Even though the 2019 comedy “Murder Mystery” had one of the laziest titles ever and was saddled with the not-always-flattering label of being an Adam Sandler Netflix Movie, I found it to be a reasonably entertaining Agatha Christie takeoff — kind of a less ambitious “Knives Out,” if you will, with Sandler and Jennifer Aniston nicely paired as the New York City police officer Nick Spitz and his hairdresser wife Audrey, who stumble their way into solving a series of murders while on a 15th anniversary second honeymoon in Europe.
“Murder Mystery 2”? Why not? Sure, many of the main players from the original can’t return, what with being murdered and all, but it might be nice to catch up with the Spitzes and see what they’re up to.
Alas, the answer is that they’re front and center in another overseas murder mystery that’s big on pyrotechnics and stunt work but has little to recommend in the way of wit or suspense. It’s bigger, louder and dumber than the original—filled with cartoon violence, only occasionally funny dialogue and a group of suspects/victims not nearly as intriguing as the bunch from the first film.
Sandler and Aniston still have an effective, super casual vibe together; we believe them as this nice, working-class couple, who have started their own detective agency (but aren’t particularly good at it) when along comes the very convenient plot device of an offer of an all-expenses-paid trip to the wedding of their zillionaire friend, Maharaja (Adeel Akhtar), on his private island.
Once the Spitzes arrive at this impossibly gorgeous locale, they’re reunited with John Kani’s Col. Ulenga, who has even less of that one arm than he did in the first movie, and they meet the group of characters who are destined to become either victims or suspects in the coming days. The esteemed French actress Mélanie Laurent takes a break from starring in good films to play Maharaja’s fiancé, Claudette; Jodie Turner-Smith plays Maharaja’s ex and Claudette’s friend, the Countess Sekou; Enrique Arce is the misogynist, womanizing former soccer great Francisco, and Kuhoo Verma is Maharajah’s sister Saira.
When Maharaja’s primary bodyguard is murdered and Maharaja is kidnapped, it’s time for Nick and Audrey to spring into detective mode. The action shifts to Paris, and the body count starts piling up in allegedly humorous fashion. Nick and Audrey find themselves the prime suspects, even though that makes zero sense, with Dany Boon’s Inspector Laurent once again proving to be quite dashing but also really bad at his job.
Much of the humor in “Murder Mystery 2” is predicated on Nick and Audrey being these working-class fishies out of water—wearing their dumb casual American clothes, piling up plates of free food whenever possible, getting into slapstick confrontations in Paris in which they somehow manage to take down professional killers, all the while exchanging in sitcom banter. The finale is an extended sequence set in the Eiffel Tower, with the level of violence overwhelming the attempts at comedy. It might be time for Nick and Audrey to rethink any more invitations to glam it up across the pond.
