The new film is more about moods than the storyline. Murder Mystery 2’s murder and mystery are not noteworthy, but the film commits in other ways. This time, the throwaway comic parts really work. Many of its silly little gags had me laughing out loud, such as Nick’s infatuation with a certain type of cheese given at the wedding (“The cheese has a hold on me!”), one character’s incessant references to his sexual prowess and some gory fun with an axe jammed in a random goon’s skull.
I claimed the gags were stupid. Director Jeremy Garelick, who adds a visual refinement to the film that the first lacked, appears to have an eye for physical humor and a good sense of rhythm.
He is also adept at dealing with action. The picture gets off after our protagonists arrive in Paris, complete with dramatic (and genuinely humorous) beatdowns and automobile chases. (In the first film, the low point was a car chase that might have been shot using Zoom.) Netflix France has established itself in recent years with a good run of no-nonsense, stunt-based action pictures, and one has to wonder whether any of that charm has rubbed off on this production as well. Either that or Sandler wanted to give this action-comedy thing one more go before he was too old for it.
There was no need for this film to be enjoyable; the Netflix algorithm will provide you with this content even if you never requested it. Maybe that’s the key to the film’s allure. Murder Mystery 2 understands where it belongs.
It does not need you to drive somewhere or part with any of your hard-earned money. It’s entirely a Netflix film, and as such, it’s intended to be viewed while you clean the dishes, fold the clothes, or tally up your amassed pocket change and put it into those small paper tubes provided by the bank. Nonetheless, it is a time-filler rather than a time-waster. It’s a film full of modest pleasures, but they’re pleasant ones.
