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What if Jason Bourne was also TurboTax? Ben Affleck is an autistic math savant who moonlights as a lethal assassin and part-time financial consultant for warlords. And you know what? One of the hosts of this show loves this movie.
Secret trailer arsenals? Check. Hidden identities? Double check. Anna Kendrick showing up to save the movie? Triple check with a spreadsheet.
This is peak Great Bad Movie material: it’s serious about being serious, but somewhere deep in its soul, it knows it’s kind of ridiculous.
Joe’s Back of the Box
Where do criminal enterprises go to audit their books? Well if you know who to call, The Accountant will help you out. But beware, buried under his steely gaze is a code and if you break his code he will break you. Ben Affleck stars in this simmering action thriller that boils over and out of the board room into the highest echelons of power. Every missed dollar could cost you your job or, at worst, your life…
The REAL Back of the Box
This is a movie that should never have been made. We did not need an autistic accountant action movie. I’m sorry. We didn’t. This movie makes no sense and forces great actors to deliver mediocre monologues to move the story forward. There is one decent action scene in this movie and it’s the last one. Other than that, this is an exercise in normalizing autism and accounting in a manner so ridiculous that it fails on all accounts. The people who greenlit the sequel should be evaluated for head trauma…
Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.
Joe: Greg, in the movie we just watched, they famously make a counting seem really exciting. How would they make your job really exciting if they were turning it into an action movie?
Greg: Oh my gosh, it would be so easy. I’m a graphic designer and what’s not more exciting than that? Actually, no. I’m so glad you asked, because we are starting a brand new genre of movie that we are covering. A great Batman is this week something we’re calling super smart, mundane jobs. A long time ago, there was a kind of movie where there are animals that were like, genetically modified to become super smart.
Greg: Super smart sharks is the prime example. Deep blue sea. There was also super smart bats. Super smart.
Joe: Mireles was another ace of some, some kind.
Greg: But we are jumping past super smart animals and we are going straight towards super smart, mundane job. So any job that anybody has can now mean that you are also the greatest military person in history. The beekeeper.
Joe: The mechanic.
Greg: The contractor, the bricklayer.
Joe: Piling them.
Greg: On. Absolutely. Most recently, a working man not even saying what it is. Just he has a mundane job of some kind. We don’t need to be specific.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. So.
Greg: So of course, the graphic designer, it’s a little bit like Under Siege where it was just the chef. Yeah. Chefs do that.
Joe: Yeah. It reminds me of, there’s this new one out with Remy Malik. The immature, I think. Yeah, totally. I’m not quite sure what his skill set is, but it’s not professional. It’s amateur. So.
Greg: Oh, my gosh, we will get to the amateur. Are you kidding me? I I’m so bummed we didn’t watch that this weekend, to be honest. Yeah.
Joe: Missed opportunity for sure.
Greg: What about you? Could your job be turned into a super smart, mundane job?
Joe: I mean, I could bore people to death when I talk about economic development, and that would be, like, my superpower or something like that, I’d be like the administrator or something like that. That’s kind of ominous. Kind of like the adjudicator in John Wick drinking game Alert if you’re playing along. Have I mentioned John Wick? Yes. Already in the preamble.
Greg: Of the show. Amazing. The cold open. That’s right. The show isn’t warmed up until you’ve mentioned John, where you would just off people with your PowerPoint presentations.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. I don’t know if you ever watched what they do in the shadows, but there’s the energy vampire that would be me. And like, presentation.
Greg: Totally is.
Joe: My favorite character in that show. Yeah. So perfect.
Greg: Your slides would just be packed with information. You can be impossible to read all of it and listen to you at the same time.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. And then I would just repeat almost verbatim what was written on each slide.
Greg: So gosh, I mean, I think but you would start by saying you don’t have to read the whole slide. Yeah. Let me just tell you what this is.
Joe: Yeah. I’ll just give you a quick overview. And then I does like, and I keep this high level and then read it word for word that.
Greg: You might already be a government contractor and we don’t know it. All right, let’s get to the show.
Joe: Let’s do it.
Clip: Your son is a remarkable young man. He has highly advanced cognitive skills.
Clip: He has more in common with Einstein or Mozart than he does with us. I’d like to work with your son. Help them develop the skills he’ll need to lead a full life. That’s not going to happen. The world is not a friendly place, and that’s where he needs to learn to live. My father was in the army. He was concerned that I might be taken advantage of.
Clip: So he arranged for me to train with specialists. He risks his life doing accounting for the scariest people on the planet, and gives all of it away. He’s a criminal only when someone breaks his moral code. So who is he? The accountant. Like a CPA. Accountant. The client the.
Greg: Accountant raided are.
Greg: And the year is 2016. And director Gavin O’Connor. Writer Bill Dubuque decided to make a movie called The Accountant. We are talking about Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Jon Bernthal, J.K. Simmons, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Di Robinson, John Lithgow. Jean Smart is in this movie for a minute. Jason Davis. There is so much to talk about right now. I cannot wait to talk about this movie.
Greg: But Joe Sky Tucker, what makes The Accountant a great bad movie?
Joe: This was a rough movie. A man that I struggle and this might be one of the first times I dip down even into like the okay into bad, bad movie. I could not believe they made this movie. There is one good action scene in this entire movie. It’s the last one. The rest of it is. There are some moments, but I don’t know what they were thinking, why they needed to make, a movie about accounting and autism and action.
Joe: All slammed together.
Greg: Yep.
Joe: The storyline is really confusing. And what’s crazy is this cast is bonkers. Good.
Greg: So good.
Joe: They are doing everything they can to make this movie. Yeah, something it’s not. And having to deliver some of the stupidest dialog I may have ever heard. This is like worse than next like to me.
Greg: And we’ll get to next week.
Joe: Will for sure get to next. Yeah, I was confused by the plot of this movie of what they were trying to do with it. They were trying to, like, have a message about parenting and autism and about forensic accounting. So. And an action movie and I was so confused. So I’m probably going to need your help as we walk through this movie, because I had moments where I was like.
Greg: Wait, what is happening? Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, totally. Are we here? Right? We’re at a funeral. I don’t get why I don’t get any of this stuff. Yeah, I turn it back to you. Okay, so.
Greg: That is your full analysis.
Joe: My full analysis? What the hell did we just.
Greg: What you usually say. I could keep talking, but I’m. But this time you’re like, that’s about it. I’m out about.
Joe: It. Yeah. It’s gonna be a quick episode, folks.
Greg: Why are you showing the top in the bottom of your hands to the cameras above you? Like like a blackjack dealer? Yeah.
Joe: I know, it’s like.
Greg: Yeah. There is one question that I asked myself so many times while I was watching this movie, and it was, what are we doing? What is this movie? And I watched this movie, in probably 2020. I bet we were locked down as I watched this movie. And so I, had the time. And in the end, I was so glad I gave this movie my time.
Greg: So that’s why we are covering this movie? Because The Accountant two is out in theaters right now. As this episode drops, we have not had the chance to see it yet because we are recording this before it comes out, but there are so many twists and turns. It’s like it’s a novel in a way. And so this is a movie that you have to make a choice at the end.
Greg: Did I like that or not? And about I don’t know, halfway through the first time I watched it, I was kind of like, I am oddly on board with with this movie. I don’t know what’s happening. I at 30 minutes in, you’re still meeting characters. I think 30 minutes in, we meet Anna Kendrick. She might be the last character we meet.
Greg: I’ll just say that I think the script is probably a little bit too meandering, but rewards multiple viewings.
Joe: Okay?
Greg: Anna Kendrick said in the special features of this movie that she had to read the script twice to understand it and I feel like we should get her to read every script that we are covering. And she was this a single reader was a double read because it is a double read movie. We’re kind of like, wait, what is happening?
Joe: I feel like it is two movies. Put together.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And first of all, whoever greenlit a sequel to this movie should seriously reexamine every life choice they’ve made up to this point. Because I don’t get it. This hero is not he’s not interesting at all. They’re trying to tell a story of a family of autism, and then all of a sudden, he is like the most lethal assassin on the planet.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And we’re supposed to extrapolate from his terrible childhood and upbringing that that’s what drove like he. He’s not a soul. Jerry is not in the army, is not so when we get to how we can fix it, I will fix this movie very quickly and easily, okay. By extracting the autism and the accounting and the assassin from this, because it makes no sense.
Joe: Makes no sense how they put this together. It feels like there’s like a cut of this movie that could be just about the family drama. There’s a cut of this movie that could be just about the accounting side of it, and there’s one. And then the autism part, and then they just made three movies into one. Yeah, left it in a trench coat and said, calling it The Accountant, go.
Joe: Yeah. And so I tried to watch it. I think similarly around that time and I couldn’t get past like ten minutes into it, I was out.
Greg: Wow. Ten minutes in. Okay.
Joe: That’s like what? And and another thing, I have J.K. Simmons who starts out as like a Treasury agent. Yeah, with a gun in a battle. And then he’s like, I think in the FBI at the end, like, but like they’re trying so hard to take these jobs that have no action to them and make them seem exciting.
Greg: Well, he was like in the crimes unit. Yeah.
Joe: Financial crime. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. I’m with the financial crimes, but he has to deliver some of these monologues. They’re like five pages of dialog, I swear with like, the earnestness of like, yeah, salt of the earth. Good guy. Yeah, he nails it. He is so perfect. He’s incredible in lesser hands. This movie slides into parody pretty quickly I totally agree.
Greg: Yeah but JK Simmons crushes it. And then.
Joe: Crushes it. He is.
Greg: Ben Affleck I think Ben Affleck crushes it in this.
Joe: Movie I agree I actually think the acting yeah solid start to finish with standouts of of Ben Affleck and J.K. Simmons. Jean smart I will watch anything that she’s in. She is amazing.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: John Lithgow shows up for a cup of coffee and so does Jeffrey Tambor. And yeah, you know, and Anna Kendrick is underutilized.
Greg: So it’s I mean, everybody is punching way above their weight to turn this into something that it it could have not been, you know, but I think it’s well-written. I do like, oh, I do like the script for this movie. I think it’s well-made. I think Gavin O’Connor did a good job directing this thing.
Joe: Interesting.
Greg: I think I think the performances are incredible. There’s one thing that, is really quite fascinating about this movie, and that’s every character in this movie. They have two different sides to them, like when they introduce them, they’re one thing, and by the end they’re something else. Okay, so the plot does just go everywhere, but by the end you’re like, oh, that’s interesting.
Greg: Every single character had two different sides to them. That’s that’s rare. You know, I’m going to be more forgiving of this movie than any one.
