peppermint movie review rotten tomatoes

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors.

Now streaming on:

There's a morbidly hilarious dark comedy buried not-so-deep inside the lousy revenge thriller "Peppermint." It's just probably not the movie that director Pierre Morel (" Taken ," "District B13") and screenwriter Chad St. John intended to make. In "Peppermint," a newly-widowed mother seeks revenge on the cartoonishly evil Latino drug-dealers who killed her husband and young daughter. This generically traumatic event sets former bank employee Riley North (Garner) on a rampage despite glaring psychological trauma that she refuses to treat (she's prescribed Lithium and anti-psychotic medication, but doesn't take them). Riley's instability is so prominent—represented periodically through sped-up, out-of-focus, and over-exposed subjective camera-work—that nobody in a position of power believes her when she says that she remembers the faces of the three men who killed her family.

Still, moviegoers are supposed to root for Riley because her husband and daughter's killers—a bunch of joint-smoking, booze-drinking, gun-toting monsters—are still on the loose, and the system is rigged, and other complaints that were made before (though not necessarily better) in the 1980s by lackluster sequels and ripoffs to "Death Wish." Somebody's got to pay, even if Riley's PTSD-like breakdowns suggest that she probably shouldn't be venting her spleen by murdering every complicit and therefore ostensibly deserving person she can. But again: "Peppermint" isn't a critique of Riley's privilege. She's just a white woman whose sole purpose is railing against a broken justice system and slaughtering a group of stereotypically ruthless Latino gangsters who literally work in a piñata store (as is announced three times during a news report within the film). How is this not a black comedy about our troubled times?

The producers of "Peppermint" may be French and Chinese, but the film's heroine still (unintentionally) exemplifies an ugly strain of contemporary American thought that insists that you are the one who is really being bullied if somebody tells you that you are bullying them. You don't even need evidence to support your counter-claim. Just look at all the ways that Riley's creators excuse their decision to use racist caricatures as straw men antagonists. 

Riley's actions are supposedly justified by her self-image as a working class martyr. She's not as rich as Peg ( Pell James ), a snobby rival mother who, during a flashback, tells off Riley and her daughter Carly ( Cailey Fleming ) by saying that they aren't real Girl Scout material. But we're supposed to think that Riley's anger speaks for Los Angeles' fed-up, disenfranchised residents, as we see based on a flurry of tweets (showcased during the cops' official investigation of Riley's crimes) and one wall mural that's erected in the "Skid Row" part of town (identified as such by a Google Maps-like search, also during a police investigation). Riley's an underdog since she's fighting untouchable crook Diego Garcia ( Juan Pablo Raba ), a high-powered crime boss who's protected by an LAPD mole, a high-powered lawyer ( Michael Mosley ), a corrupt judge (Jeff Harlan), and dozens of gun-toting heavies. So it's up to Riley to do what a corrupt system won't: the exact same things that were already done by Frank Castle, Paul Kersey , Harry Callahan , John Rambo, the Duke, the Boondock Saints, and everyone else in the pantheon of Red-Blooded American Avengers.

The only problem with cheering Riley on is that there's more evidence to suggest that she's a highly effective (but also kinda goofy?) monster than there is proof that she's an antiheroic voice of the people. Riley threatens Peg at gunpoint until James' character urinates all over herself. She also stabs Harlan's character and then blows him up. Riley also carries a gun that's about at least half of Garner's size. When she breaks into Garcia's home, she stalks her prey like Steven Seagal at a buffet table, hoisting her gigantic rifle in front of her like a, well, you get the idea. 

Almost everything about Riley's backstory and circumstances should make her seem more sympathetic. Unfortunately, Morel often seems more desperate than eager to please. In a flashback, we see that Riley's boss hates her, and made her work late on her daughter's birthday. Mere days before Christmas, at that! How could you not root for Riley, whose husband (Jeff Hephner) is asked to participate in a crime, but is so innocent that he backs down moments before so he can spend time with his family, making his death that much more tragic? And again, just look at the bad guys she's fighting! Garcia's men are defined by their tacky surroundings, whether it's the Las Vegas-chic (marble tiles and glass decanters) of his home or the Grim Reaper-like Santa Muerte effigy that ostentatiously looms over his various warehouses. 

