The Accountant 2             2 stars

After eight years, accountant and deadly killer Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is back in director Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant 2, the sequel to the 2016 generically named The Accountant, also by O’Connor. This time around the autistic genius and weapons expert has been recruited by a US Treasury agent (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to help her investigate a human trafficking ring in Mexico that has extended its reach into the United States. She soon finds out that some of his methods aren’t exactly legal. (But first we get an amusing taste of what it’s like for the socially awkward Christian to try a dating service where his literal way of speaking puts off every woman he talks to.) When it becomes clear just how violent and far reaching this criminal gang is that he is facing, Christian must reach out to his estranged brother, Braxton (Jon Berthal) who is a professional killer in Europe, and persuade him to come back to the US to help him in the case. Only now things are complicated by the appearance of a trained female assassin (Daniella Pineda) whose motives are unclear. But, on Christian’s side is a special group of computer savvy teenagers from a special school for autistic children whose hacking skills go beyond that of the specialists working for the US government. There are many moments of comedic banter between the two brothers that the writer must have thought was important to include, but given the serious nature of the crimes involved, it sometimes seems out of place. Like the first movie, the action and violence go to extreme levels with an absurdly high body count. The risks they take and the kill ratio they achieve go well beyond anything approaching credibility. Some people who are familiar with those who are autistic may find it offensive to portray an autistic character in a movie this way. It certainly doesn’t do much for the cause of those with this disorder. Many movie goers may like this type of comedic action movie, but I am not among them. I found last year’s The Fall Guy, also a popular violent action movie, preferable given its lighter premise. There may be another sequel to The Accountant coming. It won’t bother me if it takes another eight years for it to come out.