THE ACCOUNTANT 2 : Tuesday 6th May 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE ACCOUNTANT 2' this week at my local multiplex cinema. This American action thriller film is Directed by Gavin O'Connor who made his feature film making debut with 'Comfortably Numb' in 1995 and went on to Direct the likes of 'Miracle' in 2004, 'Pride and Glory' in 2008, 'Warrior' in 2011, 'Jane Got a Gun' in 2015, 'The Accountant' in 2016 and 'The Way Back' in 2020. This film is a sequel to O'Connor's 2016 film 'The Accountant' and saw its Premiere screening at SXSW in early-March this year and was released Stateside and here in Australia on 24th April, having garnered generally favourable critical reviews, and has so far recouped US$69M from its US$80M production budget. A third film is apparently in development.

The film opens up with now retired and former FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) Director Raymond King (J.K. Simmons) meeting up with a mystery assassin Anais (Daniella Pineda) in some dive bar. He offers her only a seven year old photograph of a Salvadorean family and their young son that he wants her to track down for him. Anais doesn’t respond to the offer but warns King he’s been followed by a small group of heavies. King is assassinated in the ensuing gunfight while escaping the bar while Anais walks away calmly into the night having dispensed with several of the gun wielding goons. King’s protege and current Deputy Director of FinCEN, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), soon afterwards identifies his body and sees 'find the accountant' written on his arm and decides to take up the case.

Medina, despite being mistrustful of Christian Wolff’s (Ben Affleck, who also Co-Produces here) illegal activities acting as an Accountant to various underworld clients dotted around the world, asks him for help finding the family in the photo. Wolff agrees to help. Later that night while Medina is sleeping, Wolff organises a collage of information which shows that the family in the photo fled from El Salvador to Los Angeles, encountering various challenges en route. Cobb (Grant Harvey), the man tasked with killing Anais and King, informs his supervisor Burke (Robert Morgan) who tells him to continue pursuing Anais for fear that she realises what Burke did to her, several years earlier.

Christian calls his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), with whom he has not made contact for eight years. He calls Brax while he is sat at a large dining table eating ice cream straight out of the tub and having a one sided conversation with a very compliant yet also very afraid young woman. After Brax cuts short the call from Christian, and on the second attempt to connect Christian says that he needs Brax's help and to be in Los Angeles in 24 hours. As Brax gets up to leave, he is seen walking over several dead bodies to get to the lift, clearly still a deadly assassin for hire, and still with the ice cream tub in hand. 24 hours later and Brax arrives in Los Angeles to be greeted by Christian in the grounds of a very down market apartment he has rented, and in an attempt to clear the air on their period of estrangement. 

Justine (Allison Robertson), still residing at the New Hampshire compound where she met Christian, works with a group of autistic children to hack into all manner of differing technologies to help Christian. Their group is able to source a photo of Anais but are unable to identify her. Uncomfortable with their illegal methods, Medina severs her ties from Christian and Brax. She visits a hospital mentioned in one of King’s reports, where she learns that Anais is actually the mother from the photo. Anais was involved in a near fatal car accident and after spending months in hospital recovering and undergoing numerous treatments and losing her memories, she developed intense combat skills before escaping. Batu (Andrew Howard), a contractor for hitmen, sets a contract for Medina which Braxton rejects. Justine warns Christian who rides over at breakneck speed on his motorcycle and he arrives after Anais and Medina have fought in close quarter combat, with Anais gaining the upper hand and stabbing Medina in the stomach with a kitchen knife. Anais flees the scene while Christian tends to Medina's wounds, but not before she has observed the photo still on the wall of her husband (subsequently shot at point blank range by Burke and buried in a mass grave) and young son (also presumed to be dead). 

Braxton and Christian deduce that Anais’ still living, autistic son Alberto (Yael Ocasio) is being held captive at a prison camp in Juarez with other children of trafficking victims, all of whom have been separated from their families. Burke orders Cobb to fly down to Juarez and kill all the children and bury them in the desert. Christian and Brax lay siege to the compound and are able to save Alberto and the rest of the children after killing Cobb and his small army of guards. Justine blackmails Batu into cancelling his contract on Medina. Anais, having regained some of her memories, realises Burke is the person who imprisoned her son and killed her husband in Juarez. She finds Burke in hiding in Costa Rica and kills him. Justine and the autistic children prepare to welcome Alberto to their facility in New Hampshire, and Braxton and Christian discuss taking a brotherly hiking trip together.

Gavin O'Connor is back Directing 'The Accountant 2' and while it doesn't have the same depth of the first more straight laced instalment, Affleck and Bernthal clearly exude an on-screen chemistry while throwing humorous barbs at each other and getting into laughable situations (speed dating bingo and line dancing for example), that serve to lighten the load from the all guns blazing human trafficking main plot. The performances of the remaining cast of characters are all more than serviceable, the action set pieces are well staged, the pacing is solid, but the main plot is a little meh!, but what carries the film through is the buddy relationship and the rapport between the two main characters. You could do worse at the cinema this week, and its certainly worth the price of your movie ticket.