Morel also tries to preempt accusations of racism by making the two cops and an FBI agent that investigate Riley's case—played by John Ortiz , John Gallagher Jr., and  Annie Ilonzeh —a racially integrated and gender-balanced group. And don't get me started on the inevitable unmasking of the double agent who's secretly working for Garcia. Ortiz even delivers an unbelievable line about how "the difference between [the cops and Garcia's men]" is that the cops should care while the criminals simply don't.

All of this pitiable self-victimization is significant to the film's plot and message, but probably not in the way that Morel thinks. His lip service apology for the film's inherent sketchiness doesn't justify the icky spectacle of Garner shooting and stabbing her way through a legion of stick figure villains, but rather suggest that the film's heroine is unwittingly perpetuating the same imbalanced system of power that she's railing against, no matter how many dead family members, and POC allies have her back. "Peppermint" is kind of funny, but never intentionally.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

Now playing

The Nature of Love

Peyton robinson.

Rebel Moon: Director's Cuts

Hundreds of Beavers

Matt zoller seitz.

National Anthem

Sheila o'malley.

Lady in the Lake

Kaiya shunyata, film credits.

Peppermint (2018)

Rated R for strong violence and language throughout.

102 minutes

Jennifer Garner as Riley North

John Gallagher Jr. as Detective Stan Carmichael

John Ortiz as Detective Moises Beltran

Juan Pablo Raba as Diego Garcia

Annie Ilonzeh as FBI Agent Lisa Inman

• Pierre Morel
• Chad St. John

Cinematographer

• David Lanzenberg
• Frederic Thorval
• Simon Franglen

Latest blog posts

Apple TV+'s Bad Monkey Struggles to Find Its Voice

The Box Office is Everything: In Praise of the Window at the Front of the Theater

The Fairy Tale Shoes: Interview With the Cast and Crew of Cuckoo

On the Trail: India Donaldson on Good One

Peppermint (2018)

• User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

‘Peppermint’ Review: Jennifer Garner Packs Heat As a Vigilante Mom, But She Deserves a Better Movie

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on LinkedIn
• Show more sharing options
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Print This Page
• Share on WhatsApp

“Alias,” the J.J. Abrams spy drama that made Jennifer Garner a household name, went off the air more than a decade ago. In that time, Garner has played a 13-year-old trapped in an adult body (“13 Going on 30”), an AIDS doctor (“Dallas Buyers Club”), and the mom of the first gay teenager to get major studio treatment (“Love, Simon”). Still, there is nothing Garner does better than kick serious ass. The new action flick “ Peppermint ” is a rare return to form for Garner, who doles out her vigilante justice with effortless charm. Unfortunately, that’s about the only reason to see “Peppermint.”

An oddly sweet title for a movie that drops more bodies than “The Wire,” “Peppermint” follows grieving mother Riley North (Garner) on an epic killing spree to avenge the unexpected deaths of her husband and daughter. Told in a lengthy flashback five years prior to the main action, Riley’s husband was approached to drive getaway for a supposedly easy job; instead, it was a robbery of the most dangerous gangster in all of Los Angeles, Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). He turns down the offer, but not before Garcia catches wind of the plan and orders him killed. While leaving a Christmas fair, peppermint ice cream in hand, Riley’s husband and young daughter are senselessly gunned down.

She awakes to a young detective, Stan Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.), asking her to identify the gunmen, which she does without hesitation. Riley and Stan were both warned about going after Garcia, and apparently the judge was, too, because he lets the suspects walk. After being forcibly removed from the courtroom and ordered to a psych ward, Riley cuts and runs out of the ambulance and is never heard from again.

That is, until three bodies are found strung upside down from the fair’s ferris wheel five years later. Once they realize it is the anniversary of the North murders, Stan and his partner (John Ortiz) begin to suspect Riley. We find the newer, rougher Riley living out of a van on Skid Row, where she spends her time stapling her own flesh wounds and ticking names off her list. Once the FBI gets involved, it becomes clear that Riley North is no longer the hard-working mother she once was, but a hard-working killer out for Garcia’s blood.