Joe: Way more forgiving than I am on this. I think that the actors are saving this movie, and I think maybe this is a three hour movie.
Greg: Oh, I think it’s a ten episode Netflix series. Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And that I probably would watch because it would allow a lot more nuance and a lot more development of the characters and what they’re about. There are so many moments I was like, wait, what? Why are we flashing back again? I just didn’t follow it. I might need to watch it again. I would probably watch it again because I’m I’m a sucker for these kinds of movies, but, well.
Greg: It’s interesting when we watch movies that we haven’t seen before. You know, if you can’t appreciate what’s bad about it before you sit down, it’s hard for it to be great. Maybe.
Joe: Yeah, I think that might be the case because. Yeah. And I just kept getting more and more frustrated with some of the decisions the director was making about jumping around. Yeah, because I think that there is an interesting story to tell within what he’s doing. But how he got into the world of like, forensic accounting for criminal empires.
Joe: Yeah, that would be an interesting story to tell. Or is it about someone who’s autistic who is trying to, you know, make their way in lives by kind of his own code and is, you know, lethal killer? Because I could kind of tell that story, but I was like, we’re going to tell both of those stories, and we’re going to throw in some weird family drama.
Joe: Yeah, and we’re going to have a brother that comes into it. And I was like, they could not have telegraphed that his brother was who it was. And yeah, more clearly, I was like a third of the way through. I was like, oh, I got it.
Greg: Yeah. I don’t think they were really trying to hide it. You know, there was a little bit of a reveal, but not really. You kind of knew. Which speaks to the kids in this movie. There was something about the way the brother who kind of doesn’t say anything in those flashbacks totally was Jon Bernthal. Yeah. Or Jon Bernthal was that kid.
Greg: There was something so similar about their looks.
Joe: Yeah. And I think the scene when they meet at the end, yeah, is so good. And yeah, a credit to both of those actors.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: Yeah. And there was a like a little bit of a I like the twist on it. Like I thought they were going to have to like, fight each other about, like when he discovers it’s his brother.
Greg: Jon Bernthal shoots his own guy.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. I thought for sure that John Lithgow was going to shoot him. Jon Bernthal.
Greg: Right?
Joe: Like, I love those moments of like, a little bit of surprise where Ben Affleck just shoots John Lithgow. Yeah. So there are moments that I appreciated in this movie, but those are too far, too few between for me to really appreciate it because I kept going, wait, what? Why why are we here? How did this happen? Yeah.
Greg: That’s definitely the experience of watching this movie. But it’s well-acted, it’s well crafted. And then at the end, I was so shocked that, like, it worked on me. Like in those last scenes, it’s like I’m getting a little choked up. Okay, I can’t believe this worked on me. And I was kind of like, I think I might need to watch this one again next year because this kind of works.
Greg: I there’s even a I’ll read a review later on, but somebody says, like, I’m embarrassed to admit it kind of worked on me. I was like, that’s exactly how I feel.
Joe: I was the opposite, I wasn’t. I was like, I just didn’t. So much of it didn’t land for me, you know? And then there’s like, I’m trying to track him down and the like, they sell the good guy. There’s this amazing monologue by JK Simmons, of course, selling the good guy in this.
Greg:
Joe: But if he is this good there’s no way they would have caught it. The mistakes that he made. Yeah I know they needed to like make it so that they could like kind of catch up and meet and all that. But it was like if this guy is as good as you’re saying he is, he would not make basic level mistakes that.
Greg: His aliases were famous mathematicians who were also on the spectrum is that thing. So they were alluding to. Yeah, yeah, but if we didn’t have that fact, then we couldn’t have had as many amazing. Sitting at your computer doing research scenes there, which is always hilarious and a great bad movie. We have to hear the computer montage scene.
Joe: Guess plays.
Greg: All right. This is just Cynthia Di Robinson sitting googling. They’re trying to make googling interesting.
Greg: You don’t have to see it. It’s exactly as action packed as it gets right there. Amazing. This movie code switches with music all the time. Like my favorite music is the opening credits of any movie. Like are you going to just tell us right now that that this is my kind of movie. And this movie absolutely does.
Greg: We got some opening credits.
Joe: And then they kind of disappear as the title comes into place.
Greg: Awesome. Totally fade in the ominous tone. Amazing.
Joe: I mean yeah.
Greg: Right. We’re showing the the logos of the this gets you from okay bad movie. The good bad movie already in my back.
Greg: And then there’s so many great montages in this movie. There’s the computer searching montage. But there’s also like a math montage. Kind of like a good Will hunting montage, really, of Ben Affleck getting his do.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Of, doing, doing some impossible math on some glass and, I don’t know, I was pretty stoked with math montage. I feel like that was a stretch and it was a stretch I was happy they made. Check out this math montage. Music for support Ashton and some talking going on.
Greg: Some kind of classical music. Oh my gosh. He’s going through pens. So many pens, so many pens. It’s incredible. Perfect math montage. Can you name a way that the math montage could have been better in this movie?
Joe: I think maybe if we have a goodwill hunting moment when we bring in Matt Damon. Yeah. To, like, ridicule some people at a bar. Sure. About math? Yeah. Like kind of overplaying it together. Like intercutting those scenes like, let’s bring good Will hunting. This is like Ben Affleck’s moment.
Greg: It’s pretty close. Yeah, it’s pretty close to good Will hunting in some ways.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: He’s got that deep focus.
Joe: Yeah. Hyper focus that’s going on. We got thank God they had a lot of windows in the office that he was put in so that he could like have all his little boxes. Yeah I love that they have that on the on the walls. No accountant that I know ever do anything outside of Excel. Sure they would have macros.
Joe: They would have like a pivot table. Yeah. So I love that they had the like they brought the computer to life for us a little bit there.
Greg: Yeah. Movie math. He should have just been using a Sharpie. Honestly. Yeah. He’s so sure of himself. Yeah. Okay, let’s talk about the elephant in the room with this movie.
Joe: All right, let’s do it.
Greg: What do you think of Ben Affleck portraying somebody on the spectrum with a certain kind of high functioning autism and allowing the deep focus that comes with that to make him amazing at math and the perfect killing machine as well. What do you think of that?
Joe: The math and the accounting part were not the problems for me with with the autism. Sure, I’ve known and worked with many kids and and still know lots of people on the spectrum. Yeah, and they can be like that. He kind of got the like lack of eye contact, mostly down. You know, there are pieces about it that are where a little bit of a struggle sometimes for those they’re always going to be when you’re having someone portray.
Joe: Yeah. So I gave it a little bit of a pass on those, those moments.
Greg: Me too.
Joe: But the fact that he is the best assassin in the world as well was where I was like, can we just have a sidebar for a second about this? Are you sure that this is this is the exact way that you want to go with it? Because you haven’t really shown me exactly why he’s the best assassin in the world, other than he had a terrible father who drilled into them.
Joe: And I think he’s in them. He’s in the army. It’s. Yeah, he’s.
Greg: In the Army.
Joe: But they don’t. When they sell the good guy. I don’t remember them really going into his history in the Army, and it’s more around his origin story and then his accounting prowess.
Greg: Yeah. He’s amazing at finding problems. Cooking books. Yeah. And he’s so good that he can do it for people who are running millions of dollars through criminal organizations. Like they say, like people in that world, they count their money by weighing it in trucks with 18 wheels.
Joe: Yeah, rather.
Greg: Than counting it, you know, dollar by dollar, which has, you know, shades of fast five, by the way. Yeah, yeah. And so they get him in there to make sure the books are just completely rock solid.
Joe: So I didn’t have necessarily a problem with that. It was it was more like, why why is this character need to have, you know, why are you marrying this accounting function and the autism and the assassin, it’s like, the accounting landed the best, which could have been a totally different movie. You know, let’s have a kind of a action thriller where it’s about, you know, an accountant that’s brought in and kind of uncover something, or there really is an accountant that you bring in, like, you know, the Sinaloa cartel brings in this guy because someone is stealing from them, and he’s going to figure out how.
Joe: And then the discover something falls in love. And, you know, they’re trying to run away and escape. You know, there’s that’s one movie that we’ve seen a lot.
Greg: So I think that becoming just the perfect war machine was his dad’s choice. For the accountant and his brother. And it seems like it was because of his dad’s fear of what the world was going to make of his son, who was neurodivergent. And so it seemed like he was out of fear. And it was also out of like, love.
Greg: That was his choice for his kid. I’m going to make you basically the most amazing killing machine. But then becoming an accountant was Ben Affleck’s choice for himself. And then he met a guy in jail who taught him you should be doing this for criminal organizations. The guy from Arrested Development.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: So about halfway through the movie, I was like, I’m kind of starting to like the dad.
Joe: Okay?
Greg: Because we’re all we’re all just ridiculous dads, you know? And our parenting has almost nothing to do with our kids and almost everything to do with how we’re feeling, you know? And so he was feeling afraid for his kid and trying to prepare them in the way that he knew how, which was obviously super messed up. You know, there’s like a Super Karate Kid moment where there’s a sensei just, like beating his kids to a pulp, but he’s like, there’s, there’s no stopping.
Greg: You have to keep going until my kids know how to fight back. And that’s obviously super messed up, but also kind of what we’re all doing in one way or another. You know, our kids are going to be great at their super smart, mundane jobs.
Joe:
Greg: In reaction to, you know, how we were feeling when they were growing up.
Joe: All right. This is a deep dive into the Greg Swineherd School of parenting.
Greg: Do you disagree with anything I just said?
Joe: I think he was an a, like, an abusive father.
Greg: Oh, sure. Sure.
Joe: You know who is just awful? And, yeah, he’s.
Greg: A movie dad.
Joe: Yeah. So I, you know, and I know what they’re trying to do, but it was hard to watch. I mean, I was like, you know, he was. Yeah. I love your thoughts on that. How they landed the autism component of it. I’d love your thoughts on that, because you’ve also worked with people with autism and know and kids and stuff like that, and like, how did that how did that track for you as when you watched it.
Greg: I was a little uneasy while I was watching it because this could break bad. This could be done in a way that I don’t feel great about. And at the end of this movie, I thought, you know what? I think they did it well. I think they honored what they were portraying. And I thought, you know what? You know, who needs a superhero?
Greg: All of my neurodivergent friends, you know, and there was something about it that was I really liked it. You know, I just thought, this is pretty awesome. I like this, and I thought that Ben Affleck did a good job, and I was I was kind of white knuckling it the first time I watched it. And I was like, I don’t know, can we trust this guy with this?
Greg: This is kind of a big deal. And at the end I thought, you know what? I think they did it and not everybody feels that way, but I did.
