Peppermint is a straight up revenge thriller. You get what you should be expecting if you have watched the trailer: Jennifer Garner killing a lot of bad guys in a story that is mostly predictable and has little depth.
Jennifer Garner plays an absolute badass in Riley North. She is the widow of a murdered husband and daughter, who were both killed by gang members connected to the Mexican drug cartel. The three gang members are let off by a judge without even having the case go to trial. Due to an outburst she has at the courthouse coupled with the medication she has been given to cope with the tragedy, Riley is accused of possibly being psychotic She escapes before the authorities can take her to a psych ward, disappears for five years, and makes an under the radar return to Los Angeles living out of a van down on Skid Row. Riley then proceeds to go on a killing spree on the five year anniversary of her husband and daughter’s deaths. Her objective: take out everyone who had a hand in their deaths.The detectives who were assigned to her case five years ago, Stan Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) and Moises Beltran (John Ortiz), are brought back into the fold by FBI Agent Lisa Inman (Annie Ilonzeh). They all realize what she’s trying to accomplish and are doing everything to track her down.
The film has its ups and downs. It’s not groundbreaking for the genre by any means, and I wish it developed the story a bit more than it does. Some of the revenge kills that would be the most gratifying or meaningful for the viewer, The audience does not even get to see. That was a little disappointing for me.On the other hand, Jennifer Garner totally convinced me of her badass status and Peppermint has a good amount of fun action scenes. The rest of the actors do a subpar job, but you do not go see a movie like this for the acting. My biggest gripe was that the stakes just do not feel THAT high. It is pretty predictable and the main villain comes off as that scary or intimidating. However, there is a great twist in there that I did not see coming, I will give it that.For all the seemingly negative things I have said, I still found Peppermint quite fun to watch. I am a sucker for a revenge flick, and while this one is not anything to write home about, it is worth a watch if you like the genre or like Garner. Plus it is awesome seeing a woman in such a strong lead role kicking ass.
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