Review: ‘Peppermint’ Is Neither Sweet Nor Good
Channel: Good America
Date: 07/09/2018

You have seen “Peppermint” before. Directed by Pierre Morel (“Taken”) and starring Jennifer Garner as Riley North, a hard-working suburban mom turned avenging angel, the vigilante thriller hits all the major tropes of the genre. If Hollywood diversions like “Death Wish” and the bizarro “Face/Off” are your bag, choosing to spend 90-plus minutes watching Ms. Garner return to her early action-hero roots and peel off dozens of evil men with ease might seem like a no-brainer. Yet “Peppermint” is a belabored exercise in lazily constructed déjà vu, without the grit or stylized ham of predecessors it so baldly steals from.

During a family outing, Riley’s husband and child are gunned down by members of a Latino cartel led by Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba), and the killers she identifies escape punishment because of a crooked legal system. She runs away before being committed to a mental institution and spends five years globe-trotting incognito, training to become an expert fighter and gunwoman in order to seek revenge.