A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Accountant 2″ (2025).
It’s been nine years – NINE! – since Ben Affleck brought his character Christian Wolff to the big screen in “The Accountant”. I thought at the time it was pretty good (I gave it 3.5*s) and watching it again the other night as a refresher, it still holds up pretty well as a well-crafted thriller with some genuinely interesting characters. Now there’s this sequel, with the same writer, director and stars (minus Anna Kendrick). Will it impress again?
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The Accountant 2” Plot:
Ex-FBI Treasury chief and now Private Investigator Ray King (J.K. Simmons), has been murdered and his replacement Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) enlists Christian Wolff to dig into the case he was working on as a way to get to his killers. What he exposes is an immigrant trafficking ring that would get Trump very annoyed indeed.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong violence, bloody images, language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Ben Affleck, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Jon Bernthal, J.K. Simmons, Allison Robertson, Daniella Pineda, Robert Morgan, Grant Harvey, Andrew Howard.
Directed by: Gavin O’Connor.
Written by: Bill Dubuque.
Running Time: 2h 4m.
“The Accountant 2″ Summary:
Positives:
- A welcome return to characters from the first film.
- More in the way of comedic interchange.
- The action scenes are well staged and violent.
Negatives:
- Watch the first one: because there is no intro of any kind!
- Leaps of logic that escaped me.
- Some mind blowing coincidences.
- Welcome to the Stormtrooper academy!
Review of “The Accountant 2”:
The first film wasn’t particularly memorable; this one won’t be either.
When the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man asked me to remind her about the first film all I managed to come up with was “Ben Affleck has Aspergers, is a savant and did a jigsaw upside down”. That was it. It was 9 years ago since I saw it, to be fair.
I fear that this sequel will similarly retreat into the dark backwaters of my mind after a few months. I’ll be staring crinkle-browed at the Framed.wtf pictures thinking “I KNOW this one, Goddammit!” but not be able to find a title. It’s not that it’s bad. Indeed, parts of it are very entertaining. But it’s just a bit overly-familiar territory. The first film had the advantage of introducing us to some unusual characters and had an engaging backstory for Mr Wolff. With this one, you lose that strand through familiarity. But with that being said, it’s fun to have the gang – minus Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) – back together for the ride.
Extreme violence, driven by good effects.
As this is an action thriller, you would expect it to be pretty violent and this certainly earns its 15/R certificate. There are some extremely violent moments in the fight sequences and some of the shootings are made horribly graphic through some pretty first-rate practical and/or special effects. (The Illustrious Mrs Movie Man had to cover her eyes a few times, normally just after the bullet had gone through the skull!)
But more laughs than the first outing.
The first film was not high on laughs. But here Bill Dubuque approaches the material with a slightly lighter touch. We start the film seeing Wolff (Ben Affleck) at a speed-dating event with a whole queue of expectant (though soon to be disappointed) women queuing at his table. The reason? He’s reverse engineered the dating company’s algorithm and answered the questions in the most optimum way possible! There are also fun interchanges between Wolff and his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), brought in to help in his traditionally heavy-handed fashion.
Of course, to get these interchanges into the film, the film does have to slow right down in certain places and that might not please full-on-action-film fans. Bits of the film are quite slow and wordy.
But “Be Prepared”!
Never has the old Scout motto been more appropriate for this film. My biggest tip for you is to make sure you watch the original film before going in to see this one. (At the time of writing, it’s available to watch in the UK on Sky Movies or to rent from Prime Video.) For this film that takes no prisoners when it comes to easing you into the plot. There is no explanation of who these people are: the film assumes you remember them all from the first film and how they got into their current positions.
Where I had problems.
The film was not without issues for me. There was one particular leap of logic that didn’t seem to have any basis in fact and coincidences that made you go “no, surely not”. None of these are things I can talk about in this spoiler-free review, but I have added some bullets in the “Spoiler” section below the trailer.
Something I can mention is another pet-peeve of mine that I generally call the ‘Stormtrooper Academy syndrome’. In the overblown finale (which potentially gets very dark with a school bus and a bulldozer), Christian and Braxton take on a veritable army of machine-gun-toting bad guys. They turn their oncoming car into swiss-cheese, without of course landing a single shot to our heroes’ bodies! They, on the other hand, pop off bad guys with every shot!
Not Florence Pugh!
One thing that came as a surprise about this film is that Florence Pugh wasn’t in it! Although we only see the character of Anaïs in some brief action sequences in the trailer, I felt sure that she was being played by Pugh. (I thought, “wow, with “Thunderbolts*” out next week, Florence is having a busy time of it!) But actually, it’s the Mexican-American actress Daniella Pineda who played Zia Rodriguez in both “Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom” and “Jurassic Park Dominion” and was also in the Gerard Butler thriller “Plane“. But if the opportunity ever arises for a film where someone needs to play Pugh’s half-sister, the job should be hers!
Summary Thoughts on “The Accountant 2″
It’s fair to say that the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man enjoyed this one more than I did. When pressed for a score she went for 3.5 or even 4 stars. I thought it was fine and entertaining enough. But in no way memorable (there wasn’t even an upside down jigsaw to remember it by!).
But my big tip is to see the first film BEFORE you go to see this sequel.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
At the time of writing, the film is not available on the “Justwatch” database.
Trailer for “The Accountant 2″:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wRCOqyDI6E.
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
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NO, SERIOUSLY!
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A leap of logic.
Unless I missed something, somewhere, I cannot understand how Wolff knows that young Alberto (Yael Ocasio) is a savant similar to himself? Where did this information come from? The only thing he had was the tatty little photo of the family when he was much younger. I just don’t get it.
Coincidences.
Another thing that really worried me was the coincidence about the contract killer Anaïs (Daniella Pineda) being the very same person hired to do the hits on behalf of the people smuggler who originally abducted her. I mean, I’m sure the world’s supply of hireable contract killers is finite, but it is certainly going to be a lot more than two!
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