Review: ‘The Accountant 2,’ starring Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda and J.K. Simmons

April 21, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jon Bernthal and Ben Affleck in “The Accountant 2” (Photo by Warrick Page/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Accountant 2”

Directed by Gavin O’Connor

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States and briefly in Germany, the action film “The Accountant 2” (a sequel to the 2016 movie “The Accountant”) features a predominantly white group of people (with some Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class, wealthy and the criminal underground.

Culture Clash: Christian Wolff, who works as an accountant for wealthy criminals, teams up with his younger brother Braxton to find a missing immigrant family and a mysterious assassin who is hunting human traffickers.

Culture Audience: “The Accountant 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the 2016 movie “The Accountant” and formulaic but well-acted action movies that have several comedic moments.

Daniella Pineda and J.K. Simmons in “The Accountant 2” (Photo by Warrick Page/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Accountant 2” overcomes its predictable action formulas with a scene-stealing performance from Jon Bernthal. This overstuffed sequel is best enjoyed by viewers who’ve seen 2016’s “The Accountant.” “The Accountant 2” is more stylish and comedic.

Directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque (the same director/writer duo for “The Accountant”), “The Accountant 2” is much more of a cross-country road-trip buddy film than “The Accountant,” which had the title character as very much a loner protagonist, with most of the action taking place in the Chicago area. “The Accountant 2” had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. The characters in the movie travel to various states, including Maine and California.

“The Accountant 2” assumes that viewers know about some of the spoiler information that was revealed in “The Accountant.” In “The Accountant,” Christian Wolff (played by Ben Affleck) is an accountant who works for wealthy criminals. Christian has a high-functioning form of autism. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert), Christian finds out that an assassin who was hunting him is his younger brother Braxton Wolff (played by Bernthal), who was estranged from Christian for several years.

Christian gets client work with help from a secretive operative named Justine (played by Allison Robertson), who was revealed in “The Accountant” to work at Harbor Neuroscience Academy in Hanover, New Hampshire. Justine, who has autism that makes her non-verbal, uses a voice translator device that makes her voice sound British (voiced by Alison Wright) as a way to disguise her identity. All of this background information is necessary to get the full context of the characters who are in “The Accountant 2.”

Seeing “The Accountant” also gives viewers an explanation for why Christian and Braxton are expert combat fighters. As shown in “The Accountant,” their strict and abusive father (played by Rob Treveiler) was a former U.S. Army officer in psychological operations. When Christian and Braxton were pre-teen children, he forced them to go through rigorous military training that he oversaw entirely himself. The mother of Christian and Braxton left the family because she could no longer tolerate the oppression that he was inflicting on her and her children.

In “The Accountant,” Christian was also being hunted by Ray King (played by J.K. Simmons), director of the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, with Ray tasking data analyst Marybeth Medina (played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to do most of the legwork in the investigation. Ray retired at the end of the movie, and it was implied that Marybeth would get a job promotion. In “The Accountant,” the chief villains were executives at a robotics company involved in financial fraud.

In “The Accountant 2,” the chief villains are human traffickers who exploit undocumented immigrants from Latin America. In the beginning of the movie, Ray is a private detective looking for a family of three undocumented immigrants from El Salvador who disappeared eight years ago when they entered the United States: Edith Sanchez; her husband Gino Sanchez (played by Abner Lozano); and their son Alberto Sanchez. Alberto (played by Yael Ocasio), who was 5 years old when the family disappeared, is now 13 years old.

On April 7, 2025, Ray is in a seedy bar somewhere in the Washington, D.C. area. It’s the type of dive bar where people are playing bingo in the scene where Ray goes there to meet a stranger for this investigation. Ray is meeting with a mysterious assassin/mercenary named Anaïs (played by Danielle Pineda), who apparently has important information on this missing persons case. Ray wants to hire Anaïs to find the missing Sanchez family.

The meeting between Ray and Anaïs has barely started when some armed goons, who work for the human traffickers, storm into the bar and cause a shootout that kills Ray. (This murder is already revealed in “The Accountant 2” trailers.) Anaïs is able to slip out of the bar unharmed, but surveillance video caught her on camera leaving the bar at the time of the shooting.

Marybeth is now deputy director of the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. When she finds out that Ray has been murdered and that he wrote “Find the Accountant” on his arm, she knows she has to find Christian again. Christian is currently an escaped convict who is a fugitive from the law. Marybeth finds Christian, of course.

Marybeth promises that she won’t arrest Christian if he helps her solve the mystery of Ray’s homicide. And as already revealed in trailers for “The Accountant 2,” Christian enlists the help of his brother Braxton. When they find out that Ray was looking for the missing Sanchez family, that becomes part of the investigation too. It’s a bit much and makes “The Accountant 2” at times very unfocused and messy.

Viewers will have to suspend a lot of disbelief in several of the movie’s scenes, particularly when it to comes to Marybeth, who acts more like a homicide detective than someone investigating financial crimes. “The Accountant 2” also does a terrible job of explaining how Marybeth is able to spend all of this time hanging out with Christian and Braxton with no supervision. Someone in her position would have to answer to a lot of people about her travel activities across the United States.

