Film Review – Peppermint

The biggest film director Pierre Morel ever made was 2009’s “Taken.” It was also the best film he’s ever made. The Liam Neeson one-man-army actioner wasn’t an original creation, but it possessed atypical ferocity for the genre, showcasing momentum similar productions are often too afraid to pursue. It was a blast of B-movie attitude and a hard production to replicate, with sequels to “Taken” pitiful, while knock-offs were easily ignored. After dimming the brightness of his career with terrible efforts such as “From Paris with Love” and “The Gunman,” Morel returns to the formula that provided him with career Viagra. “Peppermint” is another “Taken” riff, only here the focused bruiser is Jennifer Garner, who’s trying very hard to act butch for a production that doesn’t reward her commitment. Trashy and pointless, “Peppermint” isn’t the joyride of pain Morel is hoping for, finding the picture’s nastiness and idiocy too much to bear at times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com