Written by Chad St. John (“London Has Fallen”) and directed by Pierre Morel (“Taken”), “Peppermint” certainly doesn’t reach the comic heights of 2014’s “John Wick,” nor the espionage reveals of 2017’s “Atomic Blonde.” Riley’s justice is hard and fast, and she shows as little mercy as she does finesse. Whereas Sydney Bristow exemplified style and grace under pressure, like a female James Bond, Riley North is the kind of action lead who brings a tank to a sword fight.

While it is refreshing to see a woman inhabit such a stereotypically macho movie role, the ingenuity of “Peppermint” stops there. The action scenes are shot with little creativity, and it’s hard to tell which kill in any given sequence is supposed to be the crescendo. Garner is at her best with hand-to-hand combat, showing off moves honed during her “Alias” days, but Morel prefers gun fights and crude explosions. To his credit, however, there are no gratuitous nude shots of Garner, nor does the camera linger on her body. (He prefers to ogle bodies of the dead variety.)

Gallagher Jr. makes a good foil to Garner’s Riley, and Ortiz and Raba are both well cast. Even with Ortiz as a good guy, it is painful to see yet another movie with a villainous Latino gang, face tattoos and all, especially one being systematically hunted by a white woman. It’s just one more sign that “Peppermint” — like its revenge-seeking heroine — is way too stuck in the past.

STX Entertainment will release “Peppermint” in theaters nationwide on September 7.

Most Popular

You may also like.

Peppermint Review

Jennifer garner kicks butt in a modest, effective revenge thriller with some disturbing subtext..

Peppermint is a modest thriller that struggles to find a balance between violent action and its inherently disturbing subtext. Whether you find it exciting or troubling might vary from person to person, but either way Jennifer Garner delivers a standout performance that demands recognition, and will hopefully lead to better action movie roles for the actor in the future.

In This Article

Where to Watch

More Reviews by William Bibbiani

Ign recommends.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 78% Cuckoo Link to Cuckoo
• 97% Dìdi Link to Dìdi
• 97% Good One Link to Good One

New TV Tonight

• 95% Industry: Season 3
• 92% Bad Monkey: Season 1
• 100% Solar Opposites: Season 5
• -- Emily in Paris: Season 4
• -- Bel-Air: Season 3
• -- Rick and Morty: The Anime: Season 1
• -- SEAL Team: Season 7
• -- RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars: Season 1
• -- Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 2
• -- Worst Ex Ever: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• 59% The Umbrella Academy: Season 4
• 81% A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: Season 1
• 78% Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• 95% Batman: Caped Crusader: Season 1
• 100% Supacell: Season 1
• 100% Women in Blue: Season 1
• 80% Mr. Throwback: Season 1
• 78% Presumed Innocent: Season 1
• 77% Lady in the Lake: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• 95% Industry: Season 3 Link to Industry: Season 3
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All Alien Movies In Order: How to Watch Chronologically

30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

The Freakier Friday Cast on New Music, Filming the Iconic Scream Scene, and More

Weekend Box Office: Deadpool & Wolverine Crosses $1 Billion

• Trending on RT
• Video Game Movies
• Best Movies of 2024
• Re-Release Calendar
• TV Premiere Dates

Peppermint Candy Reviews

South Korean political history of the previous twenty years, Peppermint Candy is not tempered by its hysterical edge, which adds unpredictable violence to its vignettes of romantic, domestic, and business failure.

Full Review | Sep 16, 2020

Lee Chang-dong presents a melodrama that stands apart from the plethora of similar productions due to its intense political element, because it doesn't lose its seriousness at any point and because it doesn't become hyperbolic in his effort to draw tears

Full Review | Dec 16, 2018

This is Korea's millennial elegy, filtering its search for times past through a confection no less bittersweet than Proust's madeleine.

Full Review | May 11, 2010

The film offers a heartbreaking drama told in reverse chronology and spanning twenty years in both the life of the main character and the political history of Korea.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 29, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 22, 2003

It's a story about the original sin of a nation as well as one character. There has rarely been a better film made, ever

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 14, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 8, 2002

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘peppermint’: film review.

