WB and Affleck with another winner: The Accountant - Oscars here we come!

re'up

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I saw this last night.....This was one of the most laughably bad, hilariously over the top, preposterous thrillers I have seen, and slightly enjoyed in a long time. Lets start with the preview, J.K Simmons talking shop with references to the Sinaloa Cartel, and 'the most dangerous men in the world', followed by quick shots of Affleck with scribbling all over the walls, brandishing a sniper rifle, ominous shots of a facade suburban life....So, I'm thinking we see the inner workings of a Mexican trafficking network, or a Japanese crime syndicate, as the Accountant falls for a girl, or gets in over his head somehow, with the US federal agent characters circling. A thriller, but an adult minded one. This isn't one of those. It's 'Assassins' (1995) with autisim.

Affleck looks like an SNL skit version of Clark Kent, a close cropped haircut, a pocket protector, and wire rim glasses on a bulked up post Batman appearance. Have you see the SNL skit with the Rock as Clark Kent? It's like that. Anyone would look at the Accountant, and ask him what the fukk he was up to....Weighing like 225 all muscle :mjlol: with a pocket protector..... Everydayman, he is not. He's also, as a result, of a more often then not laugh out loud bad childhood flashbacks, an expert military trained sniper, with advanced knowledge of Indonesian fighting techniques, one of those Hollywood fantasy tough men who dispatch helpless goons by the half dozen, and collect Jackson Pollack's to show their sensitive side. I don't know much about autisim, but the movie may just know less. He's charming, and able to read people, situations, and communicate effectively whenever called upon by the script, which lurches from subplot to subplot, as you try to figure out the absurd twists that close out the movie. I was close, and called one, I am sure many will do better then me. It doesn't help that the characters motivations seem unknown to themselves, much less the audience. And they are absurd. M Knight level of absurd.

Here's a few moments from the script which I took particular exception to:

-the Accountant settles an old score with some Gambino family mobsters at the Ravenite......which is where Gotti was watched by the feds in the fukking 1980's. It's a shoe store now, and hasn't been a mob hangout in 20 years or more. The scene takes place in more or less present day.

-J.K Simmons wearing an actual fedora on an investigation, looking like Nazi war criminal in the 1940's.

-"And next month? A container ship, a million dollars in uncut cocaine at the Miami port.....Juarez Cartel" Juarez, located just across from El Paso, Texas crosses their drug shipments into the US from Chihuaua and mainly El Paso, hence the name. It's lucrative territory. And yeah, I get it, the average person doesn't know or care, but it's sloppy, amateur writing.

-The scene where the Accountant disarms and subdues a man with....his belt. Of course, by then it's comedically bad, and he's shooting, running, and gunning like a trained killer.

-A scene where the Simmons character tells the younger Treasury agent to find the Accountant in a month. A man with no known name, associates, location, just find him. No cooperating witnesses. No evidence. Obviously for the screenplays sake, a long term 18 month or 5 year investigation would be impossible....but figure something else out.

-The constant hamfisted emotional flashbacks with lots of bleary camera angles and slow motion cries of anguish.

Almost forgot: when the Accountant (as told, we don't get to witness this foolishness) escapes from a military prison "right out of a third story window" after beating a guard to death, this was maybe the funniest one. Just leaped right out of Leavenworth, apparently.

I liked Anna Kendrick's performance, and John Lithgow chewing scenery in a throwback to 'Cliffhanger', from what began as a measured, dignified performance. Jon Bernthal is wasted, more or less. It's like someone watched 'Assassins', injected the most Hollywood style of a medical condition I have seen, and Affleck. It's entertaining, in an extremely dumb way. Do not expect a serious, or even competent thriller. This is a shoot em up fantasy more suited for young teenagers. Oscars? :laff:This is some shyt that should have been released in January, and moved on quickly from. Watch Clark Kent from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com this a good idea of Affleck's character.
 
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Dominic Brehetto

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Why are people saying critics are trashing this?

Seems like it's a mixed response. Around 50% on both rt and metacritic is not what I would call a film being trashed.
 

the cool

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anna kendrick is great in roles where she doesn't try to be funny i.e up in the air, 50/50, the accountant, end of watch

this movie was very dope imo if you go in with low expectations. i didnt walk out of this one brehs
 

flo

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Why are people saying critics are trashing this?

Seems like it's a mixed response. Around 50% on both rt and metacritic is not what I would call a film being trashed.
Because at the time it was much lower. It rose to 50% just now.
 

TheGodling

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This was an absolutely preposterous movie, it makes you wonder why they tried to sell it so hard as a serious thriller when it's closer to pure fukkery-fueled shyt like Lucy. Even the movie itself barely seems to take itself seriously with a lot of deadpan comedy regarding Ben Affleck's reactions to people ("ha ha, he reacts stoically and disinterested because he has autism, people!"). The plot is all over the place with a random robotic tech company taking center stage to a white washing scheme, who decide to hire a genius underworld accountant to fact check the books they themselves cooked (don't ask why they did that, even the main "villain" doesn't know), as each of the principal suspects get eliminated by a villainous black ops task force who never make it abundantly clear how they work exactly, but do have a steady supply of henchmen of all varieties, including men who disguise themselves as movers so they can kidnap people and transport them in wooden boxes (or at least attempt to), but do so while their partners, two tall, bulky guys in tailor-made suits guard the hallway, making you wonder what the hell the point is of the disguises for those other guys since anyone can tell those guys in the hallway are up to no good. Our genius autistic accountant meanwhile is of course being hunted by an elderly treasury agent heading for retirement, who blackmails a young upstart analyst to pretty much do the entire investigation for him or else he'll expose her criminal record. Before she solicited to the Treasury Department she was an analyst for both the Justice Department and Homeland Security, and the only explanation the movie cares to conjure up as to why neither institution found out about her criminal record (which includes attempted murder) is because those records "had been sealed".

If you then add Anna Kendrick's damsel-in-distress/sorta-intended-but-not-quite-love-interest who literally disappears for about an hour or so because the movie has no place for her, it's clear the writer was just throwing shyt at a wall. There's also a twist towards the end, one which would be obvious enough to most viewers even if the movie hadn't been directed by Gavin O'Conner, because anyone familiar with a certain recurring theme in his movies really shouldn't be surprised by this completely unnecessary reveal that actually kills any importance of the final climax. Like I said, it's simply a preposterous movie.
 

Cheercomp

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I definitely enjoyed this one. I had been looking forward to it from the trailers and it lived up to expectations. The autism stuff at the end was a bit hamfisted but I'd rather that be pushed than some other off base BS that Hollywood loves to force.
I liked the handful of twists too.
As I walked out the theater, which was PACKED on a Sunday afternoon, an older women said " That...was...simply... amazing"
 
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