Review: 'Murder Mystery', Adam Sandler And Jennifer Aniston's Whodunnit Is No Killer Comedy

     

Netflix has become a haven for films that would fall flat on the big screen. Most comedies on the streaming platform could be categorized as such, though a few have their merits. Murder Mystery,the latest collaboration between Netflix and Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, definitely can be described as the former. Though parts of the film will get a few laughs, Murder Mystery fails to be a killer comedy. 

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston star in this caper comedy as the Spitz’s, stuck in marriage rut, looking to spark things up.  Sandler plays Nick, a cop who, out of obligation, takes his wife Audrey (Aniston) on a long over due honeymoon to Europe. He is lying to Audrey about many things, including how this vacation is being paid for and failing his detective’s exam.  While on the plane, Audrey meets Charles Cavendish, an heir with a broken heart and major uncle issues as his ex fiancé left him and married his uncle Malcolm (Terence Stamp) for his fortune. After being invited on Malcolm’s boat by Charles and meeting a whole array of characters, Audrey and Nick are witness to fine food, drink, accommodations and murder.  With millions of dollars on the line and many heirs gunning for their inheritance, everyone on the boat becomes a suspect, including the couple. As they race across the Mediterranean to prove their innocence, people from that fateful night keep getting murdered, forcing the Spitz’s to solve the murders and their marriage. 

Aniston and Sandler are subtly charming with what they are given, with Sandler pulling back from his normally over the top characters into a subdued New York cop. This might be the most “straight man” we have ever seen Sandler, as the cop, as well as a full blown caterpillar mustache, suits him. Aniston plays his tired but sweet wife, who loves murder mysteries and just wants to take an over due vacation with her husband. The subdued and curmudgeonly Sandler has a few good one liners and as usual Aniston bounces off of him pretty well.

The real wasted potential falls with the rag tag team of suspects. Adeel Akhtar (The Big Sick), John Kani (Black Panther), and Luis Gerardo Méndez (Netflix’s Club de Cuervos) are severely underused and play into the borderline offensive racial portrayals of a Happy Madison production. For example, Méndez’s character cannot speak any English and Akhtar’ character has a moment where he can’t “perform.” They could receive a pass because these traits could just be applicable to the characters and not to the cultures they come from, however it doesn’t always sit well given recent strides and demands for better racial representation.  

Luke Evans, who still seems to be looking his star-making performance, falls into the background as the mysterious and scorned nephew of the victim and the ex-fiancé of his uncle’s new wife. Like the rest of the cast, he isn’t given much to work with and seems underused. I normally really gravitate toward Gemma Arterton’s (Their Finest) performances, but as a vapid actress, she fell flat. Her storyline felt strung together at the last minute and parts overacted. 

Despite some solid lines and comedic moments, the film feels sleepy, like its not awakened to its full potential. Like any Happy Madison production, it relies on archetypes of the genre, though not as heavily as its previous films. This means that instead of creating in-depth characters, stereotypes for comedic effect will have to do. None of the suspect’s backstories are really explored in a memorable way, which is a shame as it would pull the audience into the story more than the stale marriage of Sandler’s and Aniston’s characters. That’s really all the emotional depth the film has to offer, but there are a few solid comedic moments anchoring it. As a summer flick it’s pretty mindlessly enjoyable, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Sandler and Happy Madison. 

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Review: 'The Big Sick' Is The Best Romantic Comedy You'll See This Year

NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. The Big Sick opens in DC on June 30th. 

Take all of the competing elements in Michael Showalter's The Big Sick and it sounds like a movie trying to hit every festival niche at once. It's all at once a movie about overcoming disease, a story about cultural assimilation, a movie about stand-up comedians, a coming of age tale, and a rom-com. On the surface it shouldn't work at all,  but given the personal touches included by writer and star Kumail Nanjiani and co-writer Emily V. Gordon, every single moment feels authentic, which makes those moments all the funnier.

Nanjiani is playing a version of himself, a Chicago comedian who doubles as an Uber driver. Gordon, who is Nanjani's real-life wife, is portrayed by Zoe Kazan, and yes this is the story of their rather unconventional courtship. Born to a very traditional Pakistani family, Kumail faces their disapproval on a number of fronts. They don't support his standup career really, but his mother really doesn't like his refusal to marry a nice Muslim woman. All he wants to do is live his life, but at the same time he wants the love and approval of his parents.

