*Warning: This article contains spoilers 

“Murder Mystery 2,” the Netflix sequel to “Murder Mystery,” stars Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in a comedy mystery. In this movie, the protagonists, Nick and Audrey Spitz, are amateur crime investigators who work to stop a murder by facilitating a prisoner exchange. This married couple are experiencing a mid-life crisis and it is through their struggles that the audience finds exhausted messages of overcoming hardship and staying true to those you love. 

Like any movie with Aniston and Sandler, the character dynamics are layered and realistic, furthering the comedic report between the characters. This relationship was the singular highlight of the entire movie, somehow stealing the audience’s attention when all other elements were boring and mundane. Smaller attractions such as the stunning scene design and remarkable costuming attracted the audience at the beginning of the film, but ultimately diminished over the course of the movie. 

The comedic relationship between these two famous actors is the glue that holds the film together. This sad truth underlines the most significant flaw in the movie – the plot is predictable and unremarkable. Perhaps the greatest example of its cliché mundanity is the kidnapping suspects. Each suspect has the typical reasons for being blamed – the sexist business partner who could inherit the whole company, the gold-digging bride who secretly signed a prenup, the angry ex-finance, the colonel who sacrificed an arm but was denied a promotion, and the seemingly perfect sister who is secretly jealous that her brother received the family business. As in a classic murder mystery, the only character that seems entirely innocent at the beginning–the sister–turns out to be the perpetrator. 

Netflix continued to flail at something ‘new’ when towards the end of the movie, the whole cast thought that the detective was the person behind the plot. To any person not on the screen, it was glaringly obvious that the detective was indeed a person for hire, as he had no motive to target this particular family. This evident observation was realized when the sister left the scene during the ‘plot reveal’ and came back not only with motive, but with a changed personality.  

Netflix has a long history of terrible sequels that are watched simply because the first movie was decent, and featured famous actors. “Murder Mystery 2” is movie that people start watching because the first movie was excellent and continue simply because Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sander have a comedic report. Other than these few redeeming qualities, “Murder Mystery 2” was unoriginal and full of typical Netflix murder mystery clichés. As Audrey proudly declares in the movie, “It’s just like a cliché of the genre.”