The Accountant 2

This was the one film I wanted to see the most at SXSW and I was lucky enough to see the world premier and left more than pleased. Jon Bernthal really explodes on screen and you can feel the joy he gets from pushing his brothers buttons in the most entertaining way possible. These two have real, believable chemistry and brought something both familiar and unexpected while delivering a story that isn't the same ole buddy trope the way other films seem to struggle. Jon's comic relief blends perfectly with Ben's robotic, emotionlessness. It feels like anything can and will happen at any moment...and it does! I hope we see these two characters together again sooner than later!

The Accountant 2 opens with tired beats and immediately falls into formula. The writing is weak, loaded with bad cop movie tropes, flat exposition, and attempts at humor that land with a thud. Cynthia Addai-Robinson's performance is especially wooden-zero chemistry, no urgency, and completely lifeless delivery. The score sounds like stock suspense cues pulled from a bargain bin, draining scenes of any weight. Ben Affleck's portrayal of Christian feels like a caricature of a character, not a person. Jon Bernthal is the lone bright spot, managing to bring grit and humanity despite the clunky lines. Slick on the surface, hollow underneath. 4/10.

The Accountant 2 doubles down on the action and humor over the first film. It does however try to juggle too many subplots that are poorly connected, leading to a less coherent film and a lack of a singular, hateable villain.

On the plus side, making Jon Bernthal a co-lead this time was incredibly smart. He and Affleck have great chemistry and Bernthal's Braxton is both a lethal threat and downright hilarious. This is easily his best role since The Punisher.

Like the first film, action isn't the primary focus, with a lot of time spent on enjoyable character moments. But when the action does arrive, it really delivers. Depending on what the new Mission: Impossible has in store for us, the Juarez shootout in this film may go down as the best action sequence of the year.

Again, I wish more of the character development had been focused on the villains, so we'd have a central antagonist who seems like a real threat. Instead we get several boring micro-villains.

I also wish the writing and editing were working in better harmony to bring us a more coherent story.

But all that said, Affleck and Bernthal have charm to spare, the final act is awesome, and this is a decent follow up to the admittedly better first film. 7/10.

I really like The Accountant. It dared to change the action movie lead role with an autistic character, providing a very interesting role. How would the combination of strengths and weaknesses that The Accountant's condition play out in the dangerous world of international criminals and hitmen?

It was this combination of obsessive/compulsive need for order and completion, combined with an inability to empathise or understand social interactions, that made Affleck's character, Christian Wolff, so interesting.

In the sequel, the writing is not as focused on Affleck in the same way. Instead the focus is on the relationship between him and his brother (Bernthal). While well acted, this simply does not have the same appeal. The movie shines when Wolff's neurodivergence is front and centre, but otherwise it feels like any other generic action-thriller (albeit a well-done one).

There is, in fact, little to no accounting in this movie.

In short, the accountant 2 is a detective-comedy, with a heavy focus on Ben Affleck's dating-life, with little to no guns or gunfights.

In the first movie, after an accounting job goes south, Ben Affleck chooses to face the heat in order to save the life of his coworker/potential love-interest Anna Kendrick, while revealing his unique lifestyle, skillset, and backstory, as the world's least boring accountant.

In this movie, Ben decides to team up with the feds and play detective, in order to find the family of illegal immigrants who went missing 10 years ago.

The ending of the movie is pretty grim (spoilers ahead) - Ben and his brother team up in order to save a bunch of children from being BURIED ALIVE, their only reason being that one of the kids might be neuro-divergent, just like Ben. The lack of law-enforcment intervention in this scene is concerning. What would have happened if none of the kids were autistic? Would they all just be buried alive?

Overall i found the plot to be very confusing. One major plot-point is that "the mom" is actually the cool assassin-lady who has amnesia. The only problem is that she looks nothing like the person we get to see in the photos. It sure made for a confusing watch.

Overall, the accountant 2 has very little to do with the first movie, both in theme, and in who the characters are.