So Kumail is naturally conflicted when he meets Emily after a gig in which she lightly heckles him. After schooling her on the intricacies of the heckle, "Heckling doesn't have to be negative", they begin a reluctant relationship in which neither wants to commit. He institutes a silly two-day rule, she keeps trying to break things off after each date, but more and more they begin to lean on one another. But when he starts trying to school her on cheap B-movie horror movies...yeah, that's what did it.

Fans of Kumail and Emily's various projects together will probably already know their story, but if not you'll recognize how deeply personal this material is to both. Fear of losing his family causes Kumail to be an idiot, and things with Emily break off in spectacularly bad fashion. It all happens just as his stand-up career is beginning to look up, with a prime slot at a Montreal festival looming if he can keep it together. While his friends (including SNL's Aidy Bryant) try to pull him out of his funk, things only get worse when he learns Emily is in the ICU with a mysterious illness. With no family in town, Kumail is pressed into allowing the doctors to place her in a medically-induced coma so they can figure out the problem. That's some heavy shit, man.

Believe it or not, things actually get much heavier, but there are always moments of levity to lighten the mood. Ray Romano and Holly Hunter play Emily's parents, who fly into town and are at first perplexed why Kumail is still hanging around after the break-up. It could be argued that the screenplay doesn't allow much time for the darker emotional moments to just exist on their own without some kind of joke to follow, and that is a fair point. But I also think it's tough for Romano, whose character is kind of a wuss compared to the firebrand Hunter, to not be funny even when he isn't trying to be.

And so the film takes a turn into a very different kind of film. With Emily in a coma the focus becomes on parents, and how Kumail works to earn the love of two different sets of them. His own, of course, but also Emily's. We learn about Emily by watching her parents, who both have their issues, and at the same time Kumail learns to love Emily deeper by getting to know the people who love her most.

With Judd Apatow on board as a producer the film comes with some serious mainstream muscle, but it also has some of his worst filmmaking traits. Like Apatow's Funny People, the film pushes a bit too hard on Kumail and his stand-up pals. There's a lot of material there that didn't need to be included, especially with his unfunny and intrusive roommate. Also, some scenes just feel like extended bits and don't add much to what we know about Kumail. It wouldn't be so bad but the movie is overlong and its these scenes that slow things down drastically. There's so much that works that you can't help but notice what doesn't. Jokes about our dependency on technology, usually a red flag for me because everybody does them to try and seem hip, are some of the film's best. And  this may be the one movie that can tell jokes about 9/11 that don't feel crass. There are a handful that Kumail tells and one got such a reaction from the audience that we missed the next four minutes because of all the laughter.

The Big Sick doesn't offer up any easy solutions for Kumail. This is a guy who is dealing with thousands of years of tradition heaped onto his shoulders. Breaking away from that is going to cause some people a lot of pain. At the same time, things aren't so easy to figure out when Emily wakes up. He may have become a changed man in the time she was sick, but it's great that her concerns when awake are made paramount. This isn't just Kumail's story, it's the story of Kumail and Emily, and she has her own thoughts on his supposed transformation. Of course, we know there's going to be a happy ending, but at least by the end of The Big Sick we feel Kumail and Emily deserve it.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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Famke Janssen Back for 'Taken 3'; Guy Pearce Boards 'Black Mass'; Adeel Akhtar is Smee in 'Pan'

* For a movie that promises nobody will be taken, everybody who was taken before seems to be returning. Famke Janssen has agreed to come back for Taken 3, joining Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace as members of Mills clan. It's always been kind of weird seeing Janssen, who traditionally has played very tough, strong women characters relegated to such a helpless role, but maybe she'll get a chance to show a little more this time. Eh, doubtful. Taken 3 will again be directed by Olivier Megaton.

* Guy Pearce has joined Black Mass, the Whitey Bulger biopic fronted by Johnny Depp and co-starring Joel Edgerton. Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace) is directing the film which centers on Bulger, the Boston mobster and FBI informant who used his dual position to gain power in the criminal ranks. With the help of his childhood friends, who happened to be FBI agents, he escaped arrest and went on the run until his capture in 2011. Pearce will play one of Bulger's two brothers. [Variety]

* Finally, a little bit of that international flavor Joe Wright promised for his Peter Pan origin story, Pan. Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions) has been cast as Smee, the right hand-man to Garrett Hedlund's Captain Hook. They join Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard and Rooney Mara as the Native American princess, Tiger Lily. Pan is set to open July 17th 2015. [TheWrap]

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