The Accountant²

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://talkingfilms.net/the-accountant-2-review-ben-affleck-and-jon-bernthal-shine-in-a-surprisingly-superior-sequel/ "The Accountant 2 turns out to be a surprisingly superior sequel to the original, driven by the smart bet on the fraternal relationship between Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal. Featuring more polished action set pieces, genuinely funny moments, and enough emotional depth to engage the audience, Gavin O'Connor delivers a story that is both highly entertaining and thrilling, falling short of greatness only due to an overabundance of secondary threads and occasional narrative loss of focus. Still, the impeccable chemistry of its lead duo and the honest - if imperfect - attempt to tackle sensitive topics with respect guarantee a personal recommendation for anyone looking for a pleasant night out at the movies." Rating: B+

To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about the original “Accountant” (2016) so wasn’t expecting much from this. Thing is, it’s quite good fun as the meticulous bean-counter with some deep, dark, secrets (Ben Affleck) has to team up with his estranged brother “Braxton” (Jon Bernthal) and an even less willing government agent “Medina” (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to try to discover just why her boss (J.K. Simmons) was gunned down after a clandestine meeting in a dodgy nightclub. It seems that the siblings have more in common that we (or she) might have expected, and when their techniques manage to successfully marry one’s access to cutting edge technology with the other’s propensity to punch first and sweep up after, she finds herself terribly conflicted. It all seems to come down to some heinous people-trafficking thugs who will stop at nothing to protect their lucrative business and to thwart their investigations, and so some high-stakes assassins are soon on the trail of our intrepid trio. Nope, there’s nothing especially original here. It’s a sort of “John Wick” meets the “A-Team” sort of exercise that allows Affleck to sport a rather odd-sounding accent and Bernthal to wander around in his Calvins exuding a sort of comedy menace that his tattoos do nothing to increase. It’s the latter man who entertainingly does most of the heavy lifting here as the gung-ho enforcer and there’s just an hint of social comment in the form of those scouring the internet to piece together jigsaw puzzles from cameras and fragments of information, but whom society might not have expected to possess such formidably cerebral skills. The denouement does rather run to type, but there’s an abundance of chemistry between the two men that stays the right side of familial sentiment whilst Robinson tries to make sense of it all without an enormous amount of meat on the bones of her role. It’s an enjoyable action adventure that won’t trouble any awards juries, ever, but effortlessly passes a couple of hours and does make you consider just how much of our lives these days is being monitored, recorded and manipulated without us being even vaguely aware.