The Accountant 2 - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Accountant 2



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
2017’s The Accountant fast became one of my most pleasant surprises for that year. I was expecting very little from the film after watching the trailer, but ended up loving it when I was able to review the flick on 4K and Blu-ray back 8 years ago. It was charming, full of great action, and Gavin O’Connor’s take on how an autistic person who approaches being an action star was kind of cool. Maybe not medically common, but hey, who cares when we’re watching Ben Affleck slaughter bad guys without a problem. So when I read that Warner Bros. and Gavin O’Connor were coming back for a sequel, I was all for it. More guns, more autism (Acquired Savant Syndrome is what they refer to it as in the movie), and more Jon Bernthal this go around. What’s not to like?

While not everyone loved The Accountant, I certainly found it one of the more enjoyable action movies of 2017, and looked forward to this entry. Which makes things all the more frustrating when I walked out of my first viewing, going “Is this the same franchise?” and feeling a bit let down. I can’t really 100% explain it, but the sequel feels just “lesser” in regards to everything. The characters, the action, the story. It all just felt way less than the first film.
4 of the major cast members of the first film return for this go around, albeit J.K. Simmons, Ray King is killed off in the first 10 minutes. Ray has retired as deputy director of the FBI, leaving his subordinate, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), in his place. The retired fed is working small private cases on a contract basis, with a child’s father hiring him to track down his abducted child. The only thing is, it’s a setup, with Ray getting caught in the crossfire and the real target slipping out the front. But before he died, Ray had the foresight to scribble 3 words on his arm in a message to Deputy Director Medina…..Find the Accountant.

In true action movie fashion, Marybeth tracks down the mysterious “criminal killer” accountant known as Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) and asks him to figure out why Ray died. Acquiescing to her request, Christian calls in the help of his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) to get to work kicking down doors and pulling information out of people with some rather judicious use of force. But the deeper the trio goes down that rabbit hole, the more and more they start to realize that this is more than just a random hit. Ray was on to something big, and the very person who got away in the opening shootout just very well may be the key to the entire puzzle.

As I mentioned above, The Accountant 2 doesn’t really feel like it belongs to the first film. Both films feature 4 of the same characters, but only 2 of them are authentic to their roles in the previous film. Marybeth and Ray fall very comfortably in line, but both Christian and Braxton are “off”, and it’s not just the actors either. In the previous film, Christian was calm, collected, and had a beautiful mask that allowed him to come off as almost normal. He was a bit nerdy, but it worked, being that he was an accountant for the mob (who actually hunted them down and killed them after his work was done, in a faux vigilante way). His autistic “uniqueness” bled through when dealing with Anna Kendrick’s character, but he was still very put together. Here, Christian has devolved into being a TV dad, complete with new balance sneakers and khakis, with Ben Affleck ramping up the nerdy aspect of Christian’s character. Jon Bernthal was a bit of a smart-mouthed assassin in the first film, but he was still a rough and tough guy. Here, he’s portrayed in a heavily comedic way, with Gavin O’Connor having the two brothers spend more time arguing about their brotherly relationship than actually killing bad guys.

Overall, I’d have to say that the comedic timing is really what throws this film off for me. In The Accountant, the comedy was very subtle and usually not telegraphed in a scene. This one is all over the place, with slapstick dialogue between Christian and Braxton, and both men sort of leaning into the absurdity of it all. But even worse is the fact that he script is all over the place as well. The main story about finding Ray’s killer is given several detours, including Christian in a speed dating session, line dancing at a Honky Tonk club, and the aforementioned sequence where the two brothers literally whine and cry about their upbringing, and whether Braxton was a dog guy or a cat guy. Needless to say, the film feels incredibly awkward, with both Ben and Jon playing absurd exaggerations of what they played in the previous film. I liked parts of the movie, especially the end fight in Juarez at the end, but overall this is a drastically lesser film than what I enjoyed in 2017.




Rating:

Rated R for strong violence and language throughout.




4K Video: Video:

While the film isn’t that fantastic, the 2160p image is most certainly top tier. The film runs the entire gamut in terms of lighting and location switches, ranging from dark and grungy with that heavy blue/green tint to things, to out in the desert area of Juarez, complete with dusty brows and grays in bright lighting. Everything just looks superb, and allows for some stunning detail levels throughout the 2-hour film. Blacks are deep and inky, and the Dolby Vision (when turned on) adds a really silky feel to the nighttime shots. Outside of some small crush that appears in the dingy warehouses (which I think may be baked into the master, judging by the massive bitrates I was still seeing during those scenes), this is a superb-looking image that should satisfy just about everyone. One thing I will 100% give Warner Brothers this go around, and that is that with the lack of extras on the disc AND this was given a 100 GB disc, we have all the room in the world to max out the bitrate, and it looks like they did just that.





Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track found on this disc is by far the best part of the entire package. The Accountant 2 is filled with quite a bit of action throughout, ranging from drug dealers getting punched into a car to the full-blown action extravaganza that is the final shootout down in Mexico. Needless to say, this is one of the more dynamic and robust Atmos type tracks, and it really shines with the channel separation. You can hear the whipping of wind as Christian drives the truck towards the bus at the end, or the ricochet of rounds hitting stone walls and deflecting. Dialog is crisp and anchored up front like expected, and the overheads get some cool, discrete usage (such as the hubbub of L.A. traffic, or the chaotic fight scenes). Bass is tight and punchy, and while not wall-shaking, it adds quite a bit of heft to the action.






Extras:

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Final Score: ​

The Accountant 2 may not be AS great, but it’s still a reasonable summer action film. Even though it got a theatrical run, the movie is on par with what I would consider a streaming film to be quality-wise. It’s competent enough, but it is such a downgrade from the previous film that I left my first viewing feeling heavily disappointed. Watching it a second time (I checked it out first on Prime a few months back) didn’t really change my opinion on the film much either. My initial shock had worn off this go around, but I still just couldn’t get behind the tonal and character changes. The 4K UHD disc looks and sounds fantastic, though. There are zero extras on the disc, but the tech specs more than make up for that faux pas. Honestly, I’d rent this if you haven’t yet seen the film, but fans should be mostly pleased with the 4K package (mostly simply due to the lack of extras, otherwise this would be a banger).



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J.K. Simmons,
Directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Written by: Bill Dubuque
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, French, French (Canadian), German, Italian, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish, Dutch
Studio: Warner Bro's
Rated: R
Runtime: 132 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 29th, 2025

Recommendation: Rental

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