The Reel Rejects - THE ACCOUNTANT (2016) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

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Starting point is 00:01:12 This week's videos are sponsored by prize picks, the easy-to-use fantasy sports betting app. More on them in just a bit. Tadda! Yes. Are you ready to? to balance our checkbook. Let's do it. Let's do it.

Starting point is 00:01:26 Tick, tick, tick. Oh my goodness. Gang. Well, we just, we've done it. We've accounted for the accountant. What a time it was. Our checkbook is balanced. Tadda.

Starting point is 00:01:46 Yeah. Oh, my God. What do we got? Oh, my God. He does great movies. And he does a lot with, uh, With Benjamin. Ben, obviously, so the way back is with Ben, we know, but he did Warrior.

Starting point is 00:01:59 Do you guys remember that movie, Warrior 2011? Oh, with Tom Hardy and Jordan? I love that movie. Okay, okay. Pride and Glory 2008, I don't believe I've seen it, but it has this actor I love, I'm forgetting his name, I'm blanking on it. Edward Norton is in it, and Colin Farrell. Wow, he's done, he's done some stuff. He did Miracle 2004.

Starting point is 00:02:23 So he's done some juice. This guy's been around. He's been around and he made like some juicing for a little while. Yeah, he's been juicing some good films too. Wow. Well, clearly you hated this. Oh, my God. Clearly you could not wait for this to end.

Starting point is 00:02:37 Right up my alley. And there's an accountant too. Oh, is there an accountant too? It says it on here. Is it out? Did it already come out? Let's see. 2025.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Oh, my God. Oh, more. We get more accountant. Hell, yeah. I'm losing it. And it's all situation. you by him. God bless America.

Starting point is 00:02:56 Oh my God. Praise me. You guys, I can't. I didn't know. Wow. Wow. I thought just seeing accountant and accountant two, just glancing at it, that that was an old-ass movie, too,

Starting point is 00:03:07 and we were just going to watch it like next week. I can't believe that that's coming out. Like, ah! You get to look forward. I'm so excited. Oh, my goodness gracious. Oh, my God. Yeah, this was a blast, man.

Starting point is 00:03:21 Like, again, I didn't really know what to. expect other than Ben Affleck action crime thriller or something or other and yeah like this had like in a lot of ways this is quintessentially that but yeah I thought it just had a lot of punch and zap and a lot of flavor and personality and the cast is stacked I mean from the mainline cast to even incidental roles are like people that you've seen in other stuff and and yeah I thought everyone on the performance end was really great there was a lot of great choreography a lot of bone-crunching action and stuff. We did not get the Gatling gun.

Starting point is 00:03:57 I thought we were going to get his like crazy Gatling Gun. But yeah, like from top to bottom, this was gripping, this was action-packed. Like this is a nice blend to me of like, you know, there are deeper movies, certainly. But this is like a bit of a film while also having a lot of satisfying and pulpy action elements as well. And I mean, it certainly reminded me, have you ever seen like Reacher, the TV series or anything like that? This reminded me kind of of Jack Reacher with like a, you know, with an autism spectrum twist almost. Yeah. Which, you know, that has become a somewhat troublesome trope in movies just because, you know, there's that whole thing about like, oh, people who are portraying autism as this kind of, you know, crazy superpower.

Starting point is 00:04:44 Yeah. And, you know. It's not always like that. I'd be curious to hear how this movie handles that. I'm sure if ever you're in a position where you've got some kind of bad. badass hitman character, you're probably not within the realm of reality. However, just as a layperson who's not an expert, I thought this movie did at least bother to, at least, it felt like it was at least somewhat observed in that department. And I felt like Ben Affleck certainly did his homework. And I like that, you know, you do have this home, you have these bookends with this doctor. Yeah. And, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:18 this. Beginning and end. Yeah. And you get at least a little bit of a glimpse into, yeah. Yeah, what the life, like, what the quality of life expectancy might be for somebody dealing with these just differences in how your mind works and stuff like that. And the highlighting of the fact that, yeah, it's just that you're different and people are going to be afraid of that. And there are a lot of ways that this can manifest and there are a lot of different ways that people use to soothe themselves. And I thought that just the way that they incorporated those aspects into the quirks of, you know, the Alex Wolfe character, or not Alex Wolf, you know. The wolf character. The wolf character. The Ben Affleck character.

