Peppermint is wildly hypocritical with its fair share of laughably bad moments in the first half, but once those bits subside, it becomes increasingly icky and boring. There's a morbidly hilarious dark comedy buried not-so-deep inside the lousy revenge thriller "Peppermint." Five years after her husband and daughter are killed in a senseless act of violence, a woman comes back from self-imposed exile to seek revenge against those responsible and … Of course you do. Film Review: ‘Peppermint’ ... Netflix Buys Lord and Miller Animated Film ‘The Mitchells vs. who allowed her family’s killers to go free. Jennifer Garner kicks butt in a modest, effective revenge thriller with some disturbing subtext. Action movies are almost never boring. Parents need to know that Peppermint is a revenge action thriller that centers on a grieving and determined wife/mother named Riley North (Jennifer Garner).Riley watched her husband and daughter get gunned down by gang members who were never convicted for their crimes; five years later, she returns to Los Angeles with one goal: to kill every man she holds responsible for her family's murder. and the Terms and Policies, Ironically, the film’s muddy visuals makes it look less like a glossy Hollywood flick and more like a straight-to-VOD action movie, the kind of which are currently doing quite well by Netflix. This Jennifer Garner bomb has received a second life on Netflix. Because Taken, But With A Woman" wouldn't fit on the marquee. With Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz, Juan Pablo Raba. She has spent the last 15 years mostly playing love interests and mothers in (among others) The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, The Invention of Lying, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Dallas Buyers Club, Mother’s Day, and Wakefield. The second strangest thing about the 2018 flop actioner ($54 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, although domestic distributor STX surely made out just fine) is that its exceptionally ugly. Jennifer Garner's name is not Peppermint in this film. Like Blake Lively’s (pretty good) The Rhythm Section and Zoe Saldana’s (halfway decent) Colombiana, Garner’s heroine has to lose her entire family before she can go into butt-kicking mode. Despite a committed performance by Garner, Peppermint is an extremely forgettable and bland action movie that leaves no impression with the viewer. It also expects us to side with Garner as she slaughters the folks within the justice system (prosecutors, judges, etc.) Sebastian can't sleep. [Full Review in Spanish]. Get unlimited DVD Movies & TV Shows delivered to your door with no … A waste of Garner's talent. Peppermint Feels Like Two Movies Crammed Together The moral issues of Peppermint are mostly due to the fact that Peppermint plays like two movies in one, forcing the actual movie to skip over what was its closest thing to a satisfying kill and leaving more time for racial stereotypes in the second and third act. Check out the official Peppermint trailer starring Jennifer Garner! It’s a strange pattern, perhaps offering an unwillingness to show a fiery action heroine doing her thing with a husband and kids waiting at home. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. It's the sort of picture that would have been boffo on a … Directed by Pierre Morel. Nothing stands out in an era of cinema where audiences are inundated with uniquely creative gun-fu-esque action. If it were a better movie, its politics wouldn’t be a deal breaker. Lady Punisher feels like a far-right conservative trojan horse and it's a waste of time. Bad timing can kill a movie that has everything going for it, but the problem with Peppermint isn't so much bad timing as tone deafness on an egregious scale. The strangest thing about Peppermint is that Garner is very bad in it. Operates on the most basic, unoriginal, uninspired revenge fantasy design, so that it rarely feels like anything other than a remake of overly familiar vigilante epics. Meanwhile, Affleck got a gold-starred comeback narrative and a (deservedly) Oscar-winning directorial career. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing scholarship have included The Huffington Post, Salon, and Film Threat. There’s a certain cruel irony in the very existence of STX and Lakeshore’s Peppermint. By Chris Agar Sep 07, 2018. The sets are boring. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! It's not great that the film is essentially "Victimized White Lady Versus The Scary Mexicans," but one does not go to Pierre Morel movies for racial sensitivity or modern-day wokeness (save for maybe District 13). The story does not take enough time to develop characters you should care about but, instead, they feel like plot devices in order to motivate Jennifer Garner to get revenge. Peppermint was just her third vehicle since that superhero flop, following the romantic dramedy Catch and Release in 2006, the indie Butter in 2011 and the faith-based Miracles From Heaven in 2016. She’s even good in Nine Lives, playing the wife/mother in a movie where Chris Walken turns Kevin Spacey into a cat. Never mind that Garner had been doing the “action hero” thing since J.J. Abrams’ Alias back in 2001 (along with films like Daredevil, Elektra and The Kingdom). Sign up here. Directed by Stephan Drury. Bet they're a nightmare. Movie Review Talk: 'The Predator', 'White Boy Rick', and 'Peppermint' Scott Mantz, Matt Atchity, and Andrew Freund take a deep dive into this week's new releases. LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 28: Jennifer Garner arrives to the Los Angeles premiere of STX ... [+] Entertainment's "Peppermint" held at Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium 14 on August 28, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. I read some of their reviews. