Aniston, Sandler aim to pull off another smash hit with ‘Murder Mystery 2’
By Guillermo Azabal
Los Angeles, Mar 31 (EFE).- Not withstanding the star power of Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, few saw the mass viewership potential of “Murder Mystery” when it was released in 2019 on Netflix.
Four years on, that comedy/mystery film ranks as one of the most-watched original films on that streaming service despite being mostly panned by critics.
And Netflix now is banking on a repeat hit with “Murder Mystery 2,” which was released on Friday.
American filmmaker Jeremy Garelick took the reins from Kyle Newacheck for the sequel, which once again will try to win over audiences with its lighthearted, silly humor and whodunit plot.
After solving their first murder, married couple Nick and Audrey Spitz (Sandler and Aniston), now full-time detectives with a new private agency, are invited to celebrate the wedding of their wealthy Maharajah friend (played by Adeel Akhtar) on his private island.
Soon they have another mystery to solve when the groom is kidnapped the night before the wedding and held for a $70 million ransom.
Among those suspected in the crime are the wedding guests, family members, the bride herself and even the Spitzes, who are instructed by the kidnappers to personally hand over the ransom money in Paris.
“In the first one we were rookies. Now we kind of understand how to do it. We get murder now. We like murder,” the 56-year-old Sandler joked in a sit-down interview with Efe.
“We don’t like murder,” Aniston said, shaking her head.
Other cast members of “Murder Mystery 2” include Mark Strong (in the role of Conner Miller, a former MI6 hostage negotiator), Melanie Laurent (Claudette Joubert, a French model and the Maharajah’s fiancee) and Enrique Arce (Francisco, a former soccer star), who rose to stardom thanks to his role in the hit Spanish-language Netflix series “La casa de papel” (Money Heist).
Sandler, who also co-starred with the 54-year-old Aniston in the 2011 romantic comedy “Just Go With It,” said the two have an excellent professional relationship.
“I like this woman. She’s funny as hell. I have a nice time with her. She’s caring. She literally cares about me more than I care about me … She tries to take care of me. She wants me to have a long life. Not everybody wants a long life. I’m OK if I’m out tomorrow,” the actor deadpanned. EFE
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