Murder Mystery

Enjoyable lightweight comedy (possibly sponsored by Claritin!) from Adam Sandler that benefits greatly from the presence of the often under-rated Jennifer Aniston. They play a couple who finds themselves in the middle of the kind of old-fashioned murder mystery plot that Aniston's character loves to read. The film plays on genre tropes to decent effect and Sandler reins in the annoyance quotient, although given today's climate of gender sensitivity it's likely that vaguely ditzy female characters like Aniston's - who can pause in a moment of panic to admire some nearby wallpaper - will soon go the way of murders in the library with a candlestick.

NYPD policeman Nick Spitz (Adam Sandler) can't quite pass the detective test for the third time and hides it from his wife Audrey (Jennifer Aniston). She pushes him to go on an European vacation. She sneaks onto first class and encounters Viscount Charles Cavendish (Luke Evans) who invites the couple to a family gathering on his yacht. The family patriarch and Charles' uncle Malcolm Quince (Terence Stamp) announces that he's leaving his fortune to his new wife Suzi. He is murdered before he signs the new will. It's a wild weekend of Clue characters and it's a murder mystery. Inspector de la Croix immediately sees the Spitzes as his prime suspects and Nick has to solve the case with his wife.

I actually like Sandler and Aniston as a bickering middle age couple. I think they've found their sweet spot at this stage of their careers. They just need to make sure that they have a good story. This is almost there. I actually think that this would work better with a straight Agatha Christie murder mystery. Sandler and Aniston could be a new mystery solving team. They're the new Hart to Hart if it's done right. That's what's missing from this movie. The clues comes out of nowhere at the end and nobody cares about discovering the killer's identity. The chemistry is good and these characters could be good as long as the writing is good.

Ya know that annoying couple who sits behind you in the theater and comments on every little thing that's happening in the movie? Murder Mystery takes that couple and places them directly within a Poirot-style story. Thankfully, when the movie works around this couple, it works. Sandler and Aniston really have great chemistry with a fluffy and cute script that's better than Sandler normally works with.

It was over the top but that was kind of the point. Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler have good chemistry though

Decent plot. Good performances. Jokes that land. Adam Sandler doesn't scream or shout once. Everything works. Very understated.