My choices for the weekend of September 8 were rather limited; I was not interested at all in “The Nun,” and finally settled on “Peppermint.” To put it nicely, it left a sour taste in my mouth. The title derives from a child asking for peppermint ice cream.
I never saw Jennifer Garner’s television series “Alias,” but I knew the gist of the story. I was impressed by her work in “Daredevil,” so I was not surprised to see her return to action films. But I am not sure this was the best vehicle for her. “Peppermint” is a very violent clone of the original “Death Wish”; Garner portrays a suburban mother whose family has been butchered for no valid reason by a local drug lord.
There are strong similarities to the origin story of “Batman”; our heroine disappears in Asia for five years and returns with a set of highly lethal skills and proceeds to take bloody vengeance on the corrupt police, judge and others who refused to give her justice for her dead family. One of the most harrowing scenes for me called for her to use a staple gun to close a knife wound in her leg. Ouch!
The drug dealers try to eliminate this version of Nemesis, but they never have a chance. The final confrontation is one of the most brutal scenes I have ever seen. Sam Peckinpah would be proud.
There is a strong hint that this is an origin story for a proposed series heroine. I would not be surprised to see our lethal housewife become “Dark Angel,” “Blood Angel,” or something similar. I base that on an image painted on a wall near our heroine’s lair.
Also, the ending could have “To be continued” blazing across the screen, but it is painfully obvious that there are more enemies in need of severe justice just waiting. I don’t think I will worry about how long before the next installment; it will take a long time to recover from this one.