Jennifer Garner plays a mother turned violent vigilante after her husband and daughter are gunned down in 'Peppermint,' the latest action film from Pierre Morel, the director of 'Taken.'

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

Jennifer Garner displays a particular set of skills in the latest actioner directed by Pierre Morel, who resuscitated the vigilante genre with Taken . Playing the sort of badass character who makes her Sydney Bristow on Alias look delicate, the actress brings an admirable physical commitment to her performance as a mother intent on getting justice after her husband and daughter are murdered. Peppermint lacks subtlety and anything even remotely resembling credibility, but like its heroine, it certainly gets the job done. It’s the sort of picture that would have been boffo on a grindhouse double bill in the 1970s.

Garner’s character, Riley North, doesn’t start out as a lethal assassin. She’s an ordinary Los Angeles housewife, working at a bank and lovingly devoted to her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) and 10-year-old daughter Carly (Cailey Fleming). The family is having trouble making ends meet, leading Chris to consider joining a friend in a plot to rip off a local drug kingpin, Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). Chris backs out at the last minute, but not before the plan has been discovered. During an outing at an amusement park to celebrate Carly’s birthday, he and his daughter are brutally gunned down, with Riley seriously injured as well.

Related Stories

The cat lady discourse continues with maude apatow-led tory burch campaign, zach braff reveals why 'scrubs' cast started to "repeat jokes" by final season.

Release date: Sep 07, 2018

Cooperating with the sympathetic detectives (John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr.) investigating the case, Riley identifies the gunmen (criminals should probably avoid having distinctive facial tattoos) and testifies against them in court, even after receiving a combination bribe offer/threat from the defense attorney. But the deck is clearly stacked against her, with the obviously corrupt judge dismissing the case. When Riley goes berserk and tries to attack the killers, she’s tasered and is on her way to a mental hospital when she manages to escape.

Cut to five years later, which is apparently the amount of time needed to transform oneself into a lean, mean killing machine. The screenplay by Chad St. John ( London Has Fallen ) doesn’t bother to provide any details as to exactly how Riley becomes an expert in hand-to-hand combat and automatic weaponry, among many other talents. In any case, she’s back in Los Angeles and immediately begins her vendetta against Garcia and his minions, starting with the three men who murdered her family. She proves remarkably adept in her mission, showing no mercy as the body count lurches toward the triple digits. The frustrated Garcia, watching his men slaughtered like pigs in a series of daring raids, is reduced to giving such orders as “Put this bitch in a box before sunset!” and proclaiming, “This shit ends tonight!”

Along the way, Riley demonstrates that she hasn’t lost her maternal instincts. After an encounter with a young boy and his drunken lout of a father on a city bus, she takes matters into her own hands and shows the errant dad the error of his ways by sticking a gun in his mouth. And after being injured during one of her violent encounters, she briefly takes refuge in the house of a soccer mom who made her life miserable in the past. But not before punching her in the mouth.

Director Morel, who also made the Sean Penn starrer The Gunman (are you sensing a pattern?), stages the ultra-violent proceedings for maximum visceral effect. While the action sequences lack the morbid visual elegance of the John Wick movies, they’re cleanly choreographed, photographed and edited. Only the big finale, involving Riley, the criminals and the cops at Skid Row, proves disappointing, with reality, such as it is in a film like this, completely thrown out the window.

Garner, who hasn’t done this sort of thing in quite a while, handles the demanding physical aspects of her role with tremendous skill, demonstrating an admirable commitment to her training regimen. But unlike so many action stars, she’s equally adept at drama and comedy. Whether cracking sardonic jokes or showing tenderness toward a child, her character is sympathetic even when committing the most violent atrocities. The audience is on her side from the first moments to the ending, which provides the opportunity for Riley to make a return appearance in a sequel. After all, it took no less than five Death Wish movies for Charles Bronson to finally get the job done.

