It would be hard to find a bigger disappointment in 2019 than Murder Mystery. The pitch meeting had to be something along the lines of: “let’s take two talented likable-yet-disparate American icons and make them squabble with one another for 90 minutes. What fun!”
Yes, America’s favorite, most welcome, most endearing, most recognizable fictional couple is back and this time, they promise not to fight as much. Mission accomplished. Nick and Audrey Spitz (Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston) didn’t fight as much this time around, so the mystery had to fail on its own merits.
And fail it did. But not by as much as I anticipated.
In between films, the fictional Spitzes decided they were now full-time detectives, only they suck at it. So collecting full-time fees was not exactly an option. Just when one suspects it was time for them to solve the mystery of where their careers had gone, family friend The Maharajah (Adeel Akhtar) invites them to his wedding on a private island; then his convenient kidnapping gives our heroes something to do. Mostly, we get to see them indulge in a lifestyle they are not accustomed to prior to the event. Is it funny to think about Adam Sandler downing an entire block of expensive cheese? I suppose it isn’t unfunny.
When The Maharajah is captured, the Spitzes break into action, nearly controlling almost 5% of the crime scene. This is followed by what had to be a take on the Stateroom Scene from A Night at the Opera, except not as well handled on any level. Eventually, their antics lead to Paris, where I was hoping to see John Wick show up and blow away all the bad guys … and maybe the Spitzes to boot.
No such luck.
Seriously, Murder Mystery 2 was indeed better than Murder Mystery. The Spitzes argued less and I did like some of the slapstick humor. I also managed to remember more than zero (0) peripheral 
characters this time around, which counts for something. I want to say the problem here is we’ve already had two better actions capers covering similar territory this film season (Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and John Wick 4), but the truth there’s always plenty more room for decent action comedy. And while this film was a mildly better action comedy than Murder Mystery, the film still kinda just sat there, begging to be loved rather than finding the true spark of clever and witty.
Look, if you’re doing nothing else on a Tuesday night and you ran out of episodes of your five current favorite shows, Murder Mystery 2 will do. There’s enough here to get you from dinner to bedtime without changing the channel. But I swear you’re not going to be thinking about this film in the morning.
There once was a couple named Spitz
Who loved the glamour of San Moritz
Their countenance said “play”
Yet their talents betray
That their business is perpetually the shits
Rated PG-13, 90 Minutes
Director: Jeremy Garelick
Writer: James Venderbilt
Genre: We’re still pretending this could be a real-life couple? Um, ok.
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of slapstick
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “I didn’t like this the first time”
