Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Netflix
For his Saturday Night Live work, Billy Madison, and Happy Gilmore alone, Adam Sandler deservedly earned the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor that he recently received from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Nonetheless, the comedian’s cinematic oeuvre boasts far fewer triumphs than disasters, and almost none are drearier than Murder Mystery, a 2019 dud with Jennifer Aniston about a New York couple embroiled in an international homicide case that somehow ranked as Netflix’s most watched 2019 feature.
A sub-Agatha Christie affair that was primarily notable for its flat tone, lethargic plotting, and leads’ lack of comic chemistry, it proved a whodunit that was so unfunny, its only real mystery involved figuring out where the filmmakers expected viewers to laugh.
That conundrum continues in Murder Mystery 2 (which premieres March 31), a follow-up that, as with so many Sandler efforts, feels like a ritzy vacation for its stars masquerading as a legitimate movie. Written once again by James Vanderbilt, it dispenses about as many good jokes as its predecessor—which is to say, none. This time, there’s a heightened focus on large-scale action set pieces that take place on a tropical island and throughout Paris, from the Palais Garnier and the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe.