Peppermint (2018)

Directed by Pierre Morel. Starring Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, Juan Pablo Raba, John Gallagher Jr, Annie Ilonzeh, Pell James, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Jeff Hephner, Richard Cabral. [R]

Over-the-top yet deathly grim riff on Death Wish with Garner going vigilante after her family is mowed down in a drive-by shooting. Garner tries her best, but her character is untethered from reality; within a few years, the suburban mom transforms into Lady Frank Castle, a supremely-skilled and armed-to-the-teeth avenging angel that only seems to slip up when humanity breaks through her steely shell; emotional vulnerability has no place in the pursuit of cold, hard justice, it seems. It’s tough to tell what’s riddled with more bullets over the course of the movie: criminal scum or credibility. Too dreary and rote to qualify as gruesome escapism (if you want that, watch Punisher: War Zone) and too silly and disinterested in the moral conundrums to rate as sensationalist drama (if you want that, watch The Brave One).

30/100