‘Criminals in sight’ gives more of the same with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler on Netflix: is it worth watching?

The 2019 comedy ‘Criminals at Sea’ was a huge hit for Netflixso it was not a surprise that, a few months later, it was announced that a sequel was in the works.

Four years and, of course, a pandemic later, the sequel has finally arrived, bringing together Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler as a married couple who dreams of becoming private detectives. Like the first movie, it doesn’t invent the wheel or ooze originality, but on the plus side it shows us Sandler at his least irritating, and Mark Strong gives the kind of deliciously grumpy performance we’ve seen from him in other comedies before. action (‘Shazam!’, the ‘Kingsman’ movies, etc.) in which he has participated.

‘Criminals in sight’ (that is the official title in Spanish of ‘Criminals at sea 2’) brings us up to date with the lives of Nick, a New York police officer, and Audrey, a hairdresser who loves mystery novels, after that they quit their day jobs to try to make a living as professional detectives (don’t worry if you haven’t seen the first movie, as the first few scenes sum it up nicely).

However, they’re not very good at solving mysteries, as we know, so when their old friend Vik (aka the Maharajah) invites them to his lavish, all-expenses-paid Pacific island wedding, they take advantage of the opportunity to go on a getaway. It will not be difficult for you to guess what happens next: In the pre-wedding festivities, Vik is kidnapped, and Nick and Audrey take it upon themselves to solve the crime..

There are a handful of suspects, including Jodie Turner-Smith as the Countess, and Inglourious Basterds’ Melanie Laurent as Vik’s fiancée, and the pair join the investigation along with stern ex-SAS man Connor Miller (Mark Strong). ), who arrives with his team to negotiate with the kidnappers.

If you’ve seen a movie before, and we mean any movie, not just a murder mystery, you’ll find out who’s to blame long before Nick and Audrey do (in fact, you probably guessed it from the summary above)but this movie never aspires to be an Agatha Christie puzzler or even one as twisted as ‘Knives in the Back’.

As with the first movie, the formula here is the chemistry of the leading stars (Aniston and Sandler) and the beautiful places they visit (Hawaii serves as Vik’s private island, and then the action moves to Paris) combined with an easy plot that doesn’t require much thought: it all adds up to a harmless crime comedy that relies heavily on appeal. for a family audience.

Of course, that means it all looks pretty normal: It’s not overly sexy, it’s mildly funny rather than eliciting big laughs, and despite some gunfights and fistfights, the camera always pans away. before any violent moment that could worry the censors (too bad, because a scene in which a death by helicopter blades in particular had the potential to be as memorable as the plane from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ if the camera I would not have cut before).

However, that doesn’t mean that ‘Criminals in the open’ isn’t a fun distraction. Aniston is charming throughout and stars in some of the best moments (and also one of the most impressive stunts, near the end), and there are such likable performances as Adeel Akhtar’s as Vik, Enrique Arce from ‘Money Heist’ as Vik’s business partner, Dany Boon as Inspector Delacroix and the aforementioned Mark Strong.

While we could criticize it for being a simple and undemanding movie, that’s actually what it’s selling from the start. It’s one of those movies where you can sit back, relax, and let it wash over you, and celebrate the stupidity of it all while doing it..