Just in time for tax season, The Accountant is back!
The seemingly most-played movie on basic cable of the last 10 years is getting a sequel with original star Ben Affleck, plus The Accountant co-stars Jon Brenthal, J.K. Simmons, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson. They will all return for the sequel — along with director Gavin O’Connor.
In the original film, Affleck played Christian Wolff, highly skilled accountant by day, deadly assassin by whenever he feels like it. Also, he was supposed to be autistic? It was a unique mix of elements to be sure.
The film did reasonably well in theaters but it went on to become a huge hit on home video and on cable, where I feel like it is still played at least four times every single week somewhere on the dial. (For a while it seemed like it was a regular part of TNT’s weekly schedule. Every Wednesday night at 10PM they played The Accountant.)
According to Deadline, the sequel kicks off “when Medina’s former boss is killed by unknown assassins, and she’s forced to contact Christian to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax, Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle. As they get closer to the truth, the trio draw the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive — all intent on putting a stop to their search.”
Man, I wish my brother was named Brax. That’s a cool as hell name for a brother.
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I was no Johnny come lately when The Accountant is involved. I was in on the ground floor. You can read my review here at ScreenCrush to see for yourself…
On the plus side, the movie’s action and fight scenes are better than average, with fluid choreography and intense violence. The benefit of putting Affleck and his robust physicality in this part is that he can clearly do a lot of his own stunt work, and the lack of cuts lends a lot of credibility to the sequences where he tears through legions of goons with alarming efficiency and many, many headshots. It’s sort of like John Wick meets a version of Good Will Hunting where Affleck and Matt Damon decided to switch roles.
I am fully ready for The Accountant 2 as long as O’Connor and Affleck are back. Also, there need to be more accounting puns in this one. Affleck should say “I’m about to depreciate your assets!” before he karate kicks a dude in the nuts. Stuff like that.
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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
