Skip to main content

Murder Mystery 2 | Review

 2023. PG-13. 90 mins. Directed by Jeremy Garelick


Murder Mystery hit Netflix back in 2019. At the time it garnered the biggest opening weekend for a new film to hit the streaming platform. It would also go on to become Adam Sandler’s most successful movie on the platform, so a sequel seemed to be inevitable. While not a hit with the critics Murder Mystery, I personally enjoyed it for the most part. It was better than it had any right to be and both Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston made for an entertaining pair. So how does the sequel stack up against the first movie?

This sequel ends up being about the same as the first movie, although it’s a bit more underwhelming I would say. The set up here is basically the same however instead of a murder it’s a kidnapping. We follow Nick (Adam Sandler) and Audrey (Jennifer Aniston) as they try to track down who kidnapped one of their friends from during the night of his wedding.

Despite the story not really working all that well I did find this outing to be quite funnier than the first. There are a lot of great gags that are set up and pay off well. It’s not a lot of huge belly laughs but there are some consistent laugh out loud moments throughout. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston once again work well together. The way they play off one another works so well and the chemistry they have resembles the chemistry Sandler always had with Drew Barrymore in the movies they did together.

Because this is a sequel, they do make an attempt to ramp up the action set pieces and they mostly come off as the filmmakers trying too hard. This is a comedy for sure so the attempts at action are fine, they just unfortunately work the same way. There is a big action set piece for the finale of the movie that just feels like it goes on for much too long. It gets to a point where it all just feels ridiculous and just like the first movie there of course must be more than one twist at the end.

Had they tried to do something a little different this may have ended up being much better but the fact is that they tried to play it safe and just do what they did in the first movie all over again. There are some funny moments and it can be entertaining at times but overall Murder Mystery 2 just ends up being only moderately enjoyable. If you enjoyed the first movie you will probably enjoy this one as well it just doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

Rating: 5.5/10

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Time Cut (2024) | Review

  2024. PG-13. 90 mins. Directed by Hannah Macpherson Plot:  High school student accidentally travels back to 2003 and decides to stop the serial killer who murdered her sister. Grade: D-

Ricky Stanicky (2024) | Review

  2024. R. 113 mins. Directed by Peter Farrelly Three childhood best friends; Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino) and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) pull a prank on Halloween that doesn't go as planned. To get out of trouble they create an imaginary kid named Ricky Stanicky that takes the fall for their wrongdoings. Over the next twenty years, the boys use Ricky as a scapegoat anytime they do something wrong or want to get out of something. When their families want to invite Ricky to a party the guys must figure out whether to tell the truth or do something drastic. They end up going the drastic route by hiring an entertainer they met in Atlantic City named Rod (John Cena), who just so happens to also be a trained actor. Director Peter Farrelly has had a long history of making comedies. Some have been hilarious, like Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary, while others have missed the mark entirely, like The Heartbreak Kid and Dumber and Dumber To. Ricky Stanicky falls somew...

Anora (2024) | Review

  2024 | R | 139 mins | Directed by Sean Baker Plot:  A young escort from Brooklyn meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled. Grade: A