Murder Mystery 2 movie review (2023) – Roger Ebert

Was I a bit of too harsh on 2019’s “Homicide Thriller” or do I identical to Adam Sandler extra now? Each may very well be true, but it surely’s indicative of how a lot comedy might be primarily based on timing and what is going on on in the true world. Coming off a spate of mediocre (to be variety) comedies that emerged from his preliminary take care of Netflix, I gave the comedy/thriller a modest two stars, however now I believe it deserves one other half-star as a stable diversion. And that may very well be due to the goodwill engendered by initiatives like “Uncut Gems,” “Hustle,” and even the comparatively satisfying “Hubie Halloween.” Or I may have simply been in a worse temper 4 years in the past. Regardless of the cause, “Homicide Thriller 2” will get the job carried out in a lot the identical manner. As soon as once more, Sandler’s appeal is the power. As soon as once more, the comparatively tight runtime (this one is simply 90) retains The Sandman and his writers away from the meandering non-jokes that fatten the worst Joyful Madison motion pictures. And, as soon as once more, it’s a straightforward method to tune out the true world for a characteristic runtime. Possibly it’s simply that we’d like that extra within the 2020s than we did pre-pandemic? It is a thriller.

Sandler returns as Nick Spitz, an NYC police officer who has hung up conventional police work to develop into a criminal offense solver along with his spouse Audrey (Jennifer Aniston). After the chaotic motion of the unique, they’ve develop into personal dicks, fixing crimes for a charge, however they’re struggling to make it work. A fast-cut prologue that feels probably (and mercifully) truncated after I wager some take a look at screenings went awry, the true motion of “Homicide Thriller 2” kicks in when the Maharajah from the unique movie (Adeel Akhtar) invitations him to a lavish marriage ceremony in a tropical locale. As soon as once more, Audrey and Nick are outsiders in a overseas land, which permits for a little bit of ‘Ugly Individuals’ humor however largely performs into registers of sophistication humor as an alternative. In each movies, they’re struggling to make ends meet and so they’re thrust into worlds with individuals who toss round thousands and thousands of {dollars} like cash has no which means. These punny Poirots are outsiders not merely as a result of they arrive from one other nation, however from what seems like one other world relating to wealth and privilege, and Aniston and Sandler are good at conveying that with out counting on it for reasonable humor.

The Maharajah’s marriage ceremony is huge affair, full with group dancing and an entrance on an elephant. That’s when issues go awry. The groom’s bodyguard finally ends up being the one on the pachyderm, murdered by a cheese knife within the aspect, but it surely’s actually a distraction for the Maharajah to be kidnapped. Who’s behind it? “Homicide Thriller 2” units up a bunch of suspects that features the bride Claudette (Melanie Laurent), an ex-girlfriend named Countess Sekou (Jodie Turner-Smith), the sister Saira (Kuhoo Verma), a enterprise accomplice named Francisco (Enrique Arce), and an ace negotiator named Miller (Mark Sturdy), however this isn’t “Glass Onion.” The thriller of the title is merely a method to drive the plot from one foolish set piece to a different, and, earlier than they understand it, the Spitzes are racing by way of the streets of Paris with ransom cash and dangling from the Eiffel Tower.

Aniston is “alongside for the experience” greater than ever and isn’t given fairly sufficient to do right here to match her comedic expertise, however she does have an easy-going chemistry with Sandler that’s plain. These two have been appearing collectively for years, and there’s an unforced dynamic to their repartee that’s important to a movie like this. We must always by no means query if the leads even like one another in a film like “Homicide Thriller 2,” and that by no means occurs right here. They’re not precisely deep characters—the breakneck nature of the kidnapping plot doesn’t enable it—however Aniston and Sandler do so much by merely counting on their familiarity with each other as performers. And the supporting solid understands the right way to get out of their manner, making an influence once they can however by no means distracting from the momentum of the piece within the method that Joyful Madison regulars usually do (taking a look at you, Schneider).