Murder Mystery of Adam Sandler wastes all his potential

Sandler wears Danny Meyerowitz's mustache (that's fine!) And plays the role of Nick Spitz, a New York policeman who has given nothing to his heart and who has never given his wife obsessed with the mystery mystery mystery, Audrey (Aniston), that he had promised her before getting married. The closest thing to their vacation together was a trip to a funeral in the Poconos. Realizing the eve of her fifteenth wedding anniversary that the $ 50 Amazon gift card purchased at the corner of the bodega probably will not cut her, Nick finally rushes and books a flight to Spain with the project to take an extremely economical budget. Continental circuit by bus without air conditioning. The highlight: a visit to the small Italian town where they can finally learn how to make smoked ham.

But fate quickly offers a more glamorous alternative. By sneaking into first class to steal a pair of free earplugs, Audrey befriends Charles Cavendish (Luke Evans), a fabulously wealthy English aristocrat. He is plastered as he travels to Spain for an unpleasant occasion: his uncle billionaire, Malcolm Quince (Terence Stamp), will marry the former fiancee of Charles, Suzi (Shioli Kutsuna), and has invited his friends relations during a pleasure cruise. In order to annoy the other guests, Charles asks the Spitz to join him on his uncle's super-yacht.

Soon, they will devour hors-d'oeuvres and clumsy hobnobera with a cast of 1% fools and scoffers that includes a tasteless British movie star (Gemma Arterton); a single-armed and one-eyed Namibian colonel (John Kani); and a Spanish Formula 1 driver (Luis Gerardo Méndez) whose command of English seems to be limited to answering journalists' questions at press conferences. It turns out that Quince, a world-class curmudgeon, invited them all for the sole purpose of dissuading them before signing a new testament, leaving all his fortune to Suzi and depriving Charles and the others of their inheritance. Not lacking half-blood and possible motives among the guests, it is not surprising that the old man will soon be found dead with a ceremonial dagger coming out of his chest.

Nick and Audrey know they have fallen into a mystery of murder. They know the clichés and the rules – including the one that says the most superfluous characters are the most likely culprits. Ironically, this makes Spitz the main suspect in the eyes of the Interpol officer (Dany Boon), an accuser of French-language channels, who takes care of the chain and takes the case in hand when the yacht docked at Monte Carlo. The fact that Nick lied to Audrey about a promotion (and their ability to afford this late honeymoon) because he is too embarrassed to admit that he failed the detective investigation. help their credibility.

This is perhaps the definition of a low eulogy to note that Murder Mystery has one of the tightest scenarios of all movies produced under the Happy Madison banner; it was written by James Vanderbilt, who once wrote Zodiac, one of the great modern movies about our fascination with the mysteries. But the mystery itself is theoretical and, despite its juxtaposed whimsical and constant winks to the public, never smart enough to really work like a parody of genre. Instead, the film only follows the strength of the easy report of Aniston and Sandler; He is quieter, less crude, and less misanthropic than Sandler's average comedy, with an odious secondary role of Nick Swardson or Rob Schneider.

In fact, director Kyle Newacheck (Comedy Central's Workaholic) seems to be so focused on keeping the light of the film on his feet that he never cares to generate a sense of danger, even if the other Spitz guests continue to fall dead. Compared to something like David Fincher-spoofing Night of game, who has had some of his biggest and most tortuous laughs while playing the suspense and violence against oblivion of his central married couple, he feels a lost potential. Murder Mystery may have some shots on goal and even a car chase, but Nick and Audrey never seem more than slightly disturbed. The result is only slightly amusing.