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
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