'The Accountant 2' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 24th April 2025

The 17th annual Milwaukee Film Festival this year runs from Thursday 24th April through until Thursday 8th May, in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Milwaukee Film is a nonprofit arts organisation dedicated to entertaining, educating, and engaging our community through cinematic experiences. In 2009, the Milwaukee Film Festival had its inaugural run. Since then the Festival has expanded to a fifteen day celebration of new cinema and the organisation has taken over operation of two historic cinemas to show more great movies to all of Milwaukee every single day. Those working behind the scenes to bring the MFF to life every year are a team of film lovers, scholars, and professionals who believe film and the filmgoing experience are powerful vehicles for social change and personal introspection. They seek to make their city, its communities, and the world better places by sharing cinematic experiences, instigating meaningful dialogues, and cultivating the local filmmaking economy. The Milwaukee Film Festival is the fifth largest film festival in the United States in terms of attendance, the number of films screened and festival length.

This years Opening Night film presentation is 'Sally' Co-Written and Directed by Cristina Costantini. Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure were secrets. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance, deepens our understanding of what motivated this heroine, and gives heft to the sacrifices that accompanied their 27 years together.

In the Worldviews section of the MFF, there are sixteen feature films being showcased. Briefly, these are :-

* 'Ka Whawwhai Tonu - Struggle Without You' - from New Zealand and Directed by Michael Jonathan. 

* 'Holy Cow' - from France and Co-Written and Directed by Louise Courvoisier.

* 'Cloud' - from Japan and Written and Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

* 'Loveable' - from Norway and Written and Directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir.

* 'DJ Ahmet' - from North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia and Croatia and Written and Directed by Georgi M. Unkovski.

* 'Harvest' - from the UK and Co-Written and Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, and starring Caleb Landry Jones and Harry Melling.

* 'Souleymane's Story' - from France and Co-Written and Directed by Boris Lojkine.

* 'Memories of a Burning Body' - from Costa Rica and Spain and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss.

* 'The Marching Band' - from France and Directed by Emmanuel Courcol.

* 'Peacock' - from Austria and Germany and Written and Directed by Bernhard Wenger.

* 'Samia' - from Italy, Germany, Belgium and Sweden and Co-Written by Yasemin Samdereli and Directed by Yasemin Samdereli and Deka Mohamed.

* 'Waves' - from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Written and Directed by Jiri Madi.

* 'Memory Lane' - from Belgium and the Netherlands and Co-Written and Directed by Jelle de Jonge.

* 'Black Dog' - from China and Co-Written and Directed by Guan Hu.

* 'Nikah' - from France and Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Bastien Ehouzan and Mukaddas Mijit.

* 'How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies' - from Thailand and Co-Written and Directed by Pat Boonnitipat.

For the summaries of the above films, plus all the details of the other film strands being showcased and a whole bunch of other good stuff, you can go to the official website at : https://mkefilm.org/mff25

With just three new release movies coming to a big screen Odeon close to your home this week, we kick off with a sequel to an earlier 2016 film in which an unorthodox Accountant applies his brilliant mind and illegal methods to reconstruct the unsolved puzzle of a Treasury Chief's murder. Then we have a survival horror film in which a group of friends become trapped in a time loop, where mysterious foes are chasing and killing them in gruesome ways, and to survive they must live until dawn to escape it. And closing out the week we have a drama offering about a retired teacher who has promised to find her long-lost niece, with her search taking her to Istanbul where she meets a lawyer fighting for trans rights who agrees to help her find her niece.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'THE ACCOUNTANT 2' (Rated MA15+) - this American action thriller film is Directed by Gavin O'Connor who made his feature film making debut with 'Comfortably Numb' in 1995 and went on to Direct the likes of 'Miracle' in 2004, 'Pride and Glory' in 2008, 'Warrior' in 2011, 'Jane Got a Gun' in 2015, 'The Accountant' in 2016 and 'The Way Back' in 2020. This film is a sequel to O'Connor's 2016 film 'The Accountant' and saw its Premiere screening at SXSW in early-March this year and is released Stateside and her in Australia this week, having garnered generally favourable critical reviews. A third film is apparently in development.

When someone close to her is killed by unknown assassins, Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is forced to contact Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax (Jon Bernthal), 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 uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried. Also starring J.K. Simmons and Daniella Pineda.

'UNTIL DAWN' (Rated MA15+) - is an American survival horror film derived from the 2015 video game of the same name, and is set in the same universe and features an original standalone story. The film is Directed by David F. Sandberg whose prior feature film making credits take in his debut in 2017 with 'Annabelle : Creation', then 'Shazam!' in 2019 and 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' in 2023. Here then, one year on after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover (Ella Rubin) and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. They find themselves horrifically murdered, only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning. Trapped in an endless time loop, they’re forced to relive the nightmare again - only each time, the killer is different, each more terrifying than the last, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn. The film also stars Peter Stormare who appeared in the original game as Dr. Alan J. Hill. The film is released Stateside too this week.

'CROSSING' (Rated M) - this Swedish, French, Danish, Turkish and Georgian Co-Produced drama film is Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Levan Akin whose previous two feature film making credits are 'The Circle' in 2015 and 'And Then We Danced' in 2019. Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired school teacher living in Georgia, hears from a young neighbour Achi (Lucas Kankava) that her long lost niece Tekla, a transgender woman, has crossed the border into Turkey. Hoping to bring Tekla home after a period of estrangement, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi to find her. Exploring the hidden depths of the city, they cross paths with a transgender lawyer called Evrim (Deniz Dumanlı), who helps them in their search. The film had its World Premiere in mid-February 2024, as part of the Berlin International Film Festival, opening Panorama, and was released in Sweden at the end of March 2024, and only now does it get a release date here in Australia, It has garnered universal critical acclaim, has so far grossed US$554K at the Box Office and has collected twelve award wins and another thirteen nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

With three new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-