Murder Mystery as generic as its title

While Jennifer Aniston is quite at ease with the low-level intrigue of the case at hand in Murder Mystery, Adam Sandler mostly just stands there and says something sort of crass, ignorant or both.

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston have been BFFs since BTWF (Before They Were Famous).

However, they have only ever done the one movie together. That was a moderately shoddy, microscopically amusing rom-com called Just Go With It, which somehow made off with $300 million in box-office moolah back in 2011.

With takings like that, there was always going to be a Sandler-Aniston reunion sooner or later, and here it is.

And wouldn’t you just know it? The whole shebang is a moderately shoddy, microscopically amusing whodunit.

Murder Mystery is surely the frontrunner for most generic movie title of 2019.

Sandler and Aniston play Nick and Audrey, a sad-sack suburban couple on a crummy second honeymoon in Europe.

After accepting an invitation aboard the fancy yacht of jaundiced jetsetter Charles Cavendish (Luke Evans), these malcontent marrieds become embroiled in the enigmatic murder of elderly tycoon Malcolm Quince (Terence Stamp).

Acting as both suspects and sleuths, Nick and Audrey must clear their names while identifying the real killer.

There is no shortage of candidates for the gig of guilty party, the most prominent seemingly being the dead man’s disarmingly young wife (Shioli Kutsuna from Deadpool 2).

Then there’s Quince’s embittered son (David Walliams), a pouty Hollywood starlet (Gemma Arterton), a carefree Formula One champ (Luis Gerardo Mendez), and direct from the cutting room floor of a Pink Panther movie, an unnecessarily pompous and totally clueless French detective (Dany Boon).

Gemma Arterton plays a pouty Hollywood starlet.

Shioli Kutsunathe play the dead man’s disarmingly young wife.

Overall, this appears to be the work of people who possibly saw an Agatha Christie book down at the newsagents once upon a time, but forgot to look inside.

Furthermore, the whodunit structure of Murder Mystery — surely the frontrunner for most generic movie title of 2019? — just isn’t a great fit for what little Sandler has going for himself these days as a movie funnyman.

While Aniston is quite at ease with the low-level intrigue of the case at hand, Sandler mostly just stands there and says something sort of crass, ignorant or both.

MURDER MYSTERY (M)

Director: Kyle Newacheck (Game Over, Man!)

Starring: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Luke Evans, Shioli Kutsuna, Terence Stamp.

Rating: **

Almost dead on arrival

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