Joe: I would love to know how the autism community feels about the movie. And I think the thing that they miss and this what I wanted to say before. Yeah. And it’s kind of a typical read. It’s like a neurotypical read on what autism is sometimes. Is that autistic folks have a deep capacity for love and emotion. It’s just not the same.
Joe: And then within them there is a deep desire to be normal as well. And so there’s like most everyone that I know with autism have a deep anxiety around like awkward silences. But have a deep capacity for love and for emotion. That is really and they don’t really get into it a little bit. But I would, I think there could have been moments between him and his brother, especially at the end and maybe him and Anna Kendrick, they kind of allude to it.
Joe: I was really happy they didn’t go with like a typical love story arc with them.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: But they are not emotionless automatons that they kind of were thought to be maybe 30 years ago. And so I think that that is the missing piece for me around. You know, his character is kind of one note throughout. And I get why I mean I’m you know again it is three movies stuck together into one. So they’re not telling just like the autistic accountant arc the artistic accountant assassin arc.
Joe: And so there’s only so much time that they have for that. But that’s often what I think is missing in representation of autism in kind of in a neurotypical fashion. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched love on the spectrum on Netflix. It is the most endearing heartwarming. No malice at all. Everyone is so earnest and wholehearted and it is you know they just want to be normal but they have other challenges.
Joe: And so it is a, it is just such a beautiful representation of what can be on the spectrum.
Greg: There is a moment where he basically says everything that’s happening inside a nice two seconds. He says that the Anna Kendrick.
Clip: Your life is unique.
Clip: It’s not unique. I have a high functioning form of us as in, which means I have an extremely narrow focus and a hard time abandoning tasks once I’ve taken them up. I have difficulty socializing with other people, even though I want to.
Greg: I thought I was well put.
Joe: Yeah, I think there are moments that are well put in that, and I think his portrayal of it, I think he did a above average job of portraying someone with autism and phase. And for the most part, there are a couple moments where it’s like in the middle of an action scene type of thing where it’s like kind of loses it, but I don’t hold that against any actor.
Joe: Yeah, yeah, in these sorts of movies. But yeah, I think for the most part his portrayal is pretty good. But they do have a couple folks with autism at the end. The person that turns out to be the computerized voice, yeah, clearly has autism like in real life. And the difference between her and Ben Affleck is pretty, like, noticeable.
Greg: Yeah. She calls him dreamboat. She speaks through her computer with the British accent. There’s a lot of plot to this movie that you kind of might not have caught. He basically makes a lot of money and donates it all to that place. And then they had taken a lot of that money that he had donated and bought that computer for her, as well as other things.
Greg: So that’s kind of how that she has like that crazy computer that could hack into the DoD. And that’s how she’s able to do all that, kind of like behind the scenes work for him, but also be a companion to him. You know, she’s like giving him crap. Yeah, I like that. She calls him dreamboat the whole time.
Greg: And then she calls that kid dreamboat. Yeah. And basically this whole movie, you’re wondering what on earth is going on in that part of that is the plot. The plot is just not telling you what’s going on. And then at the end, they somehow kind of wrap it all up where you understand the whole mystery of what was going on the whole time.
Greg: Except I have a couple questions for you.
Joe: Okay?
Greg: I don’t know if this is the right time.
Joe: It’s the perfect time. What other time is there?
Greg: But now we don’t specifically know what the Army was like for him. And we also don’t know what he did in the army that got him in jail.
Joe: I thought it had to do with what happened at the funeral. This was a question that I had for you as well. Yeah. So his father and mother breakup or those playing along at home.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: But his mother and then mother has another family, and then she dies. And then the father and Ben Affleck go to the funeral, right? There’s like a fight that happened, or they asked them to leave. And then there’s a police officer there that shoots the father and kills him. And then Ben Affleck is arrested. That’s what I took away from it.
Joe: And that’s how he ends up in jail. But that is my guess.
Greg: That makes sense. Although, why would he go to jail? Yeah, for getting in a fight.
Joe: Yeah. Fighting police officers for years.
Greg: Yeah. He goes to jail for years with the guy from Arrested Development. Yeah. So I don’t know.
Joe: I don’t know either.
Greg: And something that J.K. Simmons says is, we put Jeffrey Tambor with him. And so there is just an amazing, like 12 minute stretch of this movie where they throw so much exposition at you to explain a lot of what’s going on. And it’s like reading a book.
Joe: Yeah, it.
Greg: Just gets by in my mind as, okay, everybody wins here. We’re learning more about J.K. Simmons, we’re learning more about Mary Beth Medina. Cynthia, a Di Robinson’s character. We’re learning more about Ben Affleck. Like we’re learning about all kinds of different people. But it is just the largest exposition dump in movie history, unless it’s a mystery that you’re watching.
Greg: And then there is that moment where they’re kind of explaining everything to you.
Joe: Yeah. The fact that we’re having to, like, parse it out is like, to me, a failure of the script or the editor or something like that, that they didn’t connect the dots well enough for me to really understand his motivation. You know, I kind of get that Jeffrey Tambor was his friend. He’s like an informant for the FBI.
Joe: Yeah. And then gets released, and then he gets picked up by the bad guys and gets tortured and killed. And then that really kind of sets off Ben Affleck. That’s how Ben Affleck and J.K. Simmons characters intersect the first time, right? It’s kind of where the movie opens and kind of comes back to.
Greg: Ben Affleck, like, escaped from prison.
Joe: Yeah, he escapes from prison, his friend dies, and he escapes from prison, right? Exacts his revenge and then becomes the world’s greatest forensic accountant for criminal empires. Yeah, yeah, but they don’t connect that last part for me well enough. Yeah, to, like, tie it together.
Greg: I mean, like, perfect movies don’t connect every dot.
Joe: The high compliment for this movie, if I think that’s why I know it.
Greg: And that’s why it’s the best movie of everything. That’s right. No, but in that book, the Adventures in Screen Trade, the guy says, if someone’s hailing a cab, don’t explain the whole process of somebody hailing a cab. Yeah, just have them get to the curb and then show them in a cab. You don’t have to tell the rest, you know?
Greg: So I kind of feel like this movie is definitely following the don’t show them hailing the cab role. Yeah. Although they do kind of tell you more than I thought they were going to, you know, through an endless amount of flashbacks. Yeah. Different parts.
Joe: Yeah. What’s interesting to me about it is like they, they focused on the wrong parts for me. Okay. Ways. Yeah. You could have cut Jeffrey Tambor out of this movie completely and not changed it at all in terms of its effect. You could have just had some exposition that talks about it. Again, I feel like the first cut of this movie was 3 or 4 hours long.
Joe: Or like you said, a 6 to 10 episode Netflix movie. Yeah. TV show, I mean. But we just watched The Resident on Netflix, which if you haven’t seen it, it’s a fun little like murder mystery. Okay. Happens in the white House. That’s the resident.
Greg: Okay.
Joe: And they there’s a lot of exposition with a really engaging main character that helps keeping you understanding the dots that she’s trying to connect and that or this kind of gets away from it. Like the exposition that is happening in this is confusing, and I know it’s meant to not be confusing, but it is. And if we’re thinking this hard about, wait, what happened then they’ve failed.
Greg: Well, I guess I would say that they’re telling more emotional snapshots that also have a little bit of information, but definitely make you feel something confused.
Joe: That’s what they made me feel.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: I think it’s interesting that it worked for you and it totally like I got so distracted by. Yeah, I guess JK Simmons still talking like I love him as an actor. I have, you know, followed his career for 25 years. Yeah. And you can do no wrong to me as like an actor. And it’s like what the like we don’t need a five minute monologue from 12.
Greg: It’s 12 minutes.
Joe: That’s so crazy.
Greg: It is crazy. But it’s like, in case you were on your phone for the first hour and a half, here’s everything we’re dealing with here. Yeah, but I do like his intro in the movie where he’s just like, basically J. Jonah Jameson from the Spider-Man movies. Yeah, he’s just like, total cutthroat, rude, bossy boss.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Like, here’s our introduction to JK Simmons Gulf Bank. I tend to protect my customers privacy.
Clip: And stop talking. You have a very cavalier attitude for the president of a bank with such a piss poor capital cushion. Now, I want a record of every transaction A has had for the past two years deposits, withdrawals, cashier’s checks, credit cards. Birmingham or Bahrain. It is now Treasury business. Goodbye.
Greg: That’s our introduction to him. That’s awesome. Yeah, but that’s not who he ends up being. That’s like one side of him. But then, you know, it’s at one point he’s crying talking about what a good that he was. Yeah. That’s the range this movie has. And that’s why you didn’t like it.
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
Joe: I hate good bad. Yeah.
Greg: I definitely like Jeffrey Tambor’s character. When they were in jail, he was teaching Ben Affleck how to notice intonation. You know, how people were talking so he can read, you know, people. A little bit better? Yeah. And, you know, he’s very, like, fatherly. And he’s he’s kind of like, I’ve given you a PhD in black money while you’ve been here, but this is also very important.
Greg: I don’t know, I just like that he gave him a PhD in black money.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: So that’s where he learned that?
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Exposition.
Joe: Yeah. And I mean, I. And I know what they’re going for with Jeffrey Tambor’s character, that he’s a quasi father figure or not just but as a father figure for, I’m sure, father figure that he deserved to have instead of the father figure that he got.
Greg: Oh, interesting. Yeah, I like this movie even more now, after you say that.
Joe: Yeah, I’m coming back to your your thought around that this should be a TV show, because if it was a TV show, you could examine each of these with a little bit more, measure and time.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And instead they, they do try to like it felt like a distillation process that kind of, for me, didn’t work on reentry. It was just like, yeah, you know, they’re trying to, like, tell too many stories. Yeah, you can’t do that in two hours. You have to be really like, get to the point. What is this movie about?
Joe: Because if you’re telling an action movie story. Yeah, the expectations are one thing. If you’re telling me like a drama around. Yeah, you know, a family story, which is to me what the non-action scenes are, are really around the family drama. But I would have wanted more Jon Bernthal and them together. I yeah. What happened? Yeah. I didn’t he visit him in prison?
Joe: Why haven’t they talked to each other. There’s clearly a lot of love and respect. Because there’s ones you know we see in the story a lot of like the person who isn’t the identified patient if you will, then the, the person who’s neurotypical has to take care of him and resents his brother. There’s none of that in this movie.
Joe: So they could have told that story. Or you know, it’s interesting that they went a different way with it. Like there are at every point, I feel like choices that they made and the choices they made let me down and what the and what they decided to do with it. For me. So yeah.
Greg: Well, we’re going to need more of accounting movies.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: To tell that story.
Joe: Yeah, I guess I’m getting one. So that’s awesome.
