April 5, 2023 by Aditi Singh (’24)
Mystery has always been one of my favorite genres in both books and movies. Add a pinch of murder, and you’ve got my total attention. So while I was scrolling through Netflix, I could not help but notice a movie that kept popping up in the Top Ten; Murder Mystery 2. My attention had been captured. I looked further into the movie (well, I used basic math logic) and realized that this must be the second installment in a series–there is actually a Murder Mystery, as well.
Reading the little blurb Netflix provides, I found that Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, two of Hollywood’s renowned comedic actors were starring in the movie. Now, it is important to note that I have barely watched any Hollywood comedies–I have barely watched any Hollywood movies at all –so I may not be the most reliable source if you are looking for a valid movie review. Nonetheless, here is what I thought of Murder Mystery as someone whose English movie intake is mostly limited to horror, Marvel, or kids’ movies.
The movie opens with Nick Spitz and Audrey Spitz. Nick Spitz, a NYPD cop who is desperately trying, and failing, to become a detective, is played by Adam Sandler. Audrey Spitz, a hairdresser and a mystery novel enthusiast, is played by Jennifer Aniston. If you haven’t picked up on it, these two are married. The duo is not very well off financially, and Nick does not even try to hide it–he is very very stingy. Eventually Nick feels bad for being stingy (yay Nick!) and takes Audrey on a long-promised trip around Europe as their anniversary present. Long story short, they meet Charles Cavendish (super-rich guy) on the plane and end up on a yacht trip around Europe.
On this yacht, Cavendish’s billionaire uncle Malcolm Quince is murdered because of his will (a bit cliché, but classic nonetheless). The rest of the movie focuses on the Spitzes trying to solve the case while being tracked down by law enforcement. As a comedy, this movie made me giggle maybe once or twice, but it largely missed its mark. This could be because I’m not used to watching many English comedy movies, but it just wasn’t as funny as I was expecting it to be. With Adam Sandler in the cast, I thought I would be laughing throughout the movie, but no. It wasn’t that the movie wasn’t funny, it just wasn’t a movie where I was constantly cracking up. However, as a mystery movie, I thought that Murder Mystery was pretty good. There wasn’t anything amazing going on, but there were a few plot twists that caught me by surprise (this could totally just be me; I can be very slow when it comes to figuring things out). Murder Mystery had all the aspects of a classic mystery (I say with great confidence while having watched maybe one proper English mystery before this) and was a good watch.
The mystery combined with the mediocre comedy was actually pretty fun to watch, and I’m definitely going to watch Murder Mystery 2. Were there aspects of the film that could be better? Honestly, I don’t really know, but I thought that, overall, it was a solid movie. However, the majority of the internet seems to disagree with me; multiple sources call Murder Mystery barely a mystery. I still stand by my opinion as an amateur mystery movie viewer, but if you are really serious about your mystery movies, it may be better to listen to the experts and find another film.