Murder Mystery (2019)

[QQQQ]

A New York cop (Adam Sandler) and his wife (Jennifer Aniston) go on a European vacation to reinvigorate the spark in their marriage. A chance encounter leads to them being framed for the murder of an elderly billionaire. Netflix premiere 6/14/2019.

[QQQQ]

I'm only 25 minutes in, and maybe the plot picks up, but I feel like I'm watching the King of Queens On a Yacht.  Minus most of the humor.

Edited June 15, 2019 by QQQQ

[Ms Blue Jay]

I love King of Queens.

Man, as an ENORMOUS Jennifer Aniston fan, and a pretty big Adam Sandler fan too, this was a huge disappointment.

[Irlandesa]

I went expecting a movie whose sole reason for existing is so someone will pay for the actors' vacations.  So basically, I had a low bar. 

And it met that low bar.  Jennifer and Adam are good together, although I did see a review asking why she was married to this guy and I could definitely see that.  I got my travel porn.  The mystery wasn't terribly interesting and no way do two people manage to push over a massive bookcase filled with books. 

I legitimately did love the denouement from the minute the Ferrari appeared. It also didn't feel any longer than its 97 minutes so it met my expectations and had about ten minutes where it exceeded them.

[Cementhead]

9 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I went expecting a movie whose sole reason for existing is so someone will pay for the actors' vacations.  So basically, I had a low bar. 

Yes, totally.  Me, too.  My bar was perhaps set even lower because I had just spent 25 minutes suffering through The House with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler before I turned it off and gave this one a go. 

I am not new so I know exactly what to expect when I watch an Adam Sandler movie.  He stays in his lane and this movie was no different.  I enjoyed it for exactly what it was.   

Beautiful scenery, a surprisingly good amount of laughs courtesy of Sandler and cute day dresses on Aniston, though I was cringing watching her run around in those high espadrilles; especially on the cobblestone streets. 

[Angeleyes]

On 6/16/2019 at 7:55 AM, Cementhead said:

Yes, totally.  Me, too.  My bar was perhaps set even lower because I had just spent 25 minutes suffering through The House with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler before I turned it off and gave this one a go. 

I am not new so I know exactly what to expect when I watch an Adam Sandler movie.  He stays in his lane and this movie was no different.  I enjoyed it for exactly what it was.   

Beautiful scenery, a surprisingly good amount of laughs courtesy of Sandler and cute day dresses on Aniston, though I was cringing watching her run around in those high espadrilles; especially on the cobblestone streets. 

I cringed when she had to drive the Ferrari in those strappy stilettos. I loved that red dress! 

The movie wasn’t perfect, but it delivered on being a fun summer escape movie. I wouldn’t have wanted to pay full price at a movie theater for it, but to watch it on Netflix was just fine. 

[IWantCandy71]

On 6/15/2019 at 10:52 AM, Ms Blue Jay said:

I love King of Queens.

I do, too ! 🙂 I will watch this eventually, it looks like a rainy, lazy day watch, but I'll get to it.

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 6/16/2019 at 8:55 AM, Cementhead said:

Yes, totally.  Me, too.  My bar was perhaps set even lower because I had just spent 25 minutes suffering through The House with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler before I turned it off and gave this one a go. 

Haha!  I actually love that movie.

[MsJamieDornan]

OMG, it was awful.

[ursula]

I started laughing 5 minutes into the movie and I couldn't stop. I think I legit snorted when the Big Guy (Sergei?) told Jennifer to "just ask Siri" as she was fumbling with her phone.

I've been looking forward to this movie since I watched the "look what you made me do" trailer and it didn't disappoint. (Though thinking about it, it kinda of spoiled the story. That high speed chase could only have meant one thing.)

They totally need to make a series of these movies, like a modern day Tommy and Tuppence.

[Glory]

I kind of liked it - though I was partially distracted by Jennifer Aniston's face. She looks great, but also like she's melting. I wish she would stop doing stuff to her face. 

I also could not figure out why these two were married. Did they even like each other? 

But I liked the silly "Clue" premise of the who dunnit. And everyone seemed to be having fun, which is important in a light-hearted movie like this. 

[Cementhead]

Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler's Murder Mystery achieves 'the biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix film.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7156291/Murder-Mystery-achieves-biggest-opening-weekend-Netflix-film.html

[Salzmank]

SPOILERS:

I didn’t exactly love this, or even much like it, and I think it needed many more script revisions. There’s virtually no characterization, and it’s incredibly disappointing to spend no time with Terence Stamp except for that one monologue. The writer should have taken his lead from a far better mystery movie set on a yacht, The Last of Sheila (which everyone should watch!), and kept the movie mostly on the yacht with only a few side-trips. Keep it streamlined.

Good points were the scenery (of course), Sandler and Aniston’s rapport (Sandler, whom I usually despise, was surprisingly decent in this), and the clues. They’re not the world’s most complicated clues, sure, but they’re there, especially for the first culprit.

On the other hand, I guessed the race car driver was the killer from the beginning. I was a bit more surprised by the actress’s being his accomplice. 

[Salzmank]

23 hours ago, ursula said:

I started laughing 5 minutes into the movie and I couldn't stop. I think I legit snorted when the Big Guy (Sergei?) told Jennifer to "just ask Siri" as she was fumbling with her phone.

I've been looking forward to this movie since I watched the "look what you made me do" trailer and it didn't disappoint. (Though thinking about it, it kinda of spoiled the story. That high speed chase could only have meant one thing.)

 They totally need to make a series of these movies, like a modern day Tommy and Tuppence.

Always nice to see a T&T reference—they’re my favorite Christie sleuths. I’d also be willing to see a series of b-movies like this, and I also liked Sandler and Aniston as detectives, but they’d need better scripts. I found dialogue, comedy, and mystery all lacking.