Greg: Something else Jeffrey Tambor says to him is find one person that you trust, and I feel like Dana Anna Kendrick is that person. So you’re going to love this movie the second time you watch it. Yeah. Because it all starts to fit together and hang together. You’re like I know okay I get it. You just have to watch the pilot episode twice.
Greg: Really. Okay.
Joe: This show I mean I’m for sure watch it again because I’m, I’m a sucker for these kinds of movies, you know? Yeah. As it is, I think my one and I, like Anna Kendrick, is as charming on screen and every role that I’ve ever seen her in. Sure. What I wanted from her character is I wanted them to cast someone that could have been a quasi mother figure for him in that role, that would have like to me, not as a love interest at all, but like if Jean smart, instead of playing like the whatever her role is in the company, kind of plays the controller or the CFO or whatever kind of role that
Joe: they need, or like some or you bring in a more motherly figure for him. So you kind of anchor it with, you know, Jeffrey Tambor as the the new father figure. You have the new mother figure, okay.
Greg: And he kind.
Joe: Of gets to work through his this is me fixing this movie. Sure. Taking the action out of it a little bit, but it makes it more of a retelling of his, you know, his family trauma and fixing his family trauma so that he can repair his relationship with his brother. That is the movie that I would want this to be.
Joe: It’s a drama. Yeah, with a little bit of a criminal element with, you know, some a little bit of a chase at the end. Right. But this kind of portrays itself, at least in the trailers, as an action movie. Yeah. And it’s not.
Greg: So the opening scene, the person going into the building where somebody is shooting people, it’s pretty tense, not really action filled. There’s the action scene when the bad guys go to the old people’s house. Yeah. And he has to, like, jump in the truck. Yeah. The truck scene was pretty good. And then I guess the last scene, there’s a lot of good stuff in there.
Joe: So here’s how I fix it. And I’m going to jump ahead to the important question of how you fix this movie and try having this conversation.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Ben Affleck’s character is just an accountant, an autistic accountant. Okay. The story is he discovers something and Jon Bernthal, a character, is hired to kill him. But when he discovers it’s his brother, he then has to save his brother. And so the action sequences can. I want to stay the same. It’s just Jon Bernthal character. Yeah. As the assassin.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Protecting his brother who knows all the stuff about the criminal empire that has hired him. And that’s a more straightforward. We’ve seen that, and you can still bring in the flashbacks to their growing up and how they split apart and why they haven’t talked to each other, but it’s to me, it solves so many problems that this movie has.
Joe: And allows still for the exposition, still for like, you can still basically tell a lot of the same thing with a lot of the same characters. It’s just, why does he need to be autistic, the greatest accountant in the world and the greatest assassin ever, all in one character. And also his brother is a really great assassin as well.
Joe: Again, it just like my notes are just like, I’m so confused.
Greg: Yeah, it’s a little plot heavy. It really is. But, I’m okay with it.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: I loved at the beginning when they were showing young Ben Affleck, and they’re talking to the place that understands his neurodiversity, and young Ben Affleck just starts putting together a puzzle. There’s a really hilarious bad thing that happens throughout this movie where they keep saying, do you like puzzles? It’s so dumb. It’s so shoehorned in. Yeah, but in the beginning, he puts together a puzzle and he’s just furiously putting it together without even thinking about it.
Greg: And they don’t show it until the last piece that he’s been putting it together upside down the whole time.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: And, it’s so awesome. Was it Muhammad Ali?
Joe: Yeah, because it’s like one of the pictures that’s on his wall in his apartment.
Greg: Yeah, yeah, yeah, one of one of his apartments. Yes. Different places. Anyways, right when he puts the last piece in and it’s the boxer and you realize he was doing it upside down the whole time and he did it super fast like oh my gosh that is the greatest selling of the good guy in history. Just furiously putting a puzzle together.
Greg: Like I love this movie. And then it cuts to the accountant with no sound, by the way, because the account with no sound. Then we meet him. He’s kind of like devising how to help people with their taxes and through his little storefront and tax place. Yeah. He’s basically helping people cheat on their taxes like the woman has a necklace on and he says, did you make that?
Greg: And it’s he starts to spin it like it’s a business. And really, just like illegal tax moves are happening. I don’t know if I don’t know if he’s the best accountant because these people are going to go to jail eventually. Yeah.
Joe: I don’t know if Mr. Steinhart, the, the accountant, is going to be in favor of these sort of tax tricks.
Greg: My dad would have turned it off right there. Yeah, yeah. He’s out.
Joe: Yeah. What about depreciation and all of that? No, there’s no way.
Greg: Yeah. She just zips over to the store to get what she needs. He’s like zips. She says, I drive in our truck. He said, your company truck. It’s like, oh my gosh, I am uncomfortable with this.
Greg: They say, come to our place. And he says, I like to shoot. And he’s like, they said he’d come on over and shoot. So he likes puts smiley faces on melons and shoots the melons there on his truck. Is he shooting right into his truck?
Joe: Basically. And only three? Yeah. Most people I know that go to the shooting range shoot more than three times. That’s something. Not three. Not this guy doesn’t need three.
Greg: It’s a triple threat every time. Yeah, but it’s like a mile away. And he shoots them and they’ll go. Is like, I could never make that shot, you know, anyways. But, I mean, did you have any shades of shooter? Were you thinking Marky Mark?
Joe: I didn’t I should have, yeah. I couldn’t remember how the, credits come in on this movie. I didn’t take note. The first time I watch it. I was sure I pulled it up again that it was free on Amazon. And I watched the opening scene and I watched the truck scene where they like the bad guy comes in there.
Joe: Yeah. And I, what I appreciated is there were moments where they could have easily done like the amazing sniper shot, shoot the bad guy in the moving truck. Right. And he doesn’t do that. He just he shoots the truck to stop the truck. And then there’s a shootout. So, you know, maybe they they learned their lesson from shooter, but, you know, if you’re a mile away, you can’t actually just shoot someone’s hand perfectly.
Greg: Yeah. From a boat. Yeah. That’s the one mistake from shooter was was improved upon in this movie is what I hear you saying exactly.
Greg: I think Bernthal is amazing. He’s so good in everything. And have you noticed that he has been in everything?
Joe: Yeah, he’s one of those actors. It’s like he’s that guy. And now he’s like transcended that, right? And now and he is I don’t know how to describe like there’s such like heft to him when he’s on screen.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. I just I was so happy to see him in this.
Greg: I am noticing him in everything and I didn’t recognize him before. Like I watched Sicario this week. He was in Sicario for a minute, just like he’s been in everything. But I do want to ask you a very important question before we move on, how do we get from the accountant? Kind of six degrees of Kevin Bacon style, all the way to great bad movies.
Greg: How many degrees do you think it’ll take?
Joe: It’s like 4 or 5.
Greg: 4 or 5.
Joe: Okay. There’s some movies I’m trying. Like, I’m like, fast five, which we just did through and through the classic Great Bad movie. It’s ridiculous. They kind of know they’re making something ridiculous.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And so that’s like the degrees are less if I’m like creating like the the scale.
Greg: I don’t think I understand what I’m saying. I’m just going to tell you what, how many degrees we are.
Joe: Okay. Perfect. Should I ask you how many degrees of.
Greg: I think it’s five degrees?
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Jon Bernthal is in this movie, and he was in Transformers with Josh. Domhnall.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Josh Domhnall was Harvey Dent in Batman The Long Halloween alongside Jensen Ackles. Jensen Ackles starred in supernatural with Cindy Sampson and then Cindy Sampson costarred with Jason Priestley in the Canadian TV show Private Eyes, and the band that does our theme song, Dear Rouge did the theme song for Private Eyes. Okay, five degrees between The Accountant and Great Bad Movies.
Greg: That’s how good this movie is.
Joe: That’s amazing. Okay, I see what you’re doing there.
Greg: I feel like we need to connect ourselves to every movie at some point.
Joe: Yeah, we’re basically going to have to connect them all to Deer Rouge as well.
Greg: Yeah, obviously the Jason Priestley. Yeah, it all comes back to Canadian TV, obviously.
Joe: Yes. Because we have a Jason Priestley sidebar for a second.
Greg: Of course we can.
Joe: My favorite Jason Priestley moment ever was when he hosted a Saturday Night Live. I don’t know if you remember this. I know the 90s. You should find it. It’s one of their, like before YouTube. Before all of that. And it’s the men’s long program figure skating because he can figure skate a little bit.
Greg: Okay.
Joe: And it’s like the surprise. So was in first place and it’s Jason Priestley. And he goes out there and then he just falls almost every single time. And like by the end he’s got like a bloody nose I mean and it’s to me and then obviously I haven’t seen it in 20 some years, so it might not hold up.
Joe: But I just remember thinking, okay, Jason Priestley is all right in my book. If he is willing to make that much fun of himself.
Greg: Yes, yes.
Joe: And go out there and be totally ridiculous wearing like the total, like flowing figure skater shirt.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: Jumping in the air and then like just crashing into the the wall. So if you haven’t seen it, look up Jason Priestley, Saturday Night Live. It’s worth it.
Greg: Okay, I’ll try and put it on our web page at Great Bad movies.com for this episode. So Jeffrey Tambor says find that one person and then he meets Anna Kendrick. She’s the accountant. That kind of flagged something might be wrong at this one company. Yeah. And they have these two scenes. Where do you know the phrase meet cute is when, like, two people meet.
Greg: Let’s listen to what it sounds like when they meet in the accountant office.
Clip: So.
Clip: So.
Clip: What do you want? Dana Cummings?
Clip: Mr. Blackburn, sorry. He said I should, I’m the person who first noticed the missing what I think was the missing Sanderson.
Clip: I find it, yeah.
Clip: I thought we could have lunch, and I.
Clip: Brought my own lunch.
Clip: No, I bring my own lunch, too. I. I can answer any questions that you have.
Clip: I have no questions.
Clip: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You want to make your own assessment? Yes.
Clip: Thank you.
Clip: Okay. I’m in accounting. If you need anything, there’s, just some donuts there for you.
Clip: I don’t need it. Okay? Okay.
Greg: Then she walks out. It’s such a good, awkward scene. I really loved it. I was kind of like, hold up. This is really good. It really reminded me of actually an SNL sketch with Kristen Wiig and Alec Baldwin when they’re writing together to work. Do you remember that scene now? Every time they say there’s something they like, the other person has a horrible story about the thing they like.
Greg: I’ll see if I can find this. Put it on our web page as well. But here’s the next one where they talk. And it’s just incredible how they’re trying to connect. And they aren’t. And I feel like it’s it’s just two really good actors doing a pretty good job with, with a script that is incredibly written. And that’s why it’s a perfect movie.