Production companies: Huayi Brothers Pictures, Lakeshore Entertainment, STXFilms Distributor: STX Entertainment Cast: Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr., Juan Pablo Raba, Annie Ilonzeh Director: Pierre Morel Screenwriter: Chad St. John Producers: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Eric Reid, Richard Wright Executive producers: David Kern, James McQuaide, Renee Tab, Christopher Tuffin, Donald Tang, Wang Zhongjun, Wang Zhonglei, Felice Bee, Robert Simonds, Adam Fogelson Director of photography: David Lanzenberg Production designer: Ramsey Avery Editor: Frederic Thoraval Composer: Simon Franglen Costume designer: Lindsay Ann McKay Casting: Deanna Brigidi

Rated R, 102 minutes

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘kraven the hunter’ trailer shows off aaron taylor-johnson’s killer instincts, justin baldoni hires crisis pr veteran amid alleged ‘it ends with us’ rift, joaquin phoenix’s last-minute exit sparks “huge amount of outrage” among hollywood producers, talaria media ramps up slate with female-led wrestling feature, navy seal comedy, kim kahana, stuntman who starred in ‘danger island’ and doubled for charles bronson, dies at 94, ‘frozen 3’ to hit theaters over thanksgiving in 2027.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

'WWHL': Bowen Yang Says One Terrible 'SNL' Host Once Made "Multiple Cast...

Peacock's Gary Coleman Doc Questions The Late Child Actor's "Suspicious"...

Where Is Kelly Ripa? 'Live' Co-Host Missing From Today's Episode

11 Best New Movies on Netflix: August 2024's Freshest Films to Watch

'Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles' Star Josh Flagg Gives Update On His...

Kora's Scars in the 'Rebel Moon: Director's Cut' Sex Scenes Were Sofia...

11 Best New Shows on Netflix: August 2024's Top Upcoming Series to Watch

'RHONJ' Fans Slam Teresa Giudice's "Cruel" Husband Louie Ruelas For...

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Peppermint’ On Netflix, Jennifer Garner Needs No Alias As A Vigilante Mom On A Vengeance Killing Mission

Where to stream:.

• Peppermint (2018)
• Jennifer Garner

Hoda Kotb Cries On 'Today' As Jennifer Garner's Mom Pays Tribute To Her Late Husband

Jennifer garner is game for an 'alias' reboot — but only if j.j. abrams returns, too, here's what hollywood got wrong about these new york city based rom-coms, jennifer garner, mark ruffalo throw it back with '13 going on 30' 'thriller' routine at hollywood walk of fame ceremony.

When a drug cartel murders her husband and daughter four nights before Christmas, Jennifer Garner ‘s mild-mannered mom goes ballistic, disappears for five years, then returns for her own 24-hour John Wick killing spree of vengeance across Los Angeles. In September 2018, many movie critics dismissed this as basic, or worse, racist. Were they correct? Or were they seeing something that casual viewers couldn’t and still don’t see. It’s one of Netflix’s Top 10 most popular movies right now, so… 

PEPPERMINT : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The action’s all in greater L.A., jumping between December 2012 and December 2017. Back on Dec. 21, 2012, the North family felt like they couldn’t keep up with their well-to-do neighbors “south of the boulevard” (what boulevard would that be???). Riley (Jennifer Garner) plays hooky from her job at the bank just so she can help her daughter, Carly, sell “Firefly Troop” cookies outside Ralph’s supermarket on her birthday, but they get run off by a rich mom and daughter (the mom would’ve been named Karen if this were a 2020 film), and then Riley gets tasked with closing the bank, which means she’ll miss Carly’s birthday party entirely. Meanwhile, Riley’s husband, Chris, works at an auto body shop but considers driving his buddy Mickey for one of those proverbial get-rich-quick easy-score robberies. You know, the kind that always work out great in movies. We never get that far, however, because Mickey got pinched by the drug kingpin he hoped to rob, and they put out a hit on Chris. The drive-by shooting takes them out as they’re leaving the Christmas Carnival, young Carly barely getting to enjoy her peppermint ice cream. Yes, that’s the only reference for our title. Riley barely survives the shooting, only to witness how beholden the L.A. justice system is to this drug cartel, which wants to lock her up in an asylum instead. She escapes, however. Cut to the five-year anniversary, and she’s already strung up the shooters, and dispatched of the crooked attorneys. We don’t see much of Riley’s transformation, or her early vengeance spree. Instead, we’re jumping into the final hour of the movie with a basic shoot-em-out showdown formula. The LAPD and the FBI are looking for Riley. So is the drug kingpin, Diego Garcia (really? we’re going with Diego Garcia as his name?). Riley’s coming for him, too, though. And so might be the cartel Garcia reports to, because two of his shipments have gone missing in the past week. Juan Pablo Raba, who previously played Pablo Escobar’s right-hand man in Narcos , fills the Diego Garcia role with cartoonish efficiency. His drug kingpin has a nickname, “la Guillotina,” but we only explictly see why once. John Gallagher Jr. (last seen on Westworld ) and John Ortiz play the detectives on the North’s case, who may or may not want to bring Garcia down, too. Annie Ilonzeh (from the various NBC Chicago series) plays FBI Agent Lisa Inman, who had kept tabs on Riley’s sporadic blips on the radar during her five-year disappearance. And Method Man shows up late in the game as a narcotics detective, but don’t expect too much out of him, either.

