Adam Sandler is a bit like moss. Nobody really likes him, but somehow, he's still around, no matter how much you try to get rid of him. Weird thing is, I actually really like Adam Sandler. Maybe his filmography is pretty poor (although Punch Drunk Love is genuinely masterful and I urge you to see it if you haven't already), but he actually seems like a really nice guy. Shame Murder Mystery doesn't do much to get him out of the slump he's been in for the last two decades. This is a pretty lazy film, a paint-by-numbers comedy whodunit that doesn't have much to do or say, instead kind of limping its way through some pretty generic story beats. It follows Sandler and Jennifer Aniston's married couple, who live a pretty dull life, until a holiday in Europe leads them onto Luke Evans' yacht, which becomes the scene of a grizzly murder, leading our heroes to try to figure out just who did it
The performances are all pretty one note here. Sandler isn't great, but he's definitely better than he's been before, so thank god for small blessings. Aniston doesn't even feel like she's acting, just kind of on autopilot for the whole thing while getting the occasionally funny quip. I guess her character is into crime novels, but it's only mentioned a few times, but good try at giving her character traits I guess? The other characters are kind of a cartoony gallery of potential killers, none of them particularly memorable, but none of them notably bad. They're all kind of entertaining actually, not well developed but still mildly fun. The reveal of who did it isn't especially obvious, but maybe that's because I didn't really care enough to notice any foreshadowing. Still, it's kind of a surprise when it happens, but again, that could be from a lack of plot development.
The jokes are kind of flaccid. I didn't laugh.... at all. Granted, I didn't groan at anything either. The jokes are incredibly unfunny, but they aren't painful or anything. There's nothing overly crass or annoyingly low brow. They're just kind of there, not offensively bad but not actually funny, which creates a weird void where you know the laughs should be. The very French detective was kind of fun, but apart from that, nothing is zany or sharp enough to get much of a laugh. The catch with the merciful unfunniness is that, because there aren't many actual jokes, the film is just kind of boring. I'm thankful that it's not as crude or annoying as some of Adam Sandler's other offerings, but it's still so dull. Game Night did a similar idea much, much better, with better writing, better characters and actually funny jokes. Watch that instead.
I suppose the best things about Murder Mystery are the things that it doesn't do. There's no hackneyed emotional moment. I mean, there kind of is with this plot point about Adam Sandler lying about being s detective, but the film never stops to deliver some really forced emotional scene, instead just kind of addressing it a few times and then just moving on, so it kind of avoids the trap that far too many shitty modern comedies fall into. It's also mercifully short and pretty fast paced. Those 97 minutes are kind of boring, but the fact that it never overstays its welcome is pretty good, and it moves along at an enjoyably swift pace. The jokes stay away from being offensively bad, which they easily could have strayed into, which is another small mercy in a film of plenty
Murder Mystery is generic, bland, and fairly boring. It's plot is far from original, but a lack of laughs and a tendency to play things by numbers means that it's not even really a parody. It doesn't even really have fun with itself, instead just kind of happening. Is it bad? Yeah, but it really isn't the worst. It's a decent diversion but not much else, semi-enjoyable in the moment but it doesn't linger at all. It's a pretty flat film, one that never tries to be more than it is, instead just kind of settling for its own flatness. It's not great, but it could have been worse, so ultimately, it's just kind of meh
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