Murder Mystery 2
Four years ago, Murder Mystery starring Jennifer Aniston as Audrey Spitz and Adam Sandler as her husband Nick was a big hit on Netflix. The inevitable sequel has arrived and the pair have now set up a private detective agency. They are struggling to stay in business but when they attend a wedding and the groom, their friend The Maharaja (Adeel Akhtar), is kidnapped and they attempt to track down the guilty parties. Similarly to the first film, this starts a little sluggishly but definitely picks up once the couple get to the wedding celebrations. Once again, they are surrounded by a motley group, all of whom have reasons to kidnap their host and the laughs come pretty easily from then on. Sandler has good chemistry with Aniston, and now his 3 best comedic films have her playing opposite him.
Rating: 7 out of 10

Faithfully Yours
Bodil Backer (Bracha van Doesburgh) and Isabel Luijten (Elise Schaap) are best friends living in Amsterdam who regularly take girls trips. Although married, they both use that time to sleep with other people, each giving the other one an alibi. On one such trip to Ostend, Isabel disappears and Bodil has to decide how much of the truth to tell the police and their husbands. Although not exactly ground breaking this thriller keeps the suspense going pretty well despite the last of many twists being fairly obvious. Both women are convincing and the score by Laurens Goedhart and Fons Merkies is atmospheric.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Mother’s Day
Just how many films have been made in recent years about a retired special forces operative that has to use their skills to rescue a family member? In this case, it is Agnieszka Grochowska who stars as Nina Nowak who needs to find and save her son. Grochowska is actually excellent, equipping herself well in the fight scenes and there is a nice squelchy electronic score. However, the plot is too straightforward and the villains cartoonish.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Heatwave
Kat Graham stars as the ambitious Claire Valens, who starts working for Scott Crane (Sebastian Roché), a successful and rich businessman, without realising that it is his wife, Eve (Merritt Patterson), that she is having an affair with. Heatwave is reminiscent of the sort of erotic thrillers that were popular on DVD in the 1980’s and 90’s. The first half has little more to offer other than some brief and steamy lesbian sex scenes, set to a low key jazzy score. It gets much better when Scott disappears and Claire is the main suspect. As she tries to clear her name, the plot twists pleasingly and ends satisfyingly.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Also this month:

Kiss Kiss is a Polish romantic comedy about a womaniser who falls in love. Lacking laughs and the lead character is loathsome. In fact none of the men in the film are remotely likable. Only Kamila Kaminska impresses in a small role.

From Saudi Arabia, The Matchmaker is a dull thriller about an office worker who becomes obsessed with an intern and follows her to a mysterious resort.

Royalteen: Princess Margrethe is an unwelcome sequel. The central character is as vacuous as the story.

The Awkward Weekend takes a well worn premise of a group of friends go on a trip and find their friendships coming into question. Lots of frantic mugging but laughter free.

I did not have much of an opinion of the model and actress Anna Nicole Smith before the documentary Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me. It is intended to garner sympathy for her tragic life but she just comes across as talentless and money-grabbing. Ultimately though, my feelings involved wondering why anyone would care enough about her to warrant a feature length doc.

Ratings out of 10:
Kiss Kiss: 2
The Matchmaker: 3.5
Royalteen: Princess Margrethe: 2
The Awkward Weekend: 3.5
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me: 4