Deuces Wild: Adam Sandler -“Murder Mystery 1 and 2”
The most puzzling thing about “Murder Mystery” is that it asks us to believe that Jennifer Aniston is so poor and thrifty, that instead of paying for $9 headphones on an anniversary trip to Europe, she’ll rather plug her ears with airplane peanuts. (Listen, I’m a peasant. I’ve paid for instantly obsolete headphones on flights. It’s robbery. AGREED.) But this isn’t Jennifer Aniston’s problem! Jennifer Aniston’s toilet paper is made by children in a sweatshop in the Maldives and woven from the rarest of Maldivian spider silk. She happily spends $800 for every roll of the magic fabric that softly collects fecal matter from her whimsically puckered asshole. Half-a-billionaire Adam Sandler is only slightly less believable as the cheap cop who settles for the $50 Amazon card on his wife’s 15th anniversary. But as Nick and Audrey Spitz, they have bantery chemistry that makes “Murder Mystery” a surprisingly fun watch. They get trapped on an unlikely Agatha Christie situation, dealing with any number of quirky characters. Because neither Rian Johnson nor Kenneth Branagh are involved, there are no attempts to even remotely dignify the mystery. BUT! THE BUTLER DID IT! That alone was brilliant, making this one of the best Adam Sandler / Netflix efforts. (Dir. Kyle Newchek, 2021).
Adam Sandler’s movies have long been predicated on where he wants studios (and now mostly Netflix) to send him on vacation. In “Murder Mystery 2” he takes Jennifer Aniston to a Hindu wedding, complete with an elephant, and then the “mystery” moves to Paris. The clueless, early critics of the murder mystery genre, like Edmund White, pointed out its emotional and psychological weakness. (“Why do we care that X got killed? And is EVERYONE in the room really a psychopathic murderer”) They missed the point entirely. Murder mysteries, like escape rooms, are entirely escapist. It’s not about murder or psychological reality, but about alternate ways to address the world in which solutions are found to problems. They are conservative by nature, and more closely related to fantasy than most realize. This may very well be the deepest comment ever devoted to “Murder Mystery 2,” a sequel that ups the action budget while remaining silly and basic (I recommend this to regular movie watchers). (Dir. Jeremy Garelick).
HANSEL CASTRO'S HALLUCINA 