If you admire the blunt, descriptive simplicity of a movie title like “Murder Mystery,” then I suppose “Murder Mystery 2″ is right up your alley. The 2019 original stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston as a working class couple from New York — Nick and Audrey Spitz — who improbably found themselves stumbling into drama and intrigue among the super rich. The sequel reunites Sandler and Aniston once again as the cop and the hairstylist who have since ditched their day jobs to work as private investigators, but with little success. They need a win.
Or as the voice-over explains in the opening montage recap: “With business struggling, Nick and Audrey could only pray for a miracle: That someone close to them would be killed.” Not to put too fine a point on it! I actually like the winking spirit behind that line: Subtlety be damned! Too bad the movie mistakes frenzied comedy for style or even a point of view.
Nick and Audrey are bickering about their professional malaise when — plonk — an all-expenses paid wedding invitation arrives from their old friend Vikram (Adeel Akhtar), the maharaja of the first movie, and they’re off to an exclusive island somewhere for The Most Elaborate Wedding Ever. And wouldn’t you know it, mid-party, Vik’s head of security turns up dead. And then Vik himself is kidnapped.
