Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal cook the books for a fun adventure

A pitch for the Accountant franchise sounds like a joke from The Studio. “He’s a superhero, and you know what his power is? Autism!” 

The Accountant 2, a sequel to the 2016 original, doesn’t put Ben Affleck in spandex with a giant “A” on his chest, but it comes pretty close. When he’s done using his math and pattern recognition skills to fight for justice, he starts methodically mowing down baddies with assault weaponry, even rescuing children from a disaster on a school bus. And once yMore ou get past the “how the hell did this get made?” questions, you will likely find yourself enjoying this extremely entertaining movie.

Don’t worry if you don’t remember the first one too well — or if you never got around to it. Indeed, returning director Gavin O’Connor and Affleck seem eager to take the more salable points of the character — his neuroatypical skills — and ditch the moody, dramatic parts. So, no more talk about Dad issues or yearning to fit in, and the Anna Kendrick love interest angle is gone. This leaves room for more action and comedy — like the Accountant using his algorithmically sensitive brain to hack a speed dating session!

Honestly, I would not be surprised if Affleck hasn’t watched footage of the first film in years. Evidence of that is how the character’s voice has changed from a dour monotone to more of a Rain Man-esque caricature. It’s entirely possible that people in the autism community will find this portrayal a little offensive (as some did with the first), but, at least from where I’m sitting, the Accountant is pretty cool.

He still goes by Christian Wolff, one of his many mathematics-based aliases, and when we meet up with him again, he’s living in his Airstream trailer festooned with priceless works of art, heavy weaponry, and drawers full of cash. He is still in touch with Justine, his computer wizz partner with nonverbal autism who communicates via computer. Yet he seems to be on a hiatus from working as a forensic accountant for villains (then secretly feeding info to good guys to get them busted). But when his old buddy, Ray King (J.K. Simmons), the retired head of the Treasury Department’s police force, ends up dead, the new head, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), sends out her version of the bat signal. 

At first, her job is to be a wide-eyed audience surrogate and ask Wolff a bunch of questions as he begins sleuthing in his unorthodox manner. And unless you know what EBITDA stands for, you’ll be glad she does. While The Accountant 2 is just another mob-based thriller, it does have a nice layer of “tax-no babble” on top of it, which I’ll take on faith is accurate.

Luckily for Addai-Robinson and for us, O’Connor and returning writer Bill Dubuque are quick to reunite the Accountant with his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), an emotionally clingy contract killer. That’s when the movie slips into a groove of envelope-pushing violent comedy. Bernthal is the ridiculous loose canon, Addai-Robinson wants things done by the book, and Affleck is annoyed by both of them as he tries to stay focused on solving the puzzle. 

He has an ace up his sleeve. With his ill-gotten fortune, he’s been funding the New Hampshire boarding school for neurodivergent youth introduced in the first movie. Led by Justine, these kids are elite computer hackers, and the montage sequences of them blasting through firewalls and plucking passwords from the cloud are thrilling. 

This level of filigree, along with Bernthal’s manic performance, is enough to distract you from the utter inscrutability of the plot. I have actually seen The Accountant 2 twice, and I still have no idea what the hell the bad guys are doing. All I know is that the head bad guy (Robert Morgan) runs what gives every impression of being a successful seafood market in addition to being involved in smuggling. What’s with these people? Why not just sell fish? There’s a whole scene devoted to how much money he makes on tuna — who in their right mind jeopardizes a successful business with all kinds of cartel nonsense? I’ll never understand criminals, I guess.

Anyway, the mafioso plot introduces an additional contract killer (Daniella Pineda) whose troubled past triggered an extreme case of acute savant syndrome. In other words, she got bonked on the head and now is the Terminator. I am happy to report that The Accountant 2 does not fully exploit what would happen if Wolff, Braxton, and she were to team up, leaving me salivating for The Accountant 3.  

Devising such a movie may push everyone to their limits, however. The ludicrousness on display here is enormous. I haven’t even gotten to the Accountant using his analysis skills to hack the art of line dancing. But it’s interesting how Affleck, a two-time loser at the superhero genre, ended up finding his best action-adventure character — his John Wick — with this franchise. Somehow, the numbers all add up. Grade: B