Starting point is 00:05:55 Yeah, like I've seen other, and you guys just watch The Predator, which I think does this too. I've seen other movies that do the, you know, autism superpower card, and I felt like this one was less cringe about it at least. Yeah. It certainly felt like a well ingrained part of the story. And I like getting that, you know, glimpse into the past of like, this is, there's truly a crossroads. It's like we could, you know, sign up with this doctor and get the help that we need or we can go dad's route, which is just like full on exposure therapy, just like, you know, hey, I accept what you are, but the world isn't going to, so I'm just going to full on shove you into the world basically and into, yeah, all these different, you know, disciplines and things like that. And, yeah, it's like, it's, again, it's got all that fun thriller stuff and the actual machinations of the plot and like, oh, who's. laundering money here and, you know, the blending of his work as an accountant and that side

Starting point is 00:06:57 of both just regular life and crime along with his like crazy hitman skills. It was really interesting. I thought they balanced them out nicely. Yeah. I feel like this is like the story of like a struggling boy who's kind of held under the thumb of his like very controlling military dad who teaches him a lot of things on how to get through life. But the alternate side of it, because through his life right now, he has become the accountant. He has learned to fight his dad, raised him in a very specific way.

Starting point is 00:07:28 And then when we see the end, we kind of see the other side in that picture with him and the girl, who is obviously his phone call. We see that that could have been the softer side of his life where in the side of all of that his dad gave him also ended up in a lot of loss.

Starting point is 00:07:49 his dad is lost and his mom is lost on that side we saw a lot of loss but gain in his direction for him being the accountant being smart knowing how to work around and keeping his brother safe luckily

Starting point is 00:08:03 I really like that there's that redeeming part in the end with his brother of like I'll find you I love that like that was a twist I never saw coming right like and it was so endearing and they leave it I think in the flashbacks like semi-uncle, they never really clarify

Starting point is 00:08:22 if the brother is dealing with anything similar. He's just kind of a long for the ride in a lot of, at least like in the very beginning when they are talking to the doctor, like he's there and observing all this, but you don't really get the sense as to whether or not this might apply to him as well. And so I think there's enough murkiness there

Starting point is 00:08:40 where it's like you're never even thinking about the possibility that John Bernthal could be his brother, but then when you see how they both wound up and what both of their, just, you know, mindsets are like, and mental arrays are like, it kind of makes sense that they would both end up in the places that they did. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:58 I mean, they're both in that, in that military-esque setting where it would make sense that everything that they took from their father because they lost their mom, that they would go in that direction that their father would kind of send them in. And I really liked how sort of like charming it was between them. when he like I said like when he says I'll find you but there there was like I really liked how they wrote in this script how Bernthal says I missed you yeah and the way that he looks at him he's like waiting he's like I missed you too right he's like speaking for him that's a big heart part of this script and this story that we don't get to see a lot the only other part that we get to see with

Starting point is 00:09:47 him is when he's with what's her name? Kendrick is when he's with Anna Kendrick and he gives her that look of like and he writes you deserve wow but he also sort of the way that he looks at her you can tell when he says I'm I don't

Starting point is 00:10:03 but I want to I want to socialize that we see his heart in this movie but they give it to us in such a nice little glimpse that works within him portraying a character that is on

Starting point is 00:10:19 the spectrum, right? That those struggles are really real. Socializing. I mean, I wanted them to kiss. I wanted them to like date. You know, we want those things. They want us to feel, I think they did a really good job of putting us in his shoes because we

Starting point is 00:10:35 felt in that moment that we would want that for him. We're fighting for him, but they keep us back from that because that is actually life for him. He is going to be kept back from that forever. And like, I said in the movie, the metaphor of him closing that door on her, I thought we would see them again together for some reason, but him closing the door on her was really closing that chapter of what

Starting point is 00:11:01 could have been of him having like a woman in his life and caring about her, right? Because that's probably the first time he's ever really had a little bit of chemistry with a woman that understands that side of him and can kind of see that side of his brain, which I thought was really lovely the way they gave that to us and then there is still that redeeming part at the end that he gets to be with his brother and him giving her the painting you know that when he's driving off and we see that that little smile that I think that smile is about what he just like did for her you know and I love that so much and I just love that we do see that his money goes to the school that would have helped him maybe I actually did because we didn't we don't really know I mean he was

Starting point is 00:11:52 with his dad yeah but there was an obvious connection between him and the girl how they got started yeah he must have said okay my dad raised me this way let's go back here how can we make this work well and two how can I bet her you know helping him out with that puzzle piece like like an actual bond between them and so yeah it's like not only does it seem like kind of spiritually paying off like oh yeah this doctor might have been good for me and this guy seems like he actually is cares he really does care and is really trying to make a difference in people's lives and so it's like yeah it makes sense that he would sort of robin hood this money to the institution anyway or to the school but also as a means of protecting and taking care of

