Kyle Newacheck | Nina Soden

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TITLE: Murder Mystery (2019)
DIRECTOR: Kyle Newacheck
WRITERS: James Vanderbilt
STARS: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Luke Evans, and Terence Stamp
GENRE(S): Action, Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Romance
RUNTIME: 97 minutes
RATED: PG-13

SHOW RATING OVERVIEW

WRITING: ★★★  CINEMATOGRAPHY: ★★★ STORY: ★★★ ACTING: ★★★
OVERALL: ★★★

STORYLINE:

A New York cop and his wife go on a European vacation to reinvigorate the spark in their marriage, but end up getting framed and on the run for the death of an elderly billionaire.

MY 2 CENTS:

Writing: ★★★ The writing is really the only thing holding this film together and it wasn’t that great. It has a decent plot – a New York cop and his wife go on a vacation they probably can’t afford and they end up getting framed for the murder of a billionaire. I guess they would have motive because they don’t have much money to start with, but come on.

Alternate Ending… There were hints at the beginning of the film… Jennifer Aniston’s character commented on how her husband, played by Adam Sandler, never listens. She has wanted to go on this vacation for years. In fact, it’s their honeymoon, but they have been married for a pretty long time already. Second hint… he was reading a murder mystery on the plane – she loves them. Where, as an author, I thought the film should go was that Adam Sandler was saving money for years, planning the perfect murder mystery vacation for his wife. In the end we would find out it was all a big game, just like in the movie The Game.

Nope, that isn’t what happened. You’ll just have to watch it for yourself to see the disappointing end.

Cinematography: ★★★ There were some decent shots when they were in the car chase, but other than that, the cinematography was nothing to write home about.

Story: ★★★ I thing I covered this when I was talking about the writing. I would have done things a bit different with the ending to allow for a plot twist that this movie failed to give the viewers.

Acting: ★★★ I’ve never been a huge fan of Adam Sandler; he tends to yell to much in his films. However, he didn’t do that in this one. No, in fact, he was very subdued. The acting wasn’t terrible, but it could have been better.

I like Jennifer Aniston, I have since her time on Friends, but she is a lot like Brad Pitt… nice to look at but a little one noted when it comes to character development.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:

“All women are actresses, dear. I’m just clever enough to get paid for it.”