There were talks of turning The Accountant into a franchise when it came out way back in the fall of 2016. But Ben Affleck has signed on to play Bruce Wayne/Batman in the old DCEU, so we never got to another chapter of The Accountant in the 2010s. But 9 years later, his autistic yet lethal hitman/accountant Christian Wolff is back in action.

As the movie begins, we see a semi-retired agent, Ray King (J.K. Simmons), in a dive bar meeting with a strange woman named Anais (Daniella Pineda). He’s been looking for a family from South America who have gone missing. Hoping that Anais can help him find the family, but she notified him that her job isn’t to find missing people but to eliminate them. Before King could make sense of what he had just heard, gunmen came out of nowhere and started attacking him. During the ambush, King was killed, but he left a message for his old colleague, Marybeth (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), to find The Accountant. Christian Wolff is now living in Idaho and looking for a romance partner. But because of his disability, he can’t hold a normal conversation with potential dates.

Once Marybeth contacts Christian, the duo decides to investigate King’s murder. They found out that he’s on something sinister that involves human trafficking. Christian realizes that he needs help and contacts his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal). As the trio dig deeper, they find danger, and the leader of the human traffic group, Burke (Robert Morgan), isn’t too happy that someone is looking into his business. He sends out his henchmen to eliminate our heroes.

The screenplay is credited to Bill Dubuque, and he wrote a procedural story that feels more like a TV movie than a big blockbuster. That isn’t a bad thing since the first movie wasn’t a high concept either. For the sequel, Dubuque decided to inject humor into the story and turn the movie into a buddy/cop action thriller in the vein of the Lethal Weapon films. In fact, the tone of this sequel is very similar to the first two of that 80s action franchise, where the first movie is dark and serious, and the sequel is much more lighthearted, as is the case with Lethal Weapon 1 and 2.

Returning to the director’s chair is Gavin O’Connor. I haven’t seen a lot of O’Connor’s work besides the first Accountant film and Pride and Glory. While he’s not a flashy director when it comes to visual storytelling, the big shootout in the climax was well-shot and staged. I’m happy he didn’t go with a handheld shaky cam that some inexperienced action directors like to do. I do wish that he’d delivered a tighter picture. Some scenes went a bit too long and could’ve been cut, and the movie would’ve been tighter.

As for the performances, Affleck clearly enjoys playing this character. Although I was a bit surprised he took a backseat when he’s on screen with other characters. Bernthal seems to have a great time playing the sidekick and comic relief. While some of the humors didn’t work, the two brothers kind of reminded me of the action duos in Lethal Weapon and 48 Hrs. I was surprised that Cynthia Addai-Robinson got as much screen time as the two male leads, and she’s good as the “moral” character in the story. Just like the first film, though, the villains are one-dimensional and they’re nasty; they deserve to get shot in the head by our heroes.

While it isn’t anything special, this sequel is entertaining and reminds me of the 1980s and 1990s action thrillers. If you enjoyed the first film, then you’ll likely enjoy this one, too.

So have you seen THE ACCOUNTANT 2? Well, what do you think?

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