USA TODAY International Edition
Aniston, Sandler spoof stardom
When you achieve a certain level of superstardom, people no longer call your films by their given titles. Instead, they’re labeled “that Jennifer Aniston movie” or “the new Adam Sandler comedy.”
Such is the case with the latest Netflix romp (streaming Friday) that also has the name “Murder Mystery.”
It’s an Aniston movie, a Sandler comedy and, yes, a murder mystery that features the movie stars as a near-broke married couple who go on a 15years-delayed European honeymoon, and wind up being invited on a billionaire’s yacht, where a murder takes place.
The characters are Audrey and Nick Spitz, but since they’re embodied by two of the richest, most famous actors on the planet (both consistently rank on Forbes’ list of the highest-paid list of actors in Hollywood), it may be hard for viewers to forget who they’re watching.
And it’s actually funnier if they don’t.
Here are five times in “Murder Mystery” when Aniston and Sandler wound up poking fun at their own celebrity:
1. Audrey (Aniston) sneaks into first class, is asked to leave
“I’m so sorry,” Audrey gasps when she’s busted by a flight attendant, who asks her to leave the plane’s bar. “I will head to the lower-class cabin and sit where I should. Shovel some coal.”
On its surface, a joke about class systems on a plane isn’t terribly original. But a joke made by a celebrity who once starred in a commercial for the luxury airline Emirates, in which she has a nightmare that she’s on a plane without a bar, is silly.
“There’s a bar? There’s bars on planes now?!” Sandler’s Nick says. Apparently, he hasn’t seen Aniston’s commercial.
2. Nick (Sandler) gets completely starstruck
Upon seeing an actress he recognizes from a movie (Gemma Arterton), Nick is flabbergasted, forgets his wife’s name and can’t stop yelling.
“Look at this right in front of us! I feel like I got kicked in the belly right now! I lost my wind!” he exclaims. “This is great!”
The reaction is especially funny when you realize Sandler is probably doing an impression of one of the many fans he meets daily.
The actor (whose four-picture Netflix deal includes “Murder Mystery”) once told Jennifer Lawrence in a Variety conversation, “I get, every day, some love on the streets. When I’m out eating, people do pull up a chair.”
3. Audrey colors someone’s hair
Audrey is a hairstylist. That’s notable only because the former “Friends” star’s hair is almost as famous as she is. (Remember when “The Rachel” inspired a layered-hairstyle craze?)
But Aniston’s Audrey wears her hair in a loose braid and focuses on putting foil into her client’s hair. Her client? Molly McNearney, Jimmy Kimmel’s wife and Aniston’s good friend.
4. Audrey talks about a beautiful woman as if she’s not there, then reads gossip about her
“Wow, look. She’s so pretty,” Audrey says while she’s standing in front of Suzi Nakamura (Shioli Kutsuna), a gorgeous woman she doesn’t know. Then, Aniston’s character rudely continues, “She’s that kind of pretty that you don’t really know what country she’s from. I mean, I can’t tell. Can you tell?”
The woman answers the question she wasn’t directly asked: “Japan.”
Nick snaps Audrey out of her swoon state: “She can hear you. She’s not on television. You’re watching a real person.”
Aniston knows exactly what it’s like to hear people around you talking about your looks, your relationships and your life. She has written about her negative experiences with the tabloid media culture for Huffington Post and Marie Claire.
Which makes it comical when Audrey goes back to her room and researches the woman she just met: “We are literally right in the middle of a TMZ story!” she announces.
5. Audrey and Nick defend her shoe choice: “These are from Target!”
After Audrey tries to reason with Suzi about how “love is tough without money,” she is called out for her choice of footwear.
“I’ll take your word for it! You’re the one whose shoe’s still got a sticker from Marshalls on it,” Suzi snickers.
“How dare you! These are from Target!” says the star, who typically wears shoes by Stuart Weitzman and Saint Laurent, as she peels a sticker off her espadrilles.
In real life, plenty of fashionistas do take note of Aniston’s footwear not to mock, but to copy.
Recent headlines credit Aniston with making “studded heels a trend again” and “flip-flops look chic since ’99.”
Perhaps Aniston’s movie appearance can make discount wedges look good, too.