These days, filmmakers feel like they need to reinvent the wheel. Everything needs to be bigger and better. If something is predictable, it’s pointless. If something is cliché, it’s not worth it. If something is formulaic, why bother?
But you know what? Sometimes, leaning into a formula and succumbing to what you know will work … actually works.
“Murder Mystery 2” follows action comedy tropes beat-by-beat. You’ve got your unlikely hero and heroine in Nick (Adam Sandler, “The Wedding Singer”) and Audrey Spitz (Jennifer Aniston, “Friends”). There are ridiculous but fun action scenes — like jumping out of a burning building into a moat — set to slow, operatic French music. And don’t forget the classic locked-room mystery slew of suspects.
We’ve seen this film before, and yet, even when the film’s general course is predictable, it still finds its ways to be surprising. Whether it’s suspect after suspect getting shot at, blown up or knocked out, or Nick and Audrey’s hilarious conversations that never stay on track, even when they’re held at gunpoint, there are some things that you just don’t expect. The balance between a somewhat predictable plot and unpredictable moments of humor makes “Murder Mystery 2” thrive.
In this film, Nick and Audrey are busy creating their own detective agency after the events of “Murder Mystery” when they are invited to their friend the Maharajah’s (Adeel Akhtar, “Enola Holmes”) wedding. Once they get there, things don’t go as planned. The Maharajah is kidnapped, and everyone’s a suspect. The Spitzes name themselves this mystery’s investigators — after all, they didn’t do too bad of a job the first time. As they attempt to track down their friend, they end up negotiating with kidnappers, driving into restaurants and fighting a group of thugs at the top of the Eiffel Tower. So, you know … just a typical wedding.
The first “Murder Mystery” film came out in 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced us into quarantine, and even though I barely remembered the first film’s plot, the sequel never failed to keep my attention. The funniest part of the movie is a scene in which Nick and Audrey are held hostage in a van in France, wreaking havoc on the streets of Paris while trying to avoid being killed by an axe-wielding kidnapper. Sure, it isn’t exactly realistic, but who’s looking for realism when watching a murder mystery? You want a plot that will keep you guessing, even amid some formulaic moments, and likable protagonists you can root for. Nick and Audrey aren’t Hercule Poirot, Benoit Blanc or Sherlock Holmes; they’re messy, flawed and utterly incapable of doing the right thing at the right moment, but that’s what makes them so much fun to watch.
The whole movie works because Sandler and Aniston are so good at their jobs. It can be hard to make films with such big-name actors because the audience is bound to see them as either their celebrity selves or as their most iconic roles. We might think, “Well, there’s Rachel from ‘Friends’ hanging off the Eiffel Tower … not sure if I buy that.” But Sandler and Aniston embody their characters so well that you forget you’ve seen them in so many other roles; it feels like they were made to portray Nick and Audrey Spitz.
My point is this: “Murder Mystery 2” isn’t a deep, thoughtful mystery that will leave you kicking yourself, wondering just how you didn’t see that ending coming — but it will have you laughing until you can’t breathe and itching for Netflix to release a third installment starring the Spitzes.
Daily Arts Writer Sabriya Imami can be reached at simami@umich.edu.