Starting point is 00:12:36 his friend and and and also also so that he could have this like high tech government computer machine for her to like keep track of everything and and even that In plain sight, it's so good. Yeah, and I loved, again, the bookends that that represents because, yeah, I don't know. There's just something kind of heartfelt about that and following this other kid and everything. And, again, like, I felt this movie did a good amount, at least for me as a viewer and, again, as sort of a layperson in terms of, you know, neuro-a-typical types of mindsets and whatnot. It made it feel like this is a guy who's on the spectrum and who also happens to have these other skills too it's like yeah it feels like it makes a lot of sense when he's like accounting and stuff

Starting point is 00:13:21 like that and you can kind of see and that flirts more with reality and then when he's doing his military thing the rest of the portrait kind of accounts for that and so it doesn't really feel like oh he's on the spectrum so he's an amazing fighter or something like that so i feel like this could have been like you know this could have been uh more misguided in that department and i do feel like yeah, they showed a number of different people's version of this, you know, and especially through his friend at the computer. And I, yeah, I just always felt like they had kind of a what felt like something of a compassionate eye towards that. And they bothered to do at least some research into, you know, what the coping mechanisms might be like and what, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:03 ticks and tells there might be. And, uh, and two, I, yeah, just, I mean, across the board, I thought, like, even though there were times here or there where I would maybe forget about a certain subplot or a certain other character. I didn't really find it detrimental to the movie. It's like, oh, yeah, J.K. Simmons and I forget her name, the, Medani, right? Oh, Medina. Medina. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I forget her name too. Sorry, Madonna. John Bernthal says Medani a lot on the Punisher. This is Medina here.

Starting point is 00:14:34 Like, I like them a lot, and, you know, I would forget about them sometimes, but when they would come back in, I would be like, oh, yeah. And I liked having those two parts of the puzzle, and then you've got Lithgow and you've got Jeffrey Tambor and was it Jane Seymour? Oh, oh, no, no, Gene Smart. There you go. A lot of these, yeah, like veteran actors doing a good job and yeah, like I liked. I mean, are you a good dad part with J.K. Simmons is brilliant. That's another little twist. And it comes right back to like, are you good dad, you know, to his dad?

Starting point is 00:15:09 I mean, that's just, that's another heart part of this movie. Yeah, and that whole thing, too, between him and Bernthal, that whole, like, you come to me. Like, you know, if you wanted to go see mom after everything she did, you should have come to me. And I love that little detail as well, because it's like, yeah, I mean, dad clearly is an important figure in each of our lives. Right. But in terms of who you kind of fucked him up, too. Yeah. In terms of, like, who you had an actual probably emotional relationship the most and who might have looked out for you the most, it's got to be your brother.

Starting point is 00:15:39 And I did love their little reunion at the end. And it wasn't too sappy or anything like that. You know, and Affleck certainly maintains that sort of social awkwardness there. But even that was sort of like heartfelt and kind of touching in a way. Yeah. And, uh, and yeah, like it's weird. This did this definitely had me. I wonder if this is based on a book or something.

Starting point is 00:15:58 Because it definitely felt like a Jack Reacher type of thing with a couple extra flavors and elements throw. Does. But, uh, but, but yeah, like in terms of the mystery, I was always on board and interested. and even Lithgow at the end before he goes out, I thought there was at least an interesting kind of motivation for what he was doing in that, you know, he's like, hey, this sort of sketchy finance I've been doing

Starting point is 00:16:24 is for the greater good, which is like, you know, certainly, I guess, arguably does not still justify what you're doing, but it is more compelling than just like, ha-ha, I want to make off with a big bag of gold. Totally. Reject Nation. I never really consider myself a sports guy. I know so many people who are in this sports,

Starting point is 00:16:41 so many people who watch this channel are into sports, my wife, into sports. Sometimes it feels emasculating while she yells at the TV and I don't know what's going on. Why that feels emasculating? That's more to do with me than her, that's for sure. But anyway, the peer pressure got me to find a way to find fun with sports.

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Starting point is 00:18:30 got for us on the trivia? All right, let's do this. The paintings featured in the film are Woman with Parasol and Child by Pierre Auguste Renwa. Renwa. Renwa. And then Dogs playing poker by Cassius Coolidge and then Freeform by Jackson Pollock, 1946. Sure. Okay. So let's see. While for dramatic effect, the script calls out repeated use of the number three as an indicator for fraudulent numbers.

Starting point is 00:18:55 The theory behind fraudulent number detection is known as Benford's law. The law states that in numbers, such as an accountant as, As account transactions, the probability of a number occurring naturally drops as one moves from smaller numbers to the larger numbers following a logarithmic scale. This law has been successfully used to detect fraudulent accounting transactions. So we're just looking for it number three. Just three. Yeah, Anna Kendrick based her character on her mother, a real accountant who went over the script and explained the math to her daughter. Fun.

