The Accountant 2

Not only is it hard for me to understand how things could go so wrong here, it is also incomprehensible to me how a film company can once again think of unleashing a sequel as deplorable as this one is. Is there no longer any professional pride left? Is it really not possible to reverse the tape when you realise on the editing table that your lavish action thriller is a complete ultra failure? Ben Affleck's long-awaited Wish version of Jason Bourne and his autistic outlook on life is back, and this is one of the worst sequels I've ever seen.

The Accountant was no masterpiece. It certainly was no Bourne Identity and certainly no Salt, either. But it was an acceptable action thriller. Gavin O'Connor offered perhaps his worst film, but of course that was no big deal either as the old man after all directed Warrior (masterful) and The Way Back (brilliant). Affleck did a good job as an autistic assassin, there was an ounce of self-distance in the superficially serious set-up and the action portions were violent and inventive.

In The Accountant 2, absolutely nothing works. JK Simmons' now retired FBI boss feels like a completely different character, Affleck does some new, weird voice that he didn't do in the first film and when the autistic super killer Christian Wolff allies himself with the FBI and calls his little brother (terribly portrayed by a constantly overacting Jon Bernthal) to try to find a bunch of killers/kidnappers, you have already exposed your lack of understanding of what made the predecessor a success.

It's clear from the intro that director Gavin O'Connor intended to show the 'human' side of his analytical killer. As the film opens, Affleck has hacked a dating service's own app and got more matches with the lovelorn ladies than all the other men (combined) and the next ten minutes are about how he tries to speed-date but fails because he is neither funny, socially adept nor charming. This madness goes on for what seems like an eternity, only to be replaced by a scene in which the Fury version of Bernthal checks into a luxury hotel, gratuitously strips off all his clothes, and calls up a kennel to try to negotiate a reduction in the amount of time his newly purchased puppy has to stay in the kennel. The monologue where Bernthal rants and raves about puppies and their ability to bond with their master/mate, with a loaded gun in his right fist and wearing only minimal underwear is without a doubt the worst I've seen in 2025. That old man really can't act, at all.

Things don't get any better when the Braxton brothers and Christian are reunited, either. It's clear that director Gavin O'Connor wanted to build up a kind of Tarantino-esque banter thing with clear nods to Rainman, but it just ends in total and complete humiliation as Affleck feels tired and lost in his role, and his new voice, while Bernthal as usual just 'pretends' that he is portraying something by running around with pumped up chest, chewing gum with a gait that most reminds us of WWE founder McMahon's 'power walk'. It's so bad it's embarrassing, and although a couple of action scenes where both leads keep their mouths shut are clearly acceptable - this stands as the most unnecessary sequel since A Prince in New York 2. Shamefully bad, Affleck. Shamefully bad.