Marybeth becomes a frequently awkward third wheel to the bickering brothers Christian and Braxton, who are complete opposites of each other. Christian is methodical and stoic. Braxton is impulsive and emotional. Braxton is a very loose cannon with a bad temper, which predictably gets them into more trouble. Christian loses his temper too, but he’s more robotic about it.

Marybeth spends much of her time scolding Christian and Braxton, as if she didn’t know what she was getting into by teaming up with two violent criminals. “No more violence,” she tells Christian in a laughable part of the movie when he viciously beats a shady witness to get the witness to tell him certain information. Marybeth sees Christian and Braxton commit many crimes and eventually has to pretend that she never saw these crimes in order to continue working with Christian and Braxton.

“The Accountant 2” (which has Affleck as one of the producers) goes off on a few tangents to show that Christian is making an effort to “lighten up” and have more of a social life. As already seen in a trailer for “The Accountant,” Christian goes to Idaho for an event called the Boise Romance Festival, where he does speed dating for the first time. (The results are disastrous for Christian.) He has a much better time on the road trip with Braxton, when Christian does some country music line dancing at a bar.

The back-and-forth banter between Christian and Braxton is the most entertaining aspect of “The Accountant 2,” which has very generic and uninteresting villains. The human trafficking network’s operations in the Americas is led by Burke (played by Robert Morgan), who looks more like an accountant than the movie’s title character. Burke has a sleazy thug named Cobb (played by Grant Harvey), who does a lot of the dirty work that Burke doesn’t want to do.

Burke has a grudge against Anaïs because she ruined some of his human trafficking business almost two years ago. And just so the movie makes it clear that this human trafficking network extends beyond the Americas, Burke is seen making phone calls to the person he reports to: a mega-rich European named Batu (played by Andrew Howard), who gives the impression that it would be a major scandal in his high-society circles if people found out that much of Batu’s fortune comes from human trafficking. Batu’s presence in the movie just raises more questions that the movie doesn’t answer, because Burke and his crew seem awfully understaffed if they’re working for someone who is as wealthy and powerful as Batu.

The amusing scenes between Christian and Braxton follows a tried-and-true formula of many comedic male duos: One is the “straight man” who is calmer and more level-headed, while the other is the “wild one” who is more likely to go off the rails. One of the reasons why Braxton is the most interesting character in the movie is that even though he’s a ruthless killer, he has some neurotic quirks and some surprising vulnerabilities, especially when it comes to pet animals. (You’ll have to see “The Accountant 2” for more details.) The rest of the cast members’ performances are capable, but not outstanding.

“The Accountant 2” is one of those over-the-top action films where people who are outnumbered and outgunned still manage to fight their way out of situations. Just like in “The Accountant,” there’s a surprise twist involving someone’s identity. “The Accountant 2” invigorates what could have been a stale sequel by making Braxton a charismatic eccentric and a major part of the story. “The Accountant” franchise has now entered sequel territory, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the franchise spawns any spinoffs based on the Braxton character.

Amazon MGM Studios will release “The Accountant 2” in U.S. cinemas on April 25, 2025. A sneak preview was shown in U.S. cinemas on April 15, 2025.

Review: ‘The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood,’ starring Joe Ahern, Luke Dalton, Doug Mellard, Dana DeLorenzo, Natasha Hall and Todd Giebenhain

December 22, 2022

by Carla Hay

Doug Mellard in “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” (Photo courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media)

“The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood”

Directed by Joe Ahern

Culture Representation: Taking place somewhere on the West Coast of the United States in 2020, the comedy film “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, a man decides to distract himself by searching for a former schoolmate who has become a semi-famous “doomsday” conspiracy theorist and who has disappeared during the pandemic. 

Culture Audience: “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching boring and idiotic comedies that use a deadly pandemic for cheap and unfunny jokes.

Cast members in “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood,” Pictured in top row, from left to right: Joe Ahern, Ashley Spillers and Arjay Smith. Pictured in bottom row, from left to right: Annie Karstens, Eddie Alfano and Grant Harvey. (Photo courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media)

“The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” is yet another unimaginative and repetitive movie with a COVID-19 theme. Viewers are stuck with the vapid and obnoxious characters, just like these characters are stuck quarantining and use it as an excuse to be stupid. This poorly made comedy is only 74 minutes long, but it feels like longer. There’s barely enough of a story to fill a short film, which is why it’s a chore to watch all of “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood.”

“The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” is an independently financed film that you can tell was made by frequently unemployed actors who decided to give themselves jobs by making a terrible movie. It explains why the director and co-writers of this dreadful dud have cast themselves as stars in the movie. “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” director Joe Ahern gets the most screen time as the film’s protagonist: a lackluster, middle-aged sad sack named Wes Crowley. Ahern co-wrote the movie’s atrocious screenplay with Doug Mellard, who plays the completely irritating Toby Blackwood.

