成人X站

SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

‘Peppermint’ an uninspired vigilante revenge movie

Sep 7, 2018, 7:11 AM

YouTube video

Very early in the new action-thriller film “Peppermint,” a mom explains to her daughter that you can’t just go around punching the lights out of every jerk you run across because if you did, you’d be as bad as they are.

But after her husband and her daughter are gunned down right in front of her, she changes her tune. She may not become quite as bad as the murderous thugs she takes on, but what she does become makes for a very bad movie. “Peppermint” is as pointless a film as you’re apt to see this year.

This is an uninspired vigilante revenge movie, with cartoonish bad guys, and an even more ridiculously caricatured court system. When the heavily tattooed Hispanic murderers of her family are let go because the prosecutors and the judge are paid off by a drug cartel, mom Riley North, played to the hilt by Jennifer Garner, goes ballistic … eventually.

North goes off the grid for five years, and when she emerges, she’s – somehow – a veritable killing machine. She starts out systematically hunting down and killing, one by one, her family’s killers. Their three bodies are found, in quite spectacular fashion, hanging by their ankles on the ferris wheel near where her family was mowed down.

Next, she goes after the judge that let the murderers go. She breaks into his home, nails his hands to his desk, tapes his mouth shut, and straps a bomb to his chest, all before giving him a little lecture.

“Watching someone take everything from you. All you have. All you’re ever going to have. … Hurts, doesn’t it? Knowing that it’s all over and there’s nothing you can do about it. You didn’t serve justice, your honor.”

She eventually detonates the bomb and blows him and his house to smithereens.

At this point, she’s four for four but she’s just warming up. She now decides to go after the drug cartel and sooner rather than later the bodies pile up quite impressively.

She not only manages to elude the heavily armed drug gangs and even the Korean mob, she also escapes the clutches of the police and the FBI who are hot on her trail, too. Ridiculous? Of course. But that’s not the film’s biggest problem. Lots of successful movies are ridiculous. Take Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series, for instance.

“Peppermint”‘s real problem is that the non-stop violence is so relentless and unimaginative. Many violent films can be cinematically exciting – see Tarantino, Peckinpah, etc. – but not this one. “Peppermint”‘s only real novelty is having a woman be the vigilante, instead of Liam Neeson. (Yes, the director also did “Taken.”) But that novelty wears off quickly. Add in laughably cliched dialogue and “Peppermint” becomes little more than a dispiriting endurance contest. And that’s no reason to go to the movies.

Find a better movie here.

Starbucks close pick-up stores...

MyNorthwest Staff

Starbucks ending pick-up store format, up to 5 closures expected in Seattle

Starbucks plans to eliminate its mobile-order-only Pick Up store concept by 2026, a move that could impact up to five locations in the Seattle area.

2 minutes ago

WA wine sales decline...

Jason Sutich

WA wineries hit by 18% sales decline over past 3 years

Wine sales in Washington have recorded a substantial drop in recent years, down more than 18% since 2021, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.

9 minutes ago

Buffalo herd US 12 closed...

Jason Sutich

Buffalo herd closes both directions of US 12 in Elma

A herd of buffalo blocked both directions of the highway on US 12 in Elma at 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday, the Washington State Department of Transportation confirmed.

2 hours ago

Lynnwood child shoots mother...

Jason Sutich

Weapons cache, homemade bombs found inside home of father in toddler shooting incident

The father of a 4-year-old child who accidentally shot his mother with an unsecured gun has pleaded not guilty to charges on Monday, according to KOMO News.

2 hours ago

Microsoft layoffs Redmond...

Jason Sutich

Microsoft confirms another round of layoffs at its Redmond campus

Microsoft has confirmed another round of layoffs at its Redmond campus, with 40 workers being laid off, as reported in a state filing.

3 hours ago

tacoma shooting...

Frank Lenzi

Tacoma police issue warning about scam calls

Tacoma police are warning residents about scam calls from people posing as law enforcement officers.

4 hours ago

‘Peppermint’ an uninspired vigilante revenge movie