[Peace 47]

On 6/15/2019 at 7:09 AM, QQQQ said:

I'm only 25 minutes in, and maybe the plot picks up, but I feel like I'm watching the King of Queens On a Yacht.  Minus most of the humor.

I thought the portion before they got on the yacht was absolutely dreadful (and I agree that it was hard to see why Aniston and Sandler were married because they seemed to lowkey resent one another in all aspects of their lives), but I mildly enjoyed it from there on out. I’ve decided that I’m an unapologetic Aniston fan, so I guess I just like seeing her onscreen.  The car chase at the end was fun even though preposterous.  I liked that they “dressed the part” to disclose the murderer at the villa.

Aniston and Sandler really do have good chemistry, which I think went a long way for me. (I’ve actually never seen their other movie(s?) together, or even most other Sandler films.)  I agree with the post upthread and would like to see them do this as a series (hairdresser and cop solve mysteries in beautiful locations), but with a better scriptwriter and director than whoever churned this one out.

[ICantDoThatDave]

On 6/20/2019 at 5:01 AM, Salzmank said:

On the other hand, I guessed the race car driver was the killer from the beginning. I was a bit more surprised by the actress’s being his accomplice. 

I figured it was either him or the Maharajah.  To quote Dwight Schrute from The Office: "It's never the person you most suspect. It's also never the person you least suspect, since anyone with half a brain would suspect them the most. Therefore I know the killer to be ... the person I most medium suspect."

[Salzmank]

1 hour ago, ICantDoThatDave said:

I figured it was either him or the Maharajah.  To quote Dwight Schrute from The Office: "It's never the person you most suspect. It's also never the person you least suspect, since anyone with half a brain would suspect them the most. Therefore I know the killer to be ... the person I most medium suspect."

Actually, it seems most murder-mystery screenwriters aren’t even as clever as Dwight! Most of the mystery movies I’ve seen go for the least-likely suspect automatically. That’s why, even though I didn’t really love (or even much like) this movie, I appreciated that the writer took the time to include clues and actual detective-work.

On the other hand, the suspect I was hoping to be the killer was Black Panther’s dad. They suspected him early on and then cleared him, which, in mixed-up mystery logic, probably would make him Dwight’s medium suspect.

[Cementhead]

The scene that was the worst was when they knocked those ginormous book shelves over by hand.  Yeah, because it's not like they were going to super reinforced and secured to the floor or anything.    🙄

[twoods]

I liked it. It made me laugh and was entertaining. Can’t ask for much more in a brainless summer movie. I’m so sick of all the serious TV series and movies that Netflix keeps coming out with so I was happy to watch something fun with a glass of wine on a Friday night.

[IWantCandy71]

I  liked it as well, I've paid money this year to see movies in theaters that  had a bigger budget, but weren't half as good.

I agree I wouldn't mind seeing a series of movies with the characters. I could do without some of the language. I mean I get that it's Adam Sandler, but if the story is fine without it, FTLOG leave it out. That annoyed me. I also thought they could have done more in terms of characterizations. I sort of like the fact that they are apparently a childless couple-because almost all of these types of movies introduce kids at some point, for no other reason than to show the parents having to rescue the kids or vice versa.  Seeing two adults not talking about their kids or about having kids was refreshing.

I didn't know Charlize Theron was involved with this, she is credited as being an executive producer ? Wikipedia says she was originally set to star back in 2013, I guess it was supposed to be a theatrical release at one point ? It was good seeing Gemma Arterton, Terence Stamp and Luke Evans(who really should be in more stuff). 

I think it could have been funnier-but the scene with the Maharajah and Grace in the hotel room was a highlight. Grace calling out her own name and telling herself how gorgeous she is, to get in the mood-IDK if I've ever seen anything quite like that. The Orient Express ending was also unexpected and fun.

They did a good job planting some red herrings. I thought the fact that the one eyed general being the only one who could see well enough in the dark to know that the father was being stabbed, was too ridiculous not to be suspicious. I thought it was possible his character could have been the one Grace was looking at as she left.  One big mess up, though. No way are you going to stab someone that violently and not get blood on you, and I don't recall anyone getting blood on them except the general, and that was only when he pulled out the blade, right ? 

Edited June 23, 2019 by IWantCandy71

[Sandman]

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 10:36 AM, Glory said:

I also could not figure out why these two were married. Did they even like each other? 

This is how I felt for the first hour or so. I'm not a big Sandler fan, but the trailer looked … kind of fun? Sandler's character is very much in line with the schlubs he usually plays, I guess. I found much of the movie hard going for that reason. Mr. Not A Detective tried my patience exceedingly.  Things picked up a lot with the Ferrari sequence.

I really want to go back to Italy and visit Lake Como now. So the travel porn part worked. 

[Chas411]

I liked it a lot more then that awful film they were in with Nicole Kidman. I thought Sandler was really funny. He didn’t overact as much as he normally does.

[BetterButter]

‘Murder Mystery 2’ Adds Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, Jodie Turner-Smith, Tony Goldwyn and Enrique Arce

[Kel Varnsen]

I watched this a few weeks ago with my wife and kids. It was fun (at least fun enough). Plus it was super refreshing to watch an Adam Sandler movie that didn't have David Spade or Kevin James in it.

[BetterButter]

 

[Spartan Girl]

Mom and I watched this before the sequel last week out of curiosity. I agree that it was lots of fun. The bar for Sandler movies is pretty low, I know, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

The sequel wasn’t as good, but if they want to make this a franchise I say just go with it.

See what I did there? 😜 

Edited April 4, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Kel Varnsen]

7 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

The sequel wasn’t as good, but if they want to make this a franchise I say just go with it.

See what I did there? 😜 

You blended that joke in nicely.