“Murder Mystery 2”, debuting March 31st on Netflix, is Jennifer Aniston’s first film since the *first* “Murder Mystery” movie, which was released nearly four years ago. Aniston has spent much of the in-between period of time filming AppleTV+ drama series “The Morning Show”, with Season 3 expected to debut later this year. And, of course, she reunited with her “Friends” castmates for the high-profile HBO Max special.
Over the past year, I’ve been watching “Friends” (for the first time) and really enjoying it. Aniston won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance as Rachel Green. She played that character for 10 years, during which she also lent her voice to “The Iron Giant” and starred in films such as “Office Space”, “The Good Girl”, “Bruce Almighty” and “Along Came Polly”.
Aniston kicked-off her big screen post-“Friends” period with thriller “Derailed”, dramedy “Friends with Money” and rom-coms “Rumor Has It” and “The Break-Up”. Box office hits “Marley & Me” (2008), “He’s Just Not That Into You” (2009), “The Bounty Hunter” (2010) and 2011 duo “Just Go With It” and “Horrible Bosses” followed. I saw Aniston receive her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in early 2012, around the release of “Wanderlust”. “We’re the Millers” was a much bigger success the following year.
In 2014, Aniston starred in the indie drama “Cake”, alongside Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington and real-life husband and wife Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy. Aniston’s performance as Claire earned her Golden Globe, Critics Choice and SAG Awards Best Actress nominations, but she was snubbed by The Academy. She still attended the 2015 Oscars, joining fellow acting snub David Oyelowo (“Selma”) on stage to present Best Documentary Feature. Host Neil Patrick Harris introduced them as “two people who absolutely deserve to be here tonight”.
Aniston starred in three films in 2016 — Garry Marshall’s final picture, “Mother’s Day”, the animated comedy “Storks” and live-action holiday comedy “Office Christmas Party”. Her 2018 movie was Netflix’s Dolly Parton and pageantry mix “Dumplin'”. And on the way… a body swap comedy with Julia Roberts.