Greg: Okay.
Greg: That’s good to see.
Clip: How did you, get into financial consulting?
Clip: Department of labor statistics indicate it’s one of the fastest growing professions. Actuarial sciences are experiencing tremendous growth, and, well.
Clip: Okay.
Clip: I like the balance of it.
Clip: Yeah, I like finding things that aren’t obvious.
Clip: Plus, my dad was an accountant. He actually. You know, he had the whole shtick for, you know, the little amortization book in the green eye shade and the, like, dorky pocket protector.
Clip: And I have a pocket protector.
Clip: That’s a nice one. I mean, his was dorky. This yours is nice.
Greg: And they just keep going like that, I don’t know, I love it.
Joe: I feel like this is one of those. The more that I like it or dislike it, the more you like it and the more you like. And I’m like, I got to hate this movie.
Greg: I mean, they’re scenes. We’re good together. Yeah, well, you said you said, yeah, the acting makes this movie better than it should be.
Joe: Yeah, I think the acting does. And there are moment like to me it’s less about the individual scenes because they work. Yeah, they have great actors and you have some that are well-written. It doesn’t tie together. Totally agree. Because of that, I just got lost in like, wait, wait, why are we in prison again? That’s why he escaped from prison and nobody’s looking for him.
Joe: Like that was my first thought. Yeah, he’s on the run, but he’s now just like a mild mannered accountant helping families with their taxes.
Greg: Well, I think the mild mannered accountant was his cover.
Joe:
Greg: And he was under, he was using a different name. It was a Christian Wolff. But he was also just getting jobs where he was like shipped off to do different things to different adventures every week.
Joe: Yeah. I it was like 1 to 2 too many ideas. Yeah. That lost me.
Greg: What did you think of his his Airstream where he goes and he has like, it’s in a, in a storage unit. And, he has a drawer that’s just full of cash, like bundles of cash from all around the world. And his remote control. Yeah, there’s, like comic books and there’s, like, a Pollock painting. A million guns.
Joe: Yeah, it was a little like. I didn’t mind that part of it. I was like, okay, of course it’s got to have, you know, he’s gotta be able to get away. And that’s his, his, like, sanctuary and all. Sure. Yeah. And you know, hit demonstrates that he really likes Anna Kendrick’s character because he’s allowing her to see his true self and where he is.
Joe: Right.
Greg: He packs some comic books in front of her. Yeah.
Joe: So I get all of it. It’s just like two met again too much. Like. Yeah, yeah. You know.
Greg: Ben Affleck was in two movies this year, The Accountant and Batman versus Superman. Something. In which movie did he play? The better superhero.
Joe: It’s definitely this one.
Greg: It definitely this one. Totally. Yeah. I mean, he’s actually kind of quite good in the other one. I don’t. But that on him is either. But yeah, I think this is the better superhero movie for sure.
Joe: Yeah. And I think I mean this is one of those like I think I don’t know that he gets his due as an actor. Yeah. He should.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You know I think he kind of from an acting perspective has always been in Matt Damon shadow a little bit of like, oh good Will hunting and all that. But yeah, I think he is a better actor than he’s given credit for. And I think he’s a really talented director as well.
Greg: He’s amazing.
Joe: Yeah, totally. And so I think that like, he’s never going to be bad. And anything. Well yeah.
Greg: I wouldn’t say that he’s been bad in.
Joe: Things maybe early on in his career. I’m not probably remembering all of this stuff.
Greg: But I mean, listen, we’ll get the paycheck.
Joe: Hold on. Before you say another word.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Let’s add paycheck to the list.
Greg: I. Oh, it’s already out there. You’re kidding me. But he’s he said some hilarious things about some of his performances, but I think it, you know, he’s such a, approachable person. He’s he will be coming back for the rest of our lives. He just knows how to ground his performances in something. And if he can’t do that, he’ll just direct three incredible movies, you know?
Greg: And the third one is going to win Best Picture. Yeah. So it never gets romantic with Anna Kendrick. You know, they have they’re connecting.
Joe: Yeah they’re connecting. And she like moves closer to him on the couch. Which is would have been the moment where they would have had like a kiss or whatever. And he gets up and that was probably my favorite choice that they made in this movie. It just shows where he is and where she is. Yeah. I don’t know that her character honestly would have done that, but I also appreciated the choice that they made there to not try to, like, have us believe that they’re going to have some sort of romantic whirlwind affair in the middle of all of this that would have added like a fourth problem to this movie for me.
Joe: Sure.
Greg: But then, he writes her a note that says, Dana, you deserve. Wow. Which I’ve said in every note that I’ve ever written to you as well. Is that a coincidence? That was kind of a weird coincidence.
Joe: Yeah. So weird coincidence. All right, well, well, we’ll keep it.
Greg: Gavin O’Connor, who directed this movie, he also directed a movie called warrior. You ever seen that movie?
Joe: I don’t think so.
Greg: I think it’s about UHF wrestlers. Maybe, but they’re also like dads. It’s really well-regarded. Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte anyways, it was a well-regarded drama. I haven’t seen it either. I think he also directed The Way Back. If you ever seen The Way Back with Ben Affleck, it’s the one where he’s the basketball coach getting over his alcoholism, also well-regarded.
Greg: I mean, the guy is pretty good at drama, I think. But the writer of this movie, Bill Dubuque, he was like a corporate headhunter for 12 years where he was staffing those kind of high level C-suite positions. And I feel like in this movie, they nailed it with Jean smart and, whoever the other guy was, the CFO.
Greg: I feel like the corporate culture was kind of accurately depicted in this movie, and I kind of wondered if his 12 years of that before becoming a screenwriter kind of helped that out in this. Okay, Joe, there are some action scenes in this movie. Might people fully like get shot? They jump out of trucks, they get pulled out of windows and trucks and then crash over the front.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: The last scene, where they’re he’s kind of ambushing the house was solid. I thought.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: And the all of the different fights and the ways that he’s getting people. The second unit director of this movie was also the stunt coordinator. And that person’s name is Sam Hargrave.
Joe: Isn’t that our friend from extraction?
Greg: Yes. Director of extraction and extraction, too. Yeah, yeah. So during that last part, I was like, oh, yeah. Can you get a director? Mean look that up for this movie? I was like, get out of here. This is really good. So there’s like some there’s some Hollywood royalty working on this thing in my mind. Yeah. Let me read you some of his credits as second unit director, Suicide Squad from 2016, the same year, Atomic Blond the next year, and then Avengers Infinity War and then Deadpool two and then Avengers Endgame.
Greg: And he did some scenes, for The Mandalorian. Wow. He was the stunt coordinator on Hunger Games Catching Fire, Captain America Civil War, and then also a bunch of those other movies that I just said. So Sam Hargrave doing a good job. This movie was made for $44 million.
Joe: Pretty cheap.
Greg: So, I mean, what they did for the action in this movie was not expensive, as I think it it kind of looks good. The cinematographer did a pretty good job in this movie, and he has worked on a lot of really beautiful movies that I’m forgetting right now. So the stunt coordinator was Sam Hargrave, but also it was this guy named, Fernando Sheehan, and he has worked on movies like inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Iron Man three, furious seven, and Deadpool.
Greg: So there’s some real people working on this.
Joe: Yeah. It shows. I mean, the action sequence, especially that last one. Yeah, is super tight. Yeah, awesome. It’s not quite where he goes with extraction. Right. And I didn’t realize that he had connections to, David Leech and Chad Stahelski and that group, which doesn’t now surprise me at all.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: I would love to have, like, the three of them at a roundtable to see 100%. Oh, you did that in extraction two. I’m going to up the ante and, bullet train, you know, those sorts of things. But I feel like there’s a a healthy competition that could be happening there, which, if there isn’t one, needs to be.
Joe: And I just want to set the stage that if there isn’t, there should be, because we will all be better for it. But yeah, that last action scene, there definitely are some shades of John Wick in it.
Greg: Yeah yeah.
Joe: Yeah. It’s fun. It’s a fun moment. I wanted more of that. Like, yeah again. What movie? What kind of movie is this? If it’s an action movie, I want three more action sequences and give me and like, pump it up. I have a sneaking suspicion The Accountant two will be a lot more heavily action focused.
Greg: Interesting.
Joe: And this one. And that, I mean. And I’ll be in.
Greg: That’s why you’re going to watch The Accountant, too.
Joe: I mean, just looking at the poster for it on IMDb, I’m like, I’m in. Yeah, I’m totally sorry. I’m in. I’m back in. All right.
Greg: You tried to get out.
Joe: Yeah. Now they pulled me right back out.
Greg: Like in Bernthal pulled you right back in. Yeah. Joe, it occurs to me that they’re probably some people listening to this episode who have not seen The Accountant from 2016, and maybe they are walking down the aisles of a Blockbuster Video in 2016 trying to figure out which Blu ray they should rent. I don’t remember when blockbuster went out of business, but we’ll pretend in the sense that they’re still alive.
Greg: As they’re walking down the aisles, reading the backs of the boxes to see if they should rent it, what would the back of the box of the accountant say? That’s right, it’s time for the back of the box.
Joe: It’s the back of the box. Where do criminal enterprises go to audit their books? Well, if you know who to call, the accountant will help you out. But beware. Buried under his steely gaze is a code. And if you break his code, he will break you. Ben Affleck stars in this simmering action thriller that boils over and out of the boardroom, and into the highest echelons of power.
Joe: Every missed dollar could cost you your job, or at worst, your life.
Joe: Wow.
Greg: Why you got arrested? To find out.
Joe: Yeah, you got to read it to find out. I’m not going to tell you.
Greg: No, the movie might not tell you. Yeah.
Joe: The movie doesn’t tell you anything.
Greg: I think I’m in. You had me in math in my life.
Joe: Okay, perfect.
Greg: But that’s just kind of the marketing one. How about you tell us the honest Josh guy Tucker take on it. Give us the real back of the box.
Joe: This is my opinion.
Greg: I love it to, like, go all in on this.
Joe: But this out there, I’m all in. This is a movie that should never have been made. We do not need an autistic accountant action movie. I’m sorry. We didn’t. The movie. This movie makes no sense. And it forces great actors to deliver mediocre monologues to move the story forward. There is one decent action scene, and that’s the last one.
Joe: Other than that, this is an exercise in normalizing autism and accounting in a manner so ridiculous that it fails on all accounts. The people who greenlit the sequel should be evaluated for Head Trauma.
Greg: Wow.
Joe: So that’s what I’m all in. I’m all I went, I went there. You’re welcome everyone. You’re welcome. America.
