Peppermint

Starring: Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz, Juan Pablo Raba, Annie Ilonzeh, Jeff Hephner, Cailey Fleming, Eddie Shin, Method Man, Michael Mosley
Directed by: Pierre Morel
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After her husband and daughter are killed by drug dealers, a woman (Jennifer Garner) sets out to get revenge on everyone involved.

Review:

Tim: Looking at the reviews of Peppermint, I expected a near disaster. Critics really disliked this film. I'm a little surprised by that. Sure, I agree with the majority that this isn't quite a good movie. But it gets awfully close. Yes, it's a bit too violent and hard to take seriously, but it was still a fairly entertaining film. It's flawed, but it was a decent viewing experience.

Even though a female-led action film isn't quite the novelty that it was a few years ago, we still don't nearly enough of these films. I appreciated that the movie put Jennifer Garner in the lead role. It gave the movie a slightly different feel. We've seen at least a dozen movies where the husband/father is the lone survivor of a family massacre and goes on a killing spree, so it was refreshing to see an alternative version to that story. It follows the same path as those other movies, but at least it felt slightly different because of the gender swap. It helps that Garner is no stranger to action movies. She's convincing in the role. Garner might not be a great actress (I don't think I've ever for a second thought she was), but she physically works here. While I would have preferred a more talented actress, she gives a fairly good performance. This is really the central unique aspect of this film. It's not enough to save the movie, but it's certainly a contribution.

While the story doesn't tread any new ground, nor even try to, it is fairly entertaining. The premise is simple- a woman is determined to avenge her family by murdering a bunch of people she believes are culpable in their death and the following miscarriage of justice. It's pretty straightforward and the bulk of the movie is Garner hunting down one person after another. There's nothing new about this, but I have to admit it's still fairly entertaining. There's something so fun about seeing one person take on a large crime syndicate by themselves. I found myself having fun with the violent revenge scenes. Even if the movie itself isn't all that good, it's still fun to see bad guys get their comeuppance. The problem is that most of the movie feels like a rehash of territory we've ventured into many times before. The story tries to throw a few unexpected twists at us. None of them are particularly shocking, although I admit I was wrong about one that I tried to guess. The story is just effective enough to hold our attention, although it gets harder to believe the story the longer it goes on.

I was a little surprised that they didn't get a better supporting cast. Although John Gallagher Jr. and John Ortiz both give fairly strong supporting performances, neither of them is especially recognizable (other than that vague, "I've seen them before" feeling). Juan Pablo Raba made for a majorly lackluster antagonist. I know him from a television show and it felt like that's where he belongs. He was a surprisingly toothless villain. He wasn't nearly menacing enough. Annie Ilonzeh was fairly good, but her role was small. As a whole, it felt like this film desperately needed a breakout performance from the supporting cast. We do not get that.

As a whole, Peppermint was a perfectly fine movie. It does feel redundant and generic, but it's at least mildly entertaining from start to finish. The violence didn't bother me, but it wasn't especially compelling, either. The cast was fine. As a whole, I thought the film was decent, but it's not the kind of movie I'd actively recommend to others.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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