Starting point is 00:19:32 Wow, that's fun. She felt really natural in this, too. She really did a great job, right? Where fun goes to die is an actual unofficial motto of the University of Chicago. That's awesome. Oh, my God. Yeah. Holy shite.

Starting point is 00:19:46 So many great little details in this, man. Okay, I'll do one more. In the hotel room, Dana and Anna Kendrick reveals that in order to get the money to buy a v. She taught herself how to play back jack to count cards, determined the chance to win a hand. In real life, Ben Affleck is known to be such a car. hunting, poker, and blackjack card player that he has been barred from several casinos. Not because he cheats, but because of his well-known habit of card counting.

Starting point is 00:20:15 Legal, but against casino rules. Oh, my God, the movie with Matt Damon, duh. Oh. Wasn't that the, what do you call it? What, rounders? When they're best friends, no, before that. Oh. Is it called rounders?

Starting point is 00:20:27 Oh, no, no, no. The famous, goodwill hunting. Don't they do card stuff in that? You're thinking of Rain Man. Maybe. Rain Man is the one where Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, he's like, Dustin Hoffman is like, yeah, they go play the tables and he's always like counting the cards and they're winning. Yeah, but I feel like there's one where Ben Affleck does some card stuff in a film and Matt Damon is around.

Starting point is 00:20:52 If you made it to this point in the video, comment. What's that B-Flect card counting? No, I'll just try to go to one maybe spoiler for us. Also, fun fact, from all of his card counting money, Ben Affleck owns 100 Vera Wang dresses. And he's only worn each of them once. Agent Medina mentions to Agent King that Christian Wolf gave a million dollars to the Harbor Neuroscience Institute. Oh, so this number in binary is equivalent to 68. Later in the movie, the Institute's director says that one in 68 children is diagnosed with the form of odds.

Starting point is 00:21:31 Deeperza. Dude, what the F. Like, why is this so... Wow. I'll read one more. Ben Afflick's handwriting was digitized into a computer font and added in post-production for the window writing scenes to prevent delays during redakes. Wow. That's nuts. Very cool. That's insane. Hell yeah, dude. I love this movie 10 out of 10. I can't wait for two. If they don't put me on it, I'll kill them all. No, no, you're marked. It's on the record. I'm marked. I love this. It's you are bust. Make them all.

Starting point is 00:22:05 And I guess that's, oh, that's the last thing I wanted to say. I like that you had both kind of working together by the end. It's like, she got the help that she arguably needed from the doctor and from the institute. He did not, but together they do good in the world. They help each other. Yeah. And I think that's kind of beautiful. Gang, what did you think of the accountant?

Starting point is 00:22:26 Leave us all your thoughts. Are you excited for part two? Should we react to it? you bet your buttons we're gonna. So, uh, stay tuned. Make sure to ring that bell. And, uh, we'll catch you on the next one. Balance your books.

Starting point is 00:22:43 Everett Baker. Everett. See, the thing is, this is the perfect movie to focus in on just your name. Because Everett Baker totally sounds like the kind of guy who could be an accountant. Pixel might, you should own like a barcade. But like Everett Baker, that's who I trust with. Doesn't sound like a bacon shop. It sounds like.

Starting point is 00:23:03 You know, if you could combine the two, think of the business, all right? Because, you know, accounting stresses people out. And instead of killing people on the side, you could fill people on the side. Their tummies, that is, with delicious baked goods while you ease them into better practices with their financial futures. Toots my goats. Which, you know, I just think would be really nice. Plus, I'm sure you have. like a Ben Affleck charm about you, you know, I bet you're very

Starting point is 00:23:35 divorce is recovering alcoholic. That's what I get. That's right. And, uh, and, you know, maybe, uh, your wife is going to divorce you due to concerns over her connections to P. Diddy. Who knows? But either way, we appreciate you for being here. I flip that story around me. Yeah. Is that it? Yeah, it's Jay Lowe's the one. Yeah. She's leaving Ben. No, she left Ben because of her. He left her because he was like, I don't want It was none of that. That's why. That's why all of them have left Jennifer Lopez.

Starting point is 00:24:04 They're all like, no, Diddy. No, Diddy. Even Diddy left her because they didn't want connections. Yeah, dude, you know too much about him. You know who I want to go to a freakoff party with is Everett Baker. Yeah, Jesus Christ. We can cover each other in baby oil. Amen to that, man.

Starting point is 00:24:19 We'll do it. We'll do the finances. We'll cover baby oil and we'll have the baked goods. That's a triple greatness right there. And I'm thankful for that this holiday season. So thank you for being here and stay freaky.

The Reel Rejects - THE ACCOUNTANT (2016) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

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