Greg: All right, Joe, let’s talk a little bit about the box office of this movie. And this movie, had a budget of $44 million. Usually you need to make about twice that to make your money back. Sometimes two and a half, depending on the marketing budget. This movie made $86 million in America and $69 million internationally, for a total of 155.
Joe: So I’ve made the money.
Greg: So this movie was profitable? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s what happens if you make a movie like this. That is $44 million, you know, and I think a lot of us watched it afterwards. You know, I think this movie has had a pretty solid streaming and and VOD life. Let’s talk about what the critics have been have said about this movie.
Greg: Sarah Michelle Fetters from Movie freak.com said, I enjoyed almost every single second, even in the face of unparalleled ridiculousness.
Greg: Which would be a good name for the show.
Joe: Unparalleled ridiculousness for playing at home media drinking game of one movie. Name the show. Yes, there you have it. There you.
Greg: Go. Philadelphia Inquirer said, I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a lot of fun in this movie. All right, three out of four. The Chicago Reader says for an action picture, it is uncommonly crafty and observant. Yeah. The Los Angeles Times said watching Ben Affleck, Christian Wolff make numbers, do his bidding as he grapples with a world he isn’t completely at home in, is so entertaining, it’s hard not to wonder if Warner Brothers has a sequel in the works.
Greg: Wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Joe: Wow. Wow that they love that movie way more than they should have, I don’t know.
Greg: Oh, we should have started this by saying, what do you think the critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes is of this movie?
Joe: I think it’s higher than it should be. I think that this, you know, feels about a 70.
Greg: It does feel like a 70, to be honest. Yeah.
Joe: But I think critics are actually going to be higher than that. I think this is one of those movies that because the title sets the bar so low.
Greg: A mundane job.
Joe: Yeah. My main job. Yeah. Hey, you walk in going, oh, God. And then it’s like, oh yeah. So I think this is going to be like an 80. That’s a.
Greg: 53.
Joe: Oh 53 okay. Way off.
Greg: You have no idea how many people agree with you about this movie.
Joe: Yeah okay.
Greg: A lot of people agree with me as well. It’s a very people are very adamant about how they feel about this movie.
Joe: This is like a this is a binary. You’re you have a love it or you hate it. Yeah. So yeah.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: That’s perfect. I’m glad that we fell on either side of it. So totally have the conversation that needs to be had. This is this is what the people want.
Greg: Absolutely. That’s why we do this. What do you think the audience score is on this now called the popcorn meter. Out of 25,000 ratings. What do you think this is?
Joe: I’ll go 60, 77, 77. Wow. So audiences loved it way more than the critics that. Yep. No.
Greg: Great bad movie.
Joe: Yeah, very bad movie.
Greg: Okay, let me tell you what some of these critics said as well, kind of adding to what I did before Vanity Fair says the accountant. Moles, autism and a little art. And there’s a sentimental poll that I will admit got me just a bit right at the very end. I am right there with Richard Larson. Same story, by the way.
Greg: Both times I watched it. Okay. The Wall Street Journal says The Accountant, which stars Mr. Affleck as a math savant marksman martial artist who uncorks books and kicks backsides, is an effective and even affecting pop thriller.
Joe: Oh wow. Extra points for bringing in his name into that at the end there.
Greg: Oh wow.
Joe: Yeah yeah yeah, a good I guess Affleck thing would have been the better term.
Greg: But Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said Affleck plays a math whiz whose position on the autism spectrum allegedly makes him a perfect assassin. That notion is offensive on so many levels.
Joe: Thank you.
Greg: Especially in the service of such low grade crime fiction, that it’s painful to watch.
Joe: Yeah, I’m more in that camp.
Greg: Alyssa Wilkinson at Vox that the accountant wants to be a thriller, a shoot him up, a sensitive argument for neurodiversity all at once. What it actually is, is stupid.
Greg: And I really like all of these critics, by the way. Like, I’ve read a lot of these critics before. Like I’m on board with their writing. I really like this one. Vince Mancini at Uproxx said, it’s transparent in its attempt both to pimp a future franchise and give autistic kids their own superhero. There’s a genuine sweetness to the latter that converts me on the former headshots, math problems and pain social interactions.
Greg: Sign me up. Of the two movies Ben Affleck has been in so far this year, the accountant in Batman v Superman The Accountant has by far the most franchise potential.
Joe: That would prove out with the fact that there’s a sequel here, and then they have just scrapped everything at at DC and gone with a totally different direction on everything.
Greg: So yeah, I really liked the sense there’s a genuine sweetness to the latter that converts me to the former. I really like that. All right. The Daily Beast says a frequently frustrating but surprisingly entertaining genre mish mash that’s at least upfront about its central conceit. Ben Affleck is definitely 100% going for it as Hollywood’s first autistic assassin.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Oh. Wow.
Greg: There’s so many good ones. So I’m going to read two more. Okay, the Guardian says a fantastically convoluted, overextended but watchable action thriller whose many dangling loose ends, subplots and side characters are finally tied up with a showy flourish. Three out of five stars and my very favorite review Mike LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle says their worst movies.
Joe: Yeah, I agree with that.
Greg: Yeah, totally. Another good name for a show. Their worst movie? Yeah, their worst movie. All right, Joe, should we get some drinking games?
Joe: You know, we need to. All right. We’ll go through our stock drinking games again. You don’t need to be drinking alcohol. It can be water, coffee, soda pop. If you’re in the East Coast. Juice, I don’t know, smoothies. Greg’s drinking a smoothie right now. Sure. Yeah, whatever it is. So here are our drinking games. Silent helicopter. I did not see any in this movie.
Joe: No missed opportunity, honestly. Pushing and enhance. Oh my. Oh I gave this one to you. It’s not a classic one but to me all the googling. And then there’s a scene where our FBI agents are together trying to track down. And they’re like doing a lot of connecting the dots of disparate points of information to get to the fact of who they discover the accountant to be in there.
Joe: So I gave that one to you.
Greg: Okay. So what are you giving to us anytime that there’s, like, surveillance footage or surveillance audio.
Joe: Surveillance video surveillance audio or like, computer like googling montages, essentially.
Greg: All right. Okay.
Joe: Do two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos? Oh, no. Is there an explosion with silent suffering and ringing in the ears?
Clip: Oh.
Greg: Oh, but there is a, He’s fighting. A guy takes a grenade and puts it underneath his bulletproof vest and then hugs him. That was kind of an amazing moment.
Joe: I did appreciate that. And I was like, was it a grenade or was it a smoke? Well, it didn’t matter what it was. It worked. Yeah. And I was in and I was like, yes, kill all Ben Affleck.
Greg: Yeah, totally. That’s Sam Hargrave right there.
Joe: Yeah, sure. Opening credits scene where the title locks in place for the sound. I gave this one to us. It doesn’t mark and place with the sound, but as we are finding, there’s kind of two ways to go with it. There’s either locks in place with the sound or the score, and the sound effects disappear. So you’re drinking.
Greg: It’s the noise it didn’t make exactly.
Joe: But the negative space on this one.
Greg: So love it.
Joe: Okay. Does it flash back to dialog two minutes ago. Oh my God. At flashbacks. So many freaking times.
Greg: Movie, but never to a moment we’ve already seen, right?
Joe: While there’s the J.K. Simmons opening scene. Oh yeah. So strong. And we have that one done over. And then kind of I also am generous with this one though. If there’s a flashback, if.
Greg: There’s a flashback, take a drink for sure. Yeah.
Joe: I appreciate it. There’s no real bad CGI in this. It’s not it’s pretty straight forward.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: There are some great bad shots. There are inextricably wet streets, but I appreciated when he is following his brother, and his brother shoots at him and he doesn’t know who it is. Yeah, such a classic. Even if the streets aren’t inexplicably wet, they are in my mind.
Greg: And I bet it had just rained. Yeah, I don’t think they had the budget for like a water truck.
Joe: Now there are a couple scenes with heavy rain as well in this.
Greg:
Joe: There isn’t a give us the room. Although I know I’m wondering if I were there.
Greg: Should have been JK Simmons should have said this at some point.
Joe: Yeah. And then no and no Interpol. Those are stock drinking. All right.
Greg: Pretty low.
Joe: Yeah. I think the biggest surprise and this is I think a testament to our second unit director here. There’s no CGI like the stunts are real. And as, what’s his name? Justin Lin says practical. They did him practically. And yet I’m always going to be in favor of that anytime I’m in a movie and I, you know, if they’re really doing stunts, car crashes.
Joe: Yeah. Always going to make the movie better for me every single time.
Greg: Yeah, totally.
Joe: There probably is some CGI in this, but I did not notice it and didn’t have a moment where like, oh, I can totally see that this is a CGI moment on my computer. So yeah, I’ll toss it to you for your first drinking game.
Greg: Okay. There is something that they talk about in this movie, and it is when, people are stimming, they call it, they’re stimulating. They’re like tapping their fingers, or he kind of blows on his fingers a little bit before he does something, or he’s arranging on a plate any time somebody is stimming in this movie, take a drink.
Joe: That’s a good one I have this happens really early on in the film, but they kind of use gunshots as background noise. Where J.K. Simmons is running in, you don’t know who it is. But you don’t see a lot. That was when I was kind of really in on this movie and I was like, oh this is, this is the kind of movie we’re going to see.
Joe: And so I have.
Greg: So it had a good first three minutes.
Joe: First good three minutes. And then it’s downhill.
Greg: Downhill from there.
Greg: Okay. Awesome. So you’re drinking game is any time you hear gunshots in the background.
Joe: Yeah. Kind of in the background where you don’t know where they’re coming from because it happens actually like throughout the movie, not as much. But in that first scene there’s a definite sound editing, just gunshot as the background.
Greg: Okay. I have, take a drink any time he uses his accounting trickery to rob the American people of lawful taxes that are do.
Joe: I have one very similar, but it’s accounting montages that make it look way more sexy than it really is.
Greg: The math’s so hard. Yeah, they’re okay. Take a drink every time there’s a flashback that’s kind of already in our other drinking games. But any time there’s a flashback.
Joe: I like that one. I have any time JK Simmons has to deliver a monologue. Take a drink. I mean, I don’t know what you’re doing in that 12 minute one, but however many drinks you feel like you can take in that do it. Yeah, but he’s got a couple others that are a little shorter but good long. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: But man he’s incredible at it.
Joe: He is. He is so.
Greg: Good. He’s like Anthony Hopkins in Mission Impossible to just he could say anything. He’s like Michael Caine in a Christopher Nolan movie.
