The Accountant 2

Political films have been produced from Hollywood for decades and since there is an incredible fascination with them, they will always be offered. We saw "The Accountant" back in 2016 and it was a gripping, well honed story, so, a mere nine years later, we have "The Accountant 2" to sink our teeth into. 

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) has a talent for solving complex problems. When an Old acquaintance, Ray King (J.K. Simmons) is murdered, leaving behind a cryptic message to "find the accountant" written on his leg, Wolff is compelled to solve the case. Realizing more extreme measures are necessary, Wolff recruits his estranged and highly lethal brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), to help in partnership with U.S.Treasury Deputy Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), they uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried. 

Others to round out the cast are Daniella Pineda as Anais, Alison Wright as Justine (voice of), Robert Morgan as Burke, Allison Robertson as Justine, Grant Harvey as Cobb, Andrew Howard as Batu, Yael Ocasio as Alberto, Lombardo Boyar as Tomas and Michael Tourek as Ike Sudio. 

This was directed effortlessly by Gavin O'Connor (" Comfortably Numb" '95, "Tumbleweeds" '99, "Murphy's Dozen" (TV movie) '11, "Miracle" '04, "Pride and Glory" '08, "Warrior" '11, "Cinnamon Girl" (TV movie) '13, "Only Human" (TV movie) '14, "The Prince" (TV movie) '15, "Jane Got a Gun" '15, "The Accountant" '16, "The Way Back" '20) plus TV and a short. It was brilliant to use the same director as with the original so the similar feel of the two films will be evident. O'Connor did such an exemplary job of "The Accountant" that helming the sequel gave an effortless appeal. He was able to pull off these two brothers as though they were like the quintessential 'odd couple'--Affleck being the controlling autistic savant that is amazingly intelligent and Benthal pulling off the role of someone that's a loose cannon, totally over the top, very dramatic that it became humorous and added a light sibling rivalry to this. If you like his brand of directing, his "Fast" is in pre-production. It was equally well written by Bill DuBuque ("The Judge" '14, "A Family Man" '16, "The Accountant" '16) plus TV, based on characters created by Bill DuBuque. Since the original ended up being the surprise hit of the summer of 2016, a sequel by the same writer was an obvious next step. What's surprising is that it took nine years to finally produce the follow up. And with this outing, this new film is every bit as well directed and written and acted as its predecessor. The only issues I felt with this was that I felt that it had a couple of very small places of disjointedness and confusion, but otherwise, the screenplay soared. Again, Affleck's role as the mathematical, practically autistic savant accountant was stunning and he could possibly see a nod come Oscar time. If you appreciate this writing DuBuque's "The Six Billion Dollar Man" is in pre-production. 

This was so entertaining that if the makers of this film decided to make a "The Accountant 3", it would be welcomed. Of course, like with other films, it is dependent of how much money is raked in the box office. I'm usually not into sequels, but with this, I'm willing to make the exception.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                       Rated: R                                         133m.