����vlog

Remember flipping around through the channels to find something to watch? In this age of streaming and “everything at your fingertips,” most don’t probably do this anymore. If you were one of those channel flipper types, did you have certain movies or shows that, if you came across them, you’d stop and watch, no matter where it was in the runtime?As you probably can guess, I have a number of those. One, in particular, is 2016’s The Accountant. There’s something about that film that grabs me. I will stop and watch it, even if there’s only ten- or twenty-minutes left. It’s just so entertaining. Ben Affleck’s performance, the script’s concept, the execution of the action scenes, the pacing. Everything about this movie is so well done.So, you can probably also guess that I was very excited to learn that, after too long an absence from our screens, The Accountant 2 was in the works.Spoiler Alert: If you have not seen the original, stop reading now. There are elements of the sequel’s plot that ruin one of the main revelations of the first. Heck, stop reading and go right to JustWatch to find out where you can stream it and watch it right now. Go on. I’ll be here.Ray King (J.K. Simmons), Director of the Treasury Department’s financial crimes division, has a meeting with an assassin known as Anaïs (Daniella Pineda). He shows her a picture of a husband and wife with their son and says he needs her to find the son. The meeting is interrupted by other assassins, and King ends up dead.Before he died, he scrawled “Find the accountant” on his arm. Deputy Director Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) knows exactly what this means, so she reaches out to Christian Wolff (Affleck). As they try to solve the puzzle of King’s murder and its connection to the photograph, Wolff knows he’ll need help from his brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal), who he hasn’t seen in the eight years since their fateful reunion in Chicago.With a change in tone to more of an odd couple, buddy cop vibe, The Accountant 2 is nearly as good as the original. Having the original director, Gavin O’Connor, and writer, Bill Dubuque, along with most of the original cast (Allison Robertson replaces Alison Wright in the physical role of Justine, though Wright still provides the voice) come back really helps, too.We get a little more insight into Christian and how he wants to fit in with society, despite his limitation in human interaction. We also get more of a broader view of Braxton, and what his life is like. Both of these are a nice expansion of the universe these films inhabit.Another nice and expanded feature of The Accountant 2 is with Justine’s operations. She now has an entire wing at the Harbor Neuroscience treatment center, with a bigger computer setup. She also has recruited some of the children that are there for treatment as her helpers, kind of a Baker Street Irregulars for the computer age.The Accountant 2 feels like an attempt to flesh out a new John Wick-style filmic universe with franchise potential. If so, I’m all in!