Joe: It’s a study in watching an actor. Work is really what it is. Yeah, because it’s on him. He’s got this hat is on a couch. It’s this, like, make this speech, okay? It’s like, I got you hold my breath. And he just, like, kills it.
Greg: So this is kind of what being a graphic designer is like as well. Like, can you make this look good? You’re like, you want this to look good. Yeah. All right. Next one I have is any time Ben Affleck smiles in the movie and he doesn’t let very many smiles through, but he does smile, you know, maybe like 3 or 4 times in the movie.
Joe: Yeah, I think that’s a really good one. I had kind of an expressionless Ben Affleck look where he gives a lot.
Greg: But yeah, I.
Joe: Like your is better. I’ll go with my other one, which is, anytime there’s Ford product placement. So he drives a Ford truck in this that they show the logo just like an obscene amount of time. But shout out to Ford for sponsoring this movie.
Greg: Oh my gosh. And he drives so hilariously in this movie where he’s, like, driving super fast and then suddenly stops. That’s that’s his M.O.. Like, not wasting any time. Oh, that killed me. All right, take a drink. Any time they say the word accountants.
Joe: Oh, that’s okay. And I have anytime they mentioned a famous mathematician that has autism. Take a drink.
Greg: That’s good. Anytime somebody says dreamboat. Oh, take a drink.
Joe: That’s a good one. I have any time that you hear the robotic voice that.
Greg: Oh that’s good.
Joe: Kind of leading him along.
Greg: Sure I have take a drink any time someone says do you like puzzles.
Joe: Oh you’re drinking games are on point tonight.
Greg: That’s all right. I’m out.
Joe: I have a couple others is okay. There’s a few really terrible breath acting moment. So anytime there’s a breath acting, take a drink. Whoo! Breath x Ben Affleck is like, after he’s like, in an action scene. And this might be a trope. I move it to a trope. But like cars that are too clean, like I just noticed it a lot.
Joe: Like there’s a scene where they’re he’s chasing his brother, following his brother. They’re walking down. They’re on opposite sides of the road, right? Every single car has been to the car wash and has been waxed and is perfect. Every time he pulls up in his truck, it is. There’s not a speck of dirt on it. I’m noticing it with shoes now because I noticed it in, Jurassic Park.
Joe: Right? Right. You know, and it’s like, it’s clearly that this is a prop shoe that they just put on. And he’s like, sitting there, although they’ve been running through the like. So moments like that. Yeah. All right. I’m noticing more and more that there as I add them in.
Greg: Oh that’s interesting.
Joe: And then my last one is any time Ben Affleck identifies another person’s emotions, take a drink.
Greg: Oh that’s good, that’s good. All right Joe, are you ready for Joe’s trope lightning round aka signs? You might be watching a great bad movie.
Joe: All right, I have. He is the best at something. Yeah, I’m a reluctant hero.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: Action movie trope. Kind of. No women except for the love interest or the mother critical piece of information is saved until the end, so we kind of find out how they find him is through this when they start putting it together. So they kind of there’s a montage of them figuring out who he is. Yeah, yeah, I figured out who he is.
Joe: I have a duffle bag full of guns and that’s really it. There really isn’t a lot of tropes in this, which is kind of tracks for the fact that this is so many different kinds of movies. So it’s like putting a together so not as many tropes as we I would have expected, honestly.
Greg: Nice. Okay. I mean, if it really was a bunch of bad movies, wouldn’t it be just like three times the tropes?
Joe: It’s possible. Oh, wait till I rate this movie. No.
Greg: Okay, okay. All right. Joe, we have talked all around the important things, but are you ready to hit this head on? Is it time for important questions?
Joe: You know, it is.
Greg: All right. You didn’t see this movie back in 2016, but do you think it held up then?
Joe: I do, I feel like it held up then. Probably better than it holds up now. If I jump ahead.
Greg: Yeah. So it doesn’t hold up now. Not as well.
Joe: Yeah. Not as well for me.
Greg: Okay. I am so ready to watch the sequel to see how they kind of, What? Lame they pick for this series. Next important question. How hard do they sell the good guy.
Joe: Way harder than they needed to. Like this is close to John Wick territory honestly.
Greg: In the way they describe him. Yeah. Yeah. You do like his his killing. Yeah. But also when they called his math skills supernatural. Is that what Jean smart says?
Joe: Something like that. Yeah. They really go in on that and I appreciate that.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. How hard do they sell the bad guy.
Joe: Who really is the bad guy in.
Greg: This? I mean, we think it’s the brother probably for a while.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: And then it becomes the corporate people. And then eventually John Lithgow who. Yeah, kind of shades of cliffhanger. Really.
Joe: Yeah. It’s like if his character lives in cliffhanger, this is what he would be doing. You probably.
Greg: Did. Let’s say yes, I hate it. All right, Joe, why is there romance in this movie?
Joe: That’s beautiful. There is no romance in this movie. There are moments where it could go that way. And they they make the right choice for me.
Greg: But it is about two people who want to connect. Connecting?
Joe: Yeah. And if that’s romance, then I guess we’re all guilty of a little romance. But the more you know.
Greg: Are we bad people? Sure. Loving this movie. Wait. Hold on. Let me just change this. Am I a bad person for loving this movie?
Joe: You might be okay. Okay.
Greg: You’re on the higher ground by not letting it. Are you a bad person for not loving this movie?
Joe: I might be wrong. I’m a bad person for sure. So that’s that’s not that’s not that’s not. They’re no illusions about that.
Greg: Joe. Very important question for you. Does it deserve a sequel?
Joe: Deserve a sequel? No, we’re getting a sequel. And will I watch it? Yes.
Greg: Okay. Yes. Okay.
Joe: Does it deserve a sequel in your mind?
Greg: Absolutely.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Well, actually, I probably didn’t think this movie was gonna have a sequel. Yeah.
Joe: Nobody thought.
Greg: This. I think this movie has a sequel because Amazon’s like, wait, why do we haven’t heard back pocket and we, you know, we need to get Ben Affleck with his production company making something that people want to see. Yeah. So everybody wins in this scenario. Does this movie deserve a prequel?
Joe: I’m going to break with my tradition and say yes, only because I need more clarity in a lot of the storyline that they set up in this. So there could be like 2 or 3 prequels that explain all the stuff that we get to in this movie. Yeah. Why is he the greatest accountant? Why is he called the greatest assassin?
Joe: Right. What happened exactly? Leading into the funeral like that? I just I’m left with a lot of open ended questions. So I say yes to this. I feel gross about it. But yes, it probably does deserve a prequel or two. Where do you land on this?
Greg: I think it had a prequel and it’s called Pitch Perfect, I think. And again, is playing the same character as you did in Pitch Perfect after college.
Joe: Yeah, she might be playing the same character in every role that she’s ever been in. But three shots fired at Anna Kendrick on that.
Greg: She’s so good at this. Yeah, she’s so good in that I love Pitch Perfect. All three of those movies. Yes.
Joe: So almost there. But based on that, so.
Greg: All right, Joe, my new favorite question and important questions. Should the accountant have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars?
Joe: No, no, no, not even close. Here’s what I would say comparing this movie to Top Gun Maverick. This is a better movie.
Greg: What’s in Top Gun Maverick.
Joe: And Top Gun Maverick in terms of, if one movie was going to be nominated and The Accountant versus Top Gun Maverick, I would much happier if the accountant was. And then.
Greg: Okay, better performances and like, emotional arcs. Is that what you mean?
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Okay. Okay.
Joe: Neither one to be anywhere near the Academy Awards. Just to be clear, it’s ridiculous. And what Top Gun Maverick does better is it’s got a real clear throughline of what kind of movie it is.
Greg: That’s true, that’s true.
Joe: But what’s what’s your answer on this?
Greg: If my answer is 100% and here’s why. Okay. They are allowed to nominate ten pictures for Best picture. And this year they only nominated nine. We got room by default.
Joe: It’s it.
Greg: So I feel like for this sometimes I need to bring a little bit to this question. And so I want to I want to list for you the movies that were nominated okay, 2017. But they came out in 2016. He’s got a rival okay. Great movie fences.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: I haven’t seen it, but I really want to haven’t Denzel Washington directed it. But he had played that on stage as well. Yeah. Hacksaw Ridge.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Never did you see it.
Joe: I haven’t, but I.
Greg: Haven’t seen it either.
Joe: Isn’t it. Mel Gibson directed and so like, I’m out of Mel Gibson.
Greg: You’re out. Yeah, I, I’m surprised how often this movie comes up. There is a section of our community that loves this movie a lot.
Joe: Okay, we might have to put it on the list.
Greg: Yeah. Hell or high water. Great movie. If you ever seen that movie.
Joe: I have not. I don’t even know that movie.
Greg: It’s incredible. Chris Pine I.
Joe: Love Chris Pine.
Greg: So yeah, Jeff Bridges, I think I’m not gonna look it up. I’ll just say that.
Joe: Okay? Sure.
Greg: Hidden figures.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Good movie.
Joe:
Greg: The white savior in the movie was the only thing that wasn’t true.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: I’m raising La La Land. Which fake one for, like, a minute.
Joe: That’s right.
Greg: Lion. Never seen line.
Joe: How many there.
Greg: But it has Dev Patel. Right. Manchester by the sea.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Didn’t see it. Too depressing and moonlight okay love.
Joe: Doesn’t that win. It did. Yeah.
Greg: Would you take any of those out.
Joe: I wouldn’t necessarily take any of them out. But if you threw the accountant in there I don’t feel like it sticks out that bad. That’s just crazy.
Greg: Yeah. It has the plot of three of those other movies.
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
Greg: All right, Joe, how can this movie be fixed? AKA who should be in the remake?
Joe: All right, so I’ve already kind of alluded to this or given, but this is a family drama. It’s about the brothers growing up. Keep all the flashbacks. You add a little bit more tension in between the brother, the relationship, the accountant or Ben Affleck is not the killer or an assassin, but he discovers something and then Jon Bernthal has to save him like Anna Kendrick and whoever else.
Joe: That is the movie that this should be. How do you fix this movie?
Greg: That’s better than anything I could have come up with. It’s really good. Even though I love this movie. I do think this movie needs like one less plot element at least, and it has something to do around the mom and dad, I think. Yeah, some of that family something, you know, I think he could have the past that they don’t explain quite as much.
Greg: And that gives you more room to kind of flesh out the story that you’re trying to tell. So I love your idea. I think it’s a really good idea. Although Ben Affleck would still be pretty good at his action moves, right? Because he grew up in the same family, his Jon Bernthal. So you’d have to, like, remember their training or something?
