Murder Mystery 2

It plays better than it reviews — the watch lands harder than the write-ups suggest.

• “This film is a pleasure indeed. The concoction of Agatha Christie elegance with Sandler’s teetering on the edge of taste humor is high-impact relaxation, like a warm bath for your frontal lobes.”

  Michael Talbot-Haynes, Film Threat · 80

• “Sandler and Aniston mesh; they made you believe in Nick and Audrey’s cantankerous marriage, and in the love percolating just beneath the fighting. If what Nora Ephron devised was a clever Xerox of the rom-com, “Murder Mystery 2” is a Xerox of the Xerox, powered by a whodunit plot that’s a cheesy light parody of itself played just straight enough to work.”

  Owen Gleiberman, Variety · 70

• “It’s a time-filler, not a time-waster. It’s a film of simple pleasures — but they are pleasures.”

  Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine (Vulture) · 70

• “This time around, Murder Mystery 2 isn’t much of an actual murder mystery at all, less interested in the deductive skills of the Spitzes than in their indefatigable charm.”

  Dom Sinacola, Paste Magazine · 70

• “Murder Mystery 2 has no loftier goals than disposable entertainment for 90 minutes, and it gets the job done.”

  Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com · 63