Movies such as ‘Grown Ups’, ‘50 First Dates’ and ‘Blended’, with their vacation spot location shoots, gave the distinct impression that Adam Sandler developed movies so that he could go on a trip.
That feeling was definitely continued in 2019’s ‘Murder Mystery’, which saw New York cop Nick Spitz (Sandler) and wife Audrey (Jennifer Aniston) dragged into, well, a murder mystery. The pair, taking their first European trip, wind up invited to a fancy yacht party thrown by millionaire Malcolm Quince (Terrence Stamp), only for Quince to be murdered––and become just the first victim in a chaotic string of crimes. But yes, despite the parade of death, it is a comedy.
It was also a huge success for the streaming service, going on to become the most popular title for its year, besting even the likes of ‘Stranger Things’ (which is quite the achievement given the pop cultural impact of the latter), and nabbing a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comedic Movie.
So now there is naturally a sequel. Four years after solving their first murder mystery, Nick and Audrey are now full-time detectives struggling to get their private eye agency off the ground when they’re invited to celebrate the wedding of their friend the Maharaja (Adeel Akhtar) on his private island.
But trouble follows the Spitzes again when the groom is kidnapped for ransom soon after the festivities begin—making each glamorous guest, family member, and the bride herself a suspect. sends Nick and Audrey Spitz on a high-stakes case that finally gives them everything they’ve ever dreamed of: a shot at their detective agency finally becoming successful… and their long-awaited trip to Paris.
From the look of this trailer, Nick and Audrey’s reputation isn’t as burnished as they may think, especially in the eyes of Mark Strong’s new character, who appears to be some sort of special forces trooper.
There’s also going to be more of the comic chaos that fans will be expecting from a follow-up to the first movie’s mystery mayhem, including Sandler and Aniston crashing a van into a Parisian restaurant.
In addition to the French capital, the movie also shot in Hawaii (standing in for the Maharaja’s island). We can only imagine the frequent flyer miles that Sandler has built up by this point.
With Sandler back producing in addition to starring, the new movie has Jeremy Garelick taking over directing duties from the original’s Kyle Newacheck, while James Vanderbilt returns to write the script again.
The cast, in addition to Sandler, Aniston, Akhtar and Strong, includes Mélanie Laurent, Jodie Turner-Smith, Kuhoo Verma, Annie Mumolo, Carlos Ponce, Tony Goldwyn, John Kani and Dany Boon.
‘Murder Mystery 2’ will be on Netflix on March 31st.