Joe: Yeah, there could be some sort of. Yeah, they end up in a cabin in the woods and everyone’s coming to get them. And he’s got to kind of remember, you know, a got the hero moment coming together. And he’s got to maybe he can’t kill anyone. And then he’s saves his brother from being killed. Yeah. You know there’s there’s lots of ways you could go with it for sure.
Greg: Yeah I think it should. If it’s going to be remade, it should be remade with Matt Damon. Yes.
Joe: Absolutely.
Greg: Yeah. Don’t change anything.
Joe: Just don’t like.
Greg: Damon.
Joe: For you to have been at you. I.
Greg: Joe, what album is the accountant?
Joe: Okay, so what I came up with is a song and what I think is that this movie had a lot of good intention behind it, and what it was trying to tell the story was trying to tell, you know? Yeah. Kind of giving, you know, an autistic superhero. So there was a lot of good intention behind it.
Joe: But yeah, the delivery of it just missed the mark and kind of as set up for ridicule. So this is at the beginning of Covid when all the celebrities were singing. Imagine to us, there was a lot of good intention behind what they were trying to do.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And a death like read terribly. So it was like, that’s my album. It is. What album it that’s for you.
Greg: That is amazing. Okay, well, as I was watching this movie, like I said, I really was just asking, what is this movie? What is this? And by the end, I was like, I don’t know what it was, but I liked him and I saw a band before I had heard them on record, and while I was watching them, I kept asking that same question what is this band?
Greg: I don’t get it. Is this good? Is this bad? This is really they’re making some strong choices here. And by the end I was like, that was incredible. And the year was, 2003 Sasquatch Festival, and the band was my Morning Jacket. And Jim James, the singer of My Morning Jacket, has a song in this, in this movie.
Greg: So there’s a little bit of a tie in, but the album is called It Still Moves, and it’s like their first and biggest, probably that’s most well known. It’s an incredible album. It’s so good, but especially in 2003 before kind of like jammy, kind of meandering rock and white come back. They had some like 5 or 6 minute songs where they would just like break off into another guitar solo.
Joe: Awesome.
Greg: And I’m kind of antique guitar solo as a person, you have to win me over. And they totally did. And so it still moves. By My Morning Jacket, a total success of an album, just like the movie The Accountant from 2016.
Joe: The greatest movie of 2016.
Greg: All right, Joe, it all comes down to this. We need to rate this movie. We have a scale that we rarely use, but I feel like we might today. It is great. Bad movies. Good bad movies. Okay. Bad movies, bad bad movies. Worst case scenario, awful bad movies. How do you rate the accountant?
Joe: I’m on the cusp of a bad, bad movie and an okay bad movie, and I’m still on that cost. I think I’m going to go. I’m going to be kind and I’m going to go, okay, bad movie. Sure. I could easily go bad, bad movie if I watched it again. Probably. I get annoyed with all the things that are annoying about this movie, or I could forgive those.
Greg: Maybe go the other way. Yeah.
Joe: So I feel like I’m going to sit right in the middle and say that this isn’t okay. Bad movie. It’s got some flaws to it, but it’s also got enough redeeming qualities to, like, not kill it terribly. So, where are you on this movie? How do you rate this movie?
Greg: Oh my gosh, I disagree with what I have in my notes right now. Okay, but I’m going to go with it. I’m going to base this rating on this film’s writing, okay. The plot, the performances. I would also throw in the cinematography and not only the first unit direction, but also the second unit direction. Making this movie on a $44 million budget.
Greg: I’m going to go, great, that movie.
Greg: It’s probably a good, bad movie. I can’t believe I wrote great bad movie. Gonna make these notes.
Joe: Yeah. That’s a tough one. But, you know, what’s your rating? I’m not going to stand in the way of your happiness. You love this movie. Live it up, you know? See you at the accountant to.
Greg: I have to say, this is a good, bad movie.
Greg: It’s a good, bad movie. I could use one of these every Saturday afternoon. Yeah. My house, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, this is a classic Saturday afternoon movie, but the actors are way better. It’s like when Russell Crowe is in, like, the next three days. Or Leonardo DiCaprio is playing like some journalist in a, in a movie, or Ben Affleck was in that one movie where he was like a senator or something.
Greg: I don’t know, there’s a million of these and I’m on the hook for all of them. I’m totally I’m totally there for them.
Joe: It’s definitely a movie that with less capable actors. Yeah. Is a disaster.
Greg: Yeah. Yeah, totally.
Joe: And so I think the acting saves this movie in a way that cannot be underscored enough for me.
Greg: So yeah, I mean, probably every movie. Yeah. But especially this movie I.
Greg: All right, Joe, spoilers.
Joe: As we say, spoilers for The Accountant. So you haven’t seen the accountant run out and watch it right now. Pause this and come back and take care of you. So.
Greg: Yeah. And, and with that, you know what, man? We did it.
Joe: You know I did it. They had the conversation that need to be had. Nobody else probably will ever talk about this movie. So I think we did. We we really set the bar high on it.
Greg: So either this episode is coming out in the midst of America’s Accountant Fever, or this episode is coming out adding to America’s accounting fatigue. It’s like, oh stop it with the accountants. We will find out when this episode drops.
Joe: Why they didn’t release the accountant two on April 15th. I’ll never know.
Greg: But it’s a really good point. It’s like eight years later though I guess Covid interrupted it. Yeah. They’ve been saying that they were working on the sequel for a really long time.
Joe: I have a sneaking suspicion that they will have picked the lane. Yeah, not Lane is an action movie with like a little bit of autism thrown in for good measure, but sure, sure. Just looking at the poster for The Accountant two, it’s reads as action movie heavy. So I’m mean.
Greg: Have you watch the trailer?
Joe: No.
Greg: It premiered. I think it’s South by Southwest a month ago. It has an 85%. After 44 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. So yeah, it’s going to be so good.
Joe: Yeah. I mean, just looking at the poster right now, you have Jon Bernthal, Ben Affleck, both with Wet Machine Gun monster guns. Yeah, it’s gonna be so good.
Greg: It’s gonna be so good. Oh. All right, well, we should say that, you can always check out our website. Great Bad movies.com to see more about, this episode and all of our other episodes. If you like what you heard, you can rate it and review it. Please do that and whatever app you’re listening to it. And if you are listening to someplace other than an app, much is follow us on whatever podcast app you use.
Greg: We try to get the word out about the show. We’ve been around for a year, so if you like great bad movies, maybe tell a friend this week, pick an episode. Talk about a movie that will make you feel closer, like Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick in this movie.
Joe: But not too close. Just close enough.
Greg: You know? Yeah, but sit close to each other on the couch while you’re watching it. And talk about, what kind of towels you like at hotels. Yeah they do scratchy.
Joe: Yeah. Sometimes.
Greg: Sometimes.
Greg: Oh geez. I just noticed the time. Listen, Joe, this has been great, but I’ve got to, get to my Airstream and, grab 1000 guns, some clothes, some very old comic books, a Picasso, a drawer full of cash from different countries. And I probably also grabbed my remote control. That’s what I call that a go bag. Or, you know, every Thursday.
Joe: That’s all you need. That’s good, that’s good. I’m I’m I’m late anyway. And I have kind of go memorize four pages of dialog for this insane amount of exposition I need to pack into a scene. So it’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. I got it.
Greg: That works for me because, I know that, you know, but I should probably say on the podcast that I have a massive hatred towards melons. And so I’m going to go to my buddy’s, farm and probably shoot some melons from a mile away.
Joe: Yeah. That that tracks. That’s. I’ve got a new accountant coming by. I sure hope he’s not a top notch assassin, too. So, you know, we’ll see.
Greg: We’ll see. Yeah, probably.
Joe: Probably. But yeah, a little small chance that the isn’t.
Greg: Okay. Well, that works for me because I need to go commit tax fraud by claiming I have a necklace making business in my kitchen.
Joe: Nice. Yeah. You know, in a twist that nobody saw coming, my brother will be guarding the bad guy. I’m going to try and kill, and then we’ll help save me in the final action scene so that. That’s fine. That’s fine.
Greg: It’s just another. Yeah. Wednesday for you. Honestly.
Joe: Typical. Yeah.
Greg: Well, you know, I’ve been very proud of the schooling that I’ve had in my life, but I think my master’s degree in black money just is not going as far as I need it to. So I’ve decided to go back to school to get my PhD in black money.
Joe: Yeah, I think that’s that’s probably wise. I got to watch a movie. I sure wish there was a movie that can make accounting and autism action packed. Do you know any do you have any recommendations for me while I’m sitting on my couch? You know.
Greg: It’s in theaters in a couple days.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: That’s early.
Greg: Probably blocks from your house. Yeah, probably. Well, that works for me. And it makes sense. I’m actually. I need to leave just because I’ve decided that I also deserve. Wow. And it’s not happening here.
Joe: Yeah. Not here. Yeah.
Greg: Not with the. You down.
Joe: I’ve let you down. I’ve got to go to. I’m late for a funeral. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen, but I hope nobody gets arrested or killed at a funeral for my mother. Apparently in a weird plot point in a movie that I don’t fully understand.
Greg: The Barney Fife types?
Joe: Yes, exactly.
Greg: They just shoot ex-husbands, apparently.
Joe: Shoot first, ask questions later. It’s typical. It’s just nobody.
Greg: Says Barney Fife type.
Joe: I think so, yeah. Yeah, that’s a that’s a really current reference for you’re watching this.
Greg: Okay. Well that works for me. And it’s important for me to say that, Anna Kendrick really enjoys, milkshake in this movie. And they spend some time on screen letting her totally, just, like, loudly slurp the bottom of it, which is something I also love doing.
Joe: And someone who live with you. Yes, I can also say that that is a true statement.
Greg: So I’m just going to say the milk milkshake product placement in this movie totally worked on me, and it’s time for me to head out and get a coffee milkshake.
Joe: Awesome. Perfect. I’ve got a new job I’m taking with the Department of Treasury. I sure hope it isn’t boring, you know? So.
Greg: Yeah. And you are an analyst. Still, you should be an agent. Why is that? I’m assuming it’s because you’re a liar.
Joe: Yeah, probably. Probably because I’m a liar. Constant lying. Oh.
Greg: Call back to a movie our listeners have not heard. Call the accountant we just talked about. Okay, well, that works for me, because, as you know, in this movie, people take off their belts and then hit people in the face with them. And that really made me concerned about our communities and our streets. So I’m going to go, work on some anti-open belt carrying laws in my community.
Joe: That’s that’s good. I’m, I’m I’m out of things. I’m going to go do. So let’s I’ll follow you there and I will make this, the street safer for everyone.
Greg: Absolutely. All right, well, I will see you soon, Joe.
Joe: All right. This is.