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. When Angelina Jolie subbed in for Tom Cruise in Salt, one of the first script changes was to change the respective spouse from a damsel-in-distress to a fridged victim. The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. The DVD, list-priced $29.99, is selling … All rights reserved. Peppermint opened to six straight days in first place before relinquishing its top spot to Ava. Comment. I’m not sure why execs thought seeing Jolie’s husband being kidnapped and shot was less emasculating than seeing him kidnapped and rescued, but I digress. Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Peppermint’ On Netflix, Jennifer Garner Needs No Alias As A Vigilante Mom On A Vengeance Killing Mission. IGN's Game of the Year 2020. It's just probably not the movie that director Pierre Morel (" Taken," "District B13") and screenwriter Chad St. John intended to make. And MAN is this struggle against a one-woman army a LOT of fun to witness. Three films hitting Netflix this month deliver thrills and drama even though far too many critics dismissed them as unworthy. In a classic case of gender-based double standards, the failure of Elektra (a sloppily-slapped together spin-off from Ben Affleck’s not-exactly-beloved Daredevil) in 2005 was essentially the end of Garner’s career as a major studio lead. I've studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. Share Share Tweet Email. ... Netflix's Mercy Black Review. Sean Penn’s The Gunman may be an icky movie in terms of content (Penn stars as a mercenary who indirectly caused a genocide but feels really bad about it), but every penny of its $50 million budget is up on the screen. For the average moviegoer or for fans of Jennifer Garner Peppermint doesn't go far enough to offer a worthwhile experience. Rats keeping you up? Peppermint lacks subtlety and anything even remotely resembling credibility, but like its heroine, it certainly gets the job done. It has recently release Peppermint 9 at 22 June 2018. Peppermint doesn’t live or die by its politics, but rather its “cut to ribbons” structure, its unpleasant visual palette and a screenplay so thin that Garner delivers, for the first time ever, a bad performance. Outside the Wire Review: Netflix's Sci-Fi Action Film Has Ludicrous Fun With an Android Anthony Mackie Mackie continues to build his star profile To be fair, she’s excellent in these movies, offering a real authenticity and emotional oomph for the likes of Love, Simon and Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible No Good, Very Bad Day. Pierre Morel’s EuroCorp actioners (District 13, Taken, From Paris With Love, The Gunman) tend to look relatively gorgeous. With a colleague chasing promotion and snapping at his heels, deadlines to hit and a boss breathing down his neck, he doesn't need rats tap dancing on his head. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. Riley [Jennifer Garner] might be indestructable, but this movie is DOA. Let us know what you think in the comments below. The action felt technically antiquated. Review: The White Tiger Is an Audaciously Direct Condemnation of Oppression. The film is rather icky in terms of its politics. 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It was packaged and sold as Jennifer Garner’s “turn” in the realm of “unlikely” older actors playing “out for a kill,” revenge-seeking action heroes. It's a straight forward action film that feels like a showcase for Jennifer Garner. Singapore. I start all movies out 10/10 Bob Davis' Jennifer Garner -7 Somewhat unoriginal plot -2 Movie title -4 So now we're at -3/10 Bob Davis' within the first 15 minutes. Forgot your password? Monash University. Jennifer Garner made an unusual turn as a mild-mannered woman who trains herself to be a merciless vigilante who hunts down the members of the gang responsible for her family's deaths in the 2018 thriller Peppermint and it earned her a new wave of fans. I've studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. Peppermint skips ahead five years.Riley returns as a one-woman army ready for revenge. The movie doesn’t waste any time on the years Riley went missing, which works to its favor. Review: ‘Peppermint’ Is Neither Sweet Nor Good. Don't have an account? President Biden took the oath of office this week. Peppermint Year 2018 Genre Crime Action Drama Thriller Type Movies IDMB rating 6.5 (55747 votes) Netflix rating 6.5 Metacritics rating 29.0 Rotten Tomatoes rating 12.0% Directors Pierre Morel Actors … As far as its existence in terms of Garner’s career, it is almost a tragedy, as we lost 15 years of potentially wonderful rom-coms and action thrillers to an industry that tends to give actresses “one strike” before they are out. Then she takes revenge and kills everyone. Review: Beautiful Something Left Behind Celebrates Symbolism as a Salve for Grief. [Full review in Spanish]. You will want it to be so, but it is not so. I have extensively written about all. