Peppermint concerns a woman who emerges from a coma after her family is slaughtered by criminals and decides to take revenge against the murderers and the system that allegedly enabled them. Moreover, yes, it does look like Jennifer Garner getting her shot at a Taken/John Wick type action franchise. Yes, the trailer does promise Garner as someone who goes from a Law-Abiding Citizen to a Punisher, from the director of the first Taken (and the likes of District B-13, From Paris With Love and The Gunman) no-less.
Considering Garner got her start as double-agent Sydney Bristow on ABC’s Alias 16.5 years ago, the actress certainly has more action bonafides than the likes of Sean Penn or (arguably) Liam Neeson did when they got their “old man out for a kill” action opportunities. However, there is something bittersweet about Garner finally getting her own solo running-and-gunning action movie so long after Alias wrapped up. And it's nice to have a female-led variation of the whole "they killed my family, so I'm going to kill all of them" sub-genre.
Alias was one of the better shows to premiere during the frankly dynamite 2001 TV season, a Fall season that saw the debuts of (offhand) Alias, 24, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Smallville and Scrubs just on the networks. The show, which featured Jennifer Garner as a young woman who realizes that the group that recruited her out of college wasn’t the CIA but an evil black-ops organization and that her father (Victor Garber) is a double-agent discretely working against SD-6, was never a ratings monster.
Moreover, it was somewhat overshadowed first by 24 and then by Abrams’ zeitgeist-capturing Lost which premiered three years later. The ups-and-downs in quality (seasons 1, 2 and 4 >> seasons 3 and 5, although the last batch of episodes were quite good) didn’t help either. Although Alias has both one of the very best TV pilots of the modern era and one of the more satisfying series finales this side of Scrubs.
Garner is one of those actresses I always use as an example concerning promising would-be movie stars who got pushed back after Hollywood stopped making female-centric starring vehicles. Of note, Ben Affleck thrived after Daredevil while Garner never really recovered from Elektra. She broke through, movie-wise, with the terrific 13 Going On 30 (which, without picking a fight, I prefer to Big). She was mostly cast aside as an outright lead after the likes of Elektra (which may be one of the worst big-ish budget comic book movies ever, at least Catwoman and Batman and Robin aren’t boring) and Catch and Release.
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That’s not to say she vanished, as she has shined in the likes of Juno, Love, Simon and became something of a romcom staple (Valentine’s Day: The Movie, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). But since they barely make movies like that anymore, we haven’t seen much of her in major studio projects, and I’m being nice by not mentioning Nine Lives (which to be fair, would have almost worked if Kevin Spacey hadn’t phoned it in). Anyway, I’m glad she’s back in the leading-lady saddle, and hopefully, there will be more of this ilk. Say what you will about Pierre Morel, but even his bad action movies are A) lovely to look at and B) contain wholly comprehensible action sequences.
Come what may, STX and Lakeshore Entertainment will release Peppermint on Sept. 7. It’s another one of STX’s female-led studio releases, something that has become a pattern for the newbie distributor.
source https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/05/31/jennifer-garner-kills-the-bad-guys-in-peppermint-trailer/#61c8a13917c0
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