{"id":18879,"date":"2019-02-05T14:27:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T19:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18879"},"modified":"2019-02-08T01:57:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T06:57:25","slug":"br-peppermint-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18879","title":{"rendered":"BR: Peppermint (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Poor<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Elevation Pictures<\/a> (Canada) \/ Universal<\/a> (USA)<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0A<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 December 11, 2018<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Action \/ Revenge<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0Armed and skilled in UFC smackering, a mother returns from a European vacay to hunt and kill the drug lords who murdered her husband and daughter.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 Audio Commentary with director Pierre Morel \/ Featurette: “Justice” (2:15) \/ Digital Copy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peppermint<\/strong> is the latest revenge thriller in which a mature actor plays a character whose family is either endangered (Taken<\/a><\/strong>) or dead, or whose own life is part of a larger scheme to hush an opponent permanently (The Gunman<\/a><\/strong>). Most of these productions seem to star Liam Neeson, but once in a while there\u2019s an effort to create a variant, and Peppermint<\/strong>\u2019s savvy casting has Jennifer Garner playing an older, angrier version of Alias<\/strong>\u2019 Syndney Bristow; one can make the fanciful assumption that easygoing mom Riley North is Sydney post-40, applying her killing skills after her attempt at a normal life was cut short by a gang’s drive-by mow-down.<\/p>\n

The script by Chad St.John (London Has Fallen<\/strong>) is structurally generic and derivative: when Riley\u2019s husband (Jeff Hepner) cancels on a robbery scheme, the outraged kingpin known as The Guillotine (utterly bored Jan Pablo Rab) is set on killing Chris North to set an example. The fast-moving shooters, identified with incredible accuracy by Riley, are tried and released, which causes Riley to snap and be apprehended for incarceration in a sanitarium.<\/p>\n

Before she\u2019s fully slotted into the ambulance, she bonks everyone with an oxygen tank and flees, disappearing for 5 years and returning to Los Angeles angrier and deadlier \u2013 apparently her period away from America had her acquiring fighting skills in low-rent UFC matches, seen on YouTube and easily discovered by the tech-savvy LAPD.<\/p>\n

The integration of social media within the plot feels like the work of an out of touch septuagenarian; much of the dialogue is a few inches from telling audiences what social media is all about, or a screenwriter unsure of how to work in 2018 tech habits into a revenge template borrowed from a 1986 Cannon Films B-film.<\/p>\n

That link to Cannon and the era\u2019s direct-to-video thrillers should\u2019ve resulted in a film that\u2019s part homage, part genre tribute, but Peppermint<\/strong> \u2013 named after Carly North\u2019s favourite ice cream \u2013 fails to work because St. John\u2019s dialogue is astonishingly awful; had Riley been portrayed by a lesser actress, the film would\u2019ve collapsed. Garner\u2019s gravitas manages to save the film from complete ruin, but unlike The Long Kiss Goodnight<\/strong> (1996), a similar tale of a mother who uses her skills to save her daughter from thugs, there\u2019s no glee in watching a director, writer, and actress have fun with a ridiculous script.<\/p>\n

Pierre Morel\u2019s filmography is modest, but his background is almost exclusively pulp revenge films \u2013 he helmed the first Taken<\/strong> and Gunman<\/strong> for actors Neeson and Sean Penn, respectively \u2013 and he debuted with the initially dynamic but otherwise juvenile District 13<\/strong> (2004) for Luc Besson. Each of these three involves gangs of crooks, subterfuge, and a hero\u2019s attempt to expose or end a corrupted entity, but Morel\u2019s approach to action is chopping up his shots and condensing action \u2013 ultimately destructive attempts to create a hightened sense of danger and urgency. He may be the logical and obvious choice for the bubblegummed Peppermint<\/strong>, but he won\u2019t offer anything new to the genre, hence a reliance on a mature charismatic actor \/ actress to transcend the banal and create resonance where there\u2019s absolutely none.<\/p>\n

To St. John\u2019s credit, there\u2019s an unusually long chunk in the film\u2019s first quarter showing the North family being loving & supportive, and revenge comes full circle when Riley doesn\u2019t just massacre almost everyone associated with her family\u2019s death, but terrorize the snooty suburban mom who ruined her daughter\u2019s birthday \u2013 the lone bit of deliberate humour that works.<\/p>\n

Carly\u2019s ghostly appearances which help reassure and sometimes warn her emotionally battered mom is reminiscent of both the TV and feature film versions of Edge of Darkness<\/strong>, itself a primal revenge tale in which a father investigates the horrific death of his daughter, and grapples with grief when she reappears to advise and console. (For the record, the 1985 teleplay was a dynamic political thriller, whereas the 2010 Mel Gibson redo followed the actor\u2019s standard screen persona of a hero who suffers intense pain until he\u2019s reduced to shreds by the End Credits.)<\/p>\n

Most\u00a0 of the cast has little to work with, leaving Garner to carry and propel the clumsily laid scenes in which Riley tracks down, infiltrates, and murders her targets using skills atypical of UFC grudge matches. The police aren\u2019t bright, the FBI is lame, and the drug lords are clich\u00e9d, and at 101 mins. there\u2019s a lot<\/em> of back & forth in the finale which isn\u2019t especially rewarding, because neither St, John nor Morel push the limits of cruelty. Taken<\/strong> is a much leaner and meaner film, whereas Peppermint<\/strong>\u2019s carnage is quick \u2013 fast headshots, stabs, and a villain who \u2019guillotines\u2019 a victim once (but entirely offscreen).<\/p>\n

The slickness and Garner\u2019s neo-Sydney heroine will ensure curiosity among her and genre fans, but while not the worst entry among recent revenge thrillers, it\u2019s neither good nor sufficiently trashy to excite, much in the way Law Abiding Citizen<\/strong> (2009) bubbles with malevolence and glee.<\/p>\n

Elevation\u2019s Blu-ray features an okay transfer \u2013 the bright scenes are rich in detail and sharp colours, but fades and low light scenes suffer from splotches of compression. The sound mix is pretty straightfoward, and what little of Simon Franglen\u2019s score appears does an adequate job supporting the drama when it\u2019s not source music.<\/p>\n

The filmmakers may well have hoped Peppermint<\/strong> might ignite a franchise; had Besson been the producer and co-writer, there would<\/em> be one, albeit dumber and cheaper, as occurred with the Taken <\/strong>sequels (or for that matter, sequels to Taxi<\/strong> and Crimson Rivers<\/strong>). Through the magic of tweets and Facebook streaming, Riley North is transformed into a folk hero (note the poster that\u2019s derived from wall art in the film) who cleans up skid rows like Charles Bronson in Cannon\u2019s Death Wish<\/strong> sequels and derivations, but if Garner\u2019s smart, she\u2019ll beg off a sequel.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2019 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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