I want all stars to pay attention. When you’re making a movie, and you get anywhere near Adam Sandler’s level of fame, start putting riders in your contract that all your movies should be filmed on location. Real locales make Murder Mystery 2, like the original, a more enjoyable experience, simply taking Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler and plopping them in different locales Sandler felt like visiting for this movie. BURN ALL THE GREEN SCREENS!!!
After the events in the French Riviera from the last film, Nick (Sandler) and Audrey (Aniston) Spitz decided to open a private investigation firm, riding high from their success. That success leads to immediate failure, and the Spitz biz botches all sorts of investigations putting them close to closing their firm. Fate throws them a line from their billionaire buddy the Maharajah (Adeel Akhtar). Their bro is about to take the mad plunge into nuptials yo, ready to marry Claudette (Melanie Laurent) in a lavish island wedding. However, as the reception is about to commence, a murder occurs, putting Nick and Audrey at the center of another high profile international case, with some old friends like Colonel Ulenga (John Kani) and new ones, like the Maharajah’s sister Saira (Kuhoo Verma) and special forces investigator Connor Miller (Mark Strong).
Murder Mystery 2 is Netflix gold. It’s pretty easy to watch lackadaisically at home, putting down your phone when something cool comes onscreen or you hear a funny joke. At least Netflix is committed to its stars and their happiness, because that means we get Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler on location. Hawaii and Paris look great and more importantly, not CGI’ed, resulting in at least a wonderful travelogue for Friday night streaming audiences. For a Sandler/Aniston movie, there’s also a shocking amount of action sequences: explosions, dance sequences, wirework. Though not anywhere near John Wick levels of incredible, the work is like Murder Mystery 2, good enough to be exciting and look pretty fun.
And if that isn’t working for you, the backbone of these films is the Sandler/Aniston relationship. To a fault, these two have mastered the bickering middle aged couple, sniping at each other but out of love. Their banter makes Murder Mystery go down easy…maybe too easy, as all since of tension/fear is removed because of both actors throwing jokes as their lives are in danger. But both clearly are having a ball, and that energy spreads out to the rest of the film, and a couple of game supporting players, especially Jodie Turner Smith’s countess and her weird relationship with her friend Imani (Zurin Villanueva).
As far as benign Netflix movies go, Murder Mystery 2 is one of the better benign mediocre ones. Faint praise, but it could have been much, much more cynical, and at least it isn’t that. And Mr. Sandler, keep Nick Swardson and your friends away from this franchise. It makes your movies WAY better. I look forward to your London escapade for Murder Mystery 3.