Watching the misguided Ahern and Mellard as these two cretinous characters is like watching the polar opposite reasons why actors fail in their roles. Ahern is very listless and flat, while Mellard over-acts. “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” also commits one of the worst sins of a movie with a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown theme: It’s mostly a series of very insipid and increasingly annoying phone calls and videoconference chats.

The gist of this very limp story (which takes place somewhere on the West Coast of the U.S. in 2020) is that Wes is bored at home while quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, so he and a few friends decide to find out what happened to Wes’ former schoolmate Toby, who has recently disappeared. Wes and Toby haven’t seen each other in about 20 years, but Wes knows that Toby has become a semi-famous “doomsday” conspiracy theorist. It’s mentioned early on in the film that Toby has 200,000 Twitter followers and 130,000 YouTube subscribers.

There’s a subplot about Wes being bitter because his wife Courtney (played by Natasha Hall) has left him and taken their dog Iggy Pup with her. Courtney also served divorce papers to Wes, in case it wasn’t clear that their marriage is over. Courtney left the dog bowl behind, and Wes whines in an early scene in the movie: “I don’t have the heart to throw it away, so I just stare at it all day.”

Throughout the movie, Wes does video chats with five of his closest friends: Luke Dalton (played by Grant Harvey), Carrie (played by Annie Karstens), Wendy (played by Ashley Spillers), Mike (played by Eddie Alfano) and Keith (played by Arjay Smith). Luke is the loudmouth jerk of the group, so you know he’s going to get the most screen time. Keith is the only one in this group who comes close to sounding like he’s the voice of reason, so course he gets the least screen time out of these five pals.

Luke is actually the one who comes up with the idea to look for Toby. Luke persuades a reluctant Wes to start an investigation, and eventually Wes becomes more interested in finding out what happened to Toby. It should be noted that Luke and Wes also drink a lot of beer during their investigation shenanigans, which might explain why their judgment is impaired but doesn’t explain why this movie is so horrendous.

“The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” wastes a lot of time showing Luke and Wes talking to various people (usually Toby’s mentally ill followers), who have various theories about why Toby has gone missing. None of the theories is even remotely close to being amusing. “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” is filled with a lot of drab dialogue, such as this comment that Wes says that’s supposed to make viewers laugh: “Between my divorce, the quarantine and these bizarre conspiracy theories, I think I’ve aged 10 years in three days.”

A few fairly well-known actors make cameos as these weirdo followers of Toby. The cast members making quick appearances in this embarrassing movie include Simon Pegg, as a paranoid fan named Garth Arthur, who rambles on about alternate realities. Other actors portraying fans of Toby include Lamorne Morris as Gerald Meacham and Luis Guzmán as Chester Mendoza, who both have babbling, forgettable lines of dialogue. All it proves is that the filmmakers called in some favors to get these well-established actors to be in this awful movie.

Why hasn’t anyone contacted the police to report Toby missing? It’s explained early on in the movie that Wes and Luke don’t want to contact the police because Toby has enough guns (many probably illegal) to arm a militia, and they don’t want Toby to get in trouble with law enforcement. Why hasn’t anyone contacted Toby’s family members? Wes and Luke don’t want to alarm these relatives because Toby hasn’t officially been reported missing, and no one knows yet if Toby voluntarily disappeared, or if there was foul play involved.

“The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” is just a tedious slog of these witless conversations. A low point is a segment showing terribly stereotypical depictions of Italian Americans: The brother characters of Vinny Balducci (played by Joseph Russo) and Paul Balducci (played by Jeremy Luke), who are in their 30s, talk about a grudge involving a murder and veal scallopini (don’t ask), as if they’re Super Mario Bros. wannabe mafia types. Other not-funny-at-all segments show a urine filtration device salesperson named Larry the Urine Guy (played by Rick Gomez) and an unhinged priest named Father Delgado (played by Rudy Mungaray).

A conspiracy fanatic named Mandy Prescott (played by Dana DeLorenzo), who says that she is Toby’s girlfriend, insists that Toby went to meet Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at Area 51, because Toby thinks Gates created the COVID-19 pandemic so that Gates could put microchips in COVID vaccines. The movie also over-uses a so-called “joke” that some of Toby’s fans, including one named Gilbert Muldoon (played by Todd Giebenhain), think Area 51 is really located underneath the Denver International Airport. Don’t expect there to be any hidden cleverness to this “joke.” There is none.

Interspersed with these stale and vacuous conversations are scenes showing some of Toby’s conspiracy theory videos, so this movie’s viewers can see what type of garbage content he’s been spewing out into the world. There’s nothing original about what Toby says or does when he rants about government spying and “end of the world” predictions. “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” presents everything as a weak and uninteresting parody of real-life conspiracy theorists. All of the footage with Toby will just make viewers wish that Toby would stay permanently missing so that he stays far away from humanity. If you care about being entertained, you’re better off staying far away from “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood.”

Freestyle Digital Media released “The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood” on digital and VOD on December 20, 2022.

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