Greetings again from the darkness. As disappointing as most sequels are, there is a glimmer of hope when the original creative team and key cast members return. Such is the case with this sequel to the 2016 film, THE ACCOUNTANT (yes, it’s been nearly a decade). Director Gavin O’Connor and writer Bill Dubuque are back, and both have skins on the wall. O’Connor also directed MIRACLE (2004) and the criminally underrated WARRIOR (2011), while Dubuque was the creator of the hit series “Ozark”.
Two-time Oscar winner Ben Affleck returns as the brilliant and autistic accountant known as Christian Wolff (as well as a few other names). In what may be the least amount of screen time ever afforded a previous Oscar winner, JK Simmons’ Ray King – former director of FinCEN is assassinated, and his former protégé MaryBeth Medina (a returning Cynthia Asdai-Robinson) tracks down Christian to help solve the case. But, of course, things are never that easy, and they also find themselves knee deep in another case – one that hits mighty close to real world headlines with human trafficking and gang activity.
Christian contacts his lethal-weapon brother … yep, for the first time since the end of the first film … and Braxton (Jon Bernthal) reluctantly agrees to join the hunt. The two brothers interact in a manner we’re familiar with from all the ‘mismatched buddy films’ over the years, and Affleck and especially Bernthal excel at this, although it’s impossible not to note Affleck’s too-frequent smirks this time around. An early speed-dating sequence feels totally forced and out-of-place, and one can only assume it’s included for anyone who didn’t watch the first movie (which I highly recommend prior to viewing this one).
As good as the brother banter plays, the mish-mashed stories, lack of central villain, and over abundance of action sequences, turn this into a film trying too hard to please all audiences. Toss in extended segments featuring the autistic techno geniuses at Harbor Neuroscience Academy, and a description of Acquired Savant Syndrome, and the best advice is to just sit back and watch after turning off your own plot-solving brain cells. Christian has developed and funded the group of young geniuses at the Academy, and they are led by non-verbal Justine (played by Allison Robertson, and computer-voiced by Alison Wright of “The Americans”). The missing persons case centers around highly-trained assassin Anais (Daniella Pineda from the Jurassic World franchise), and we can’t help but think she could hold her own as a story and character.
The abundance of comedic elements might surprise fans of the first film, as might the war zone style shootout during the film’s climax and the overly-animated Affleck – all extremes when compared to the original, yet Affleck and Bernthal make the brotherly thing work
Opens in theaters on April 25, 2025
Posted by David Ferguson 
Greetings again from the darkness. While I’m unsure whether this qualifies as a tetraology, this oddball and zany film consists of four separate yet interrelated stories with crossover characters. Previous collaborations from the film’s co-writers and co-directors, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, include CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019), the underrated IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY (2010), and SUGAR (2008).
Greetings again from the darkness. In decades past, we wouldn’t have been surprised in the least to see a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Dennis Quaid. In fact, in 1973 Jack co-starred with Dennis’ brother Randy in one of my favorite films, THE LAST DETAIL. Well, here we are more than fifty years later, and Dennis’ (and Meg Ryan’s) son Jack Quaid is co-starring with Jack’s son Ray Nicholson in what is sure to be one of this year’s most outlandish action-comedies. The screenplay is by Lars Jacobson and the film is co-directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, who also collaborated on BODY (2015).
Greetings again from the darkness. Jackie Chan starring as … Jackie Chan! He’s an international action-comedy star appearing in this international action-comedy as himself. In fact, one of the running gags has various people questioning if it’s really “him” and whether or not he can actually fight like he does in his movies. The film is from writer-director Luan Zhang and co-writers Wei Xu and Meng Yida.
Greetings again from the darkness. Most every Valentine’s Day, we get at least one romantic-comedy designed for a sweet and harmless date night. Well, this one ain’t it. Instead, if you thrive on romance loaded with danger and action sequences and mysterious monsters and decades old experimental weapons … we have just the movie for you. Director Scott Derrickson (THE BLACK PHONE, 2021; THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, 2005) and screenwriter Zach Dean (THE TOMORROW WAR, 2021) deliver the rare sci-fi/action/monster/romance thriller, and were wise enough to cast two charming, well-liked young actors for the leads.
Greetings again from the darkness. Like many of you, I’m not usually a fan of sequels. Too often they feel like a money grab or an unapologetically opportunistic way to capitalize on previous success without much creativity or artistry required. Of course, there are exceptions. Sometimes sequels advance the story or offer additional development on an interesting character. So where does this one fit? It’s been almost a quarter-century since GLADIATOR (2000) received 12 Oscar nominations, winning 5, including Best Picture. The original is a film I revere. Director Ridley Scott is back at the helm, and at age 86, he proves he’s still a master of scope and scale and visceral action sequences.
Greetings again from the darkness. Spy-thrillers typically fall into one of two categories: complex and smart (TINKER TAILOR SPY, 2011) or action-packed (KANDAHAR, 2023), although many combine the two elements quite successfully (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, 1996). This film from director Roel Reine and screenwriter Bob Derosa slams us with action sequences while only teasing us with bits of what could have been a clever story.
Greetings again from the darkness. George Clooney and Brad Pitt are both two-time Oscar winners and are both north of 60 years old now. This latest film from writer-director Jon Watts (three Spider-Man movies) seems to ask the question: Are they still cool in a wise-cracking action movie star way? It’s been twenty-three years since the two long-time friends co-starred in the first (of 3) “Ocean’s” movies, and there is no doubt they were the epitome of cool then. But what about now? And does it matter? The argument can be made that it does matter since so few non-superhero and non-comic book movies are capable of drawing big crowds to the theater these days. Unfortunately, this film won’t answer the question about drawing power, as a very limited one-week theatrical release will be followed by a run on Apple TV+.
Greetings again from the darkness. It’s been thirty years since Alex Proyas directed THE CROW (1994). Unfortunately, the cult favorite is forever remembered as being the set on which lead actor Brandon Lee (son of the legendary Bruce Lee) died an accidental and tragic death. Along the way, there have been lesser sequels. There have also been so many rumors of a re-boot over the last fifteen years, that I remained a bit doubtful until the opening credits actually began to roll.
Greetings again from the darkness. Even before the opening credits roll, we get a scene with gunpoint humor, as Antonio Banderas skips right over ‘chewing scenery’ and dives into devouring the scene. Banderas takes his crime lord Gabriel over-the-top, quoting Machiavelli, so that we understand we are in for an action-crime-comedy. Directed by Jon Keeyes and written by Matthew Rogers, some of it works and some of it doesn’t.
Movie Reviews from the Dark 