Comedy sequels are infamously worse than its initial version. Think “Caddyshack II” or maybe “Men in Black II.”
“I’ve never seen one that was better than the first one,” said film director Jeremy Garelick.
But every once in a while, the sequel outshines the original.
That certainly seems to be the case with “Murder Mystery 2: Deux or Die,” now streaming on Netflix.
On Thursday, March 30 at the American High building in Liverpool, nearly 300 hundred curious movie-goers turned out to see the new movie directed by Garelick, founder of American High. Ana Olano, another American High staffer, worked as Garelick’s assistant director on the movie.
American High head of production praised Garelick’s comedy chops.
“Jeremy is one of the funniest screenwriters of all time,” Will Phelps told the audience.
As evidence, Phelps listed some of Garelick’s earlier script credits, “The Hangover, “The Break Up” and “The Wedding Ringer”
Screened at the old school’s auditorium at 800 Fourth St., “Murder Mystery 2” stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston as Nick and Audrey Spitz, a cop and his hairdresser wife.
In the original film released in 2019, Sandler and Aniston play a couple who take a vacation in Europe where they get framed for a murder.
In “MM2,” the Spitzes are now full-time private detectives who find themselves at the center of an international abduction when their friend, the Maharajah, is kidnapped at his own lavish wedding.
Three years ago at American High, Garelick directed “The Binge” which included several wild party scenes, but nothing like the ill-fated wedding event. The “MM2” dance scene would be the envy of Bollywood. Cue the elephant!
From there, Garelick and his cast are off and running. And running rapidly!
The pacing of this humorous whodunit clocks in at breakneck speed. Supported by a seemingly bottomless budget, Garelick managed to film awesome action sequences, some involving jet skis, multiple helicopters, exploding vehicles and a car crash into a Parisian coffeehouse.
One of the movie’s most gripping scenes is a duel to the death inside a van speeding down the streets of Paris between our heroic couple and some ax-wielding kidnappers. But even that dynamic action is trumped by the finale on the Eiffel Tower in which Audrey is dangled from the tower’s crown.
In a 45-minute question-and-answer session following Thursday’s screening, Garelick said such scenes required “plenty of prep and a lot of effects.”
The cost of the needed technology was covered by what Garelick called the film’s “huge” budget, “bigger than all the American High movies put together.”
Five different production companies collaborated on the new movie, including Sandler’s own Happy Madison Productions, plus Echo Films, Mythology Entertainment, Vinson Films and Endgame Entertainment.
The 47-year-old Garelick reminded Thursday’s audience that one of his goals at American High is to offer opportunities to younger actors and filmmakers. He made sure that a couple of talented American High actresses were cast in this major Netflix product.
One is Kuhoo Verma who plays the Maharajah’s kid sister, and the other is Jillian Bell who makes a decidedly late entrance at the Eiffel Tower as the love-struck Susan.
“Kuhoo was in ‘Plan B,’” Garelick recalled. American High produced that teen comedy back in 2021. “And Jillian is a very funny actress and also a writer. She’s writing a film that we’ll produce here later this year.”
Two weeks ago, Garelick attended a premiere screening of “MM2” at the Eiffel Tower in Paris and on Tuesday, March 28, he attended a premiere at the Regrncy Village Theatre in Los Angeles.
“It was nice what we did in L.A. and Paris,” Garelick told the Liverpool audience, “but this screening here means so much more to me, here at the home of American High.”