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last 11 years. Jennifer Garner's Peppermint is a reminder that a single flop (Elektra) caused her to spend the next 15 years playing girlfriends, wives and mothers. 0. Latest News. Author: mliss1578. I’m old enough to remember when it was a shock to see Willis killed off in the opening act of Henry Cavill’s (theatrically released) The Cold Light of Day. Peppermint didn't exactly set the box office on fire after debuting in theaters to generally negative reviews in September 2018. Like almost every female-led actioner over the last decade, Peppermint overdoses on gloom and guilt, neglecting to let its “bad-ass female action hero” have any fun with her death-dealing ways. I'm talking like John Wick type of killing. There is a distinct impression that Garner's avenger is slaughtering judges and lawyers purely because she didn't like the outcome, as if they are automatically “enemies of the people.” Law Abiding Citizen did the same thing, but that film allowed Gerald Butler's sympathetic vigilante to be the film's outright villain. A title more suited for throw-away viewing on Netflix rather than seeking it out specifically on the big screen, Peppermint is material far beneath [Jennifer Garner]'s talents. This is not worthy of our time. Its current momentary popularity on Netflix shows that the streaming platform is both a place for esteemed Oscar contenders (like this week’s Mank) and the newfangled “direct to video” or “discount bin” for unsuccessful studio programmers. The top-ranked movie of the moment is Ryan Phillippe’s “Die Hard in an empty college campus” actioner The 2nd (a film technically concerning the politics of gun ownership but seemingly unwilling to espouse an opinion about it), while last week’s list made room for Hard Kill, one of Bruce Willis’ 16 (at least) VOD actioners since 2011 where the star essentially cameos in someone else’s adventure for the sake of an easy paycheck. Copyright © Fandango. Are there underlying messages? ... Here’s what’s new to Netflix and new to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and more this month. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. Review: Peppermint. Film. It's almost as if this movie wants to be one. There's not much new material here, just fresh outrage to mine from the movie-going public. [The movie] feels rushed, discombobulated, and incomplete. Peppermint was just her third vehicle since that superhero flop, following the romantic dramedy Catch and Release in 2006, the indie Butter in 2011 and the faith-based Miracles From Heaven … Easy on the Stomach (Peppermint Review) Peppermint is not really a complex film. Interview: Glenn Close on Hillbilly Elegy and Respecting the Vance Family’s Plight. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic). Peppermint (2018) is easily the most controversial of the bunch. © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. Peppermint is wildly hypocritical with its fair share of laughably bad moments in the first half, but once those bits subside, it becomes increasingly icky and boring. Do you want to see Jennifer Garner be a bad ass for 90 minutes or not? The sub-genre, which was (in the modern sense) created by Denzel Washington’s Man on Fire in 2004, popularized by Liam Neeson’s Taken in 2009 and perfected by Keanu Reeves’ John Wick in 2014, became a way for “very serious actors” like Kevin Costner, John Travolta and Sean Penn to indulge in their inner action hero, with a dash of post-9/11 topicality and political, uh, “nuance” thrown in for good measure. With Alexandra Gray, Mark Jackson, Jacob James Beswick. Follow me at @ScottMendelson and "like" The Ticket Booth on Facebook. You may opt-out by, Entertainment's "Peppermint" held at Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium 14 on August 28, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. At least now we can say Jennifer Garner has made a worse film than Elektra. [Jennifer] Garner's performance is very good, so good that you wish you could see it in a better movie. … Peppermint Review. Peppermint OS is an open source Unix-like OS, the first release on 9 May 2010. Jennifer Garner is the saving grace of Peppermint, but even her performance isn't enough to prevent this from being a 'here today, gone tomorrow' kind of film. Peppermint Review: Jennifer Garner Can't Save Bland Action Romp. Ben Affleck recovered from Daredevil, but Elektra ($53 million on a $43 million budget) was a mortal blow to Garner’s career as a leading actress. An odious would-be thriller that somehow manages to come across as both wildly offensive and incredibly boring. It uses kernel type – Monolithic (Linux) and supports both 32 bit (i386) and 64 bit (amd64). Rent Peppermint (2018) starring Jennifer Garner and John Gallagher Jr. on DVD and Blu-ray. Peppermint has a suggested retail price of $34.99 but is available to pre-order from Amazon for $22.99. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy Maybe next time. French film director Pierre Morel knows his way around an action film, though... 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