Should you stream or skip the Jennifer Garner vigilante movie #Peppermint on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) December 5, 2020

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper,  The Comic’s Comic ; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets  @thecomicscomic  and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories:  The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First .

Watch Peppermint on Netflix

• Stream It Or Skip It

Does 'Yellowstone' Return Tonight? 'Yellowstone's Season 5, Part 2 Premiere Date, 'The Madison' Spin-off Updates, And More

Andy Cohen Implies That He Never Wants To See Or Hear From Bethenny Frankel Again On 'WWHL'

Where's Kelly Ripa This Week? 'Live' Co-Host's Absence Stretches Into Week Two

Is 'It Ends With Us' Streaming on Netflix or HBO Max?

'The View's Whoopi Goldberg Snaps At Joy Behar While Defending Harrison Butker's Controversial Commencement Speech: "Stop That!"

Why Is Kelly Ripa Absent From 'Live'?

Film Review: ‘Peppermint’

This half-witted “Taken” knock-off squanders a chance to give Jennifer Garner the action franchise she deserves.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

• Women’s Sports, Live Event Streaming and More Promise Spirited Discussions at Variety’s Sports and Entertainment Summit 1 month ago
• L.A. Recording Studios Are Fading, Despite Manifesting Music’s Greatest Hits 1 month ago
• Glen Ballard, ‘Jagged Little Pill’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’ Songwriter, Explains Why Artistry Matters More Than Making Hit Songs 1 month ago

Jennifer Garner has a very particular set of skills. Skills she had already acquired at the start of her long acting career. Skills that, with a few noble exceptions, Hollywood has had a nightmare of a time trying to properly showcase. In the vigilante film “ Peppermint ,” “Taken” director Pierre Morel finally looks to exploit one of Garner’s defining skillsets that has long gone untapped, giving this effortlessly empathetic yet deceptively steely actress her first chance to play a kick-ass action star since the deservedly beloved “Alias” and the deservedly forgotten “Elektra.” As a onetime Girl Scout den mother turned brass-knuckled avenging angel, Garner gives everything that is asked of her, from brute physicality to dewy-eyed tenderness, but this half-witted calamity botches just about everything else. Drably by-the-numbers except for the moments where it goes gobsmackingly off-the-rails, “Peppermint” misfires from start to finish.

Related Stories

How media companies medal in a different olympics: european video market share, cbs gives drama pilot order to detective drama 'einstein,' from 'monk' creator.

Garner stars as Riley North, whom we first meet cold-bloodedly dispatching a nameless assailant in the shadow of the Los Angeles skyline, then limping back to her van on Skid Row to administer some gruesome self-surgery. The character’s eventual badassery thus established, we flash back to five years earlier, when she was just a simple working-class mom employed as a bank teller. Married to mechanic Chris (Jeff Hephner) and doting on ten-year-old daughter Carly (Cailey Fleming), Riley and her family are living hand-to-mouth, and Chris toys with a chance to earn quick money as a getaway driver for his coworker’s ill-explained plot to rob a sociopathic local drug lord named Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). Chris wisely thinks better of it and opts out, but not before Garcia learns of the plan and looks to make an example of the would-be thieves: As Riley looks on, both her husband and daughter are riddled with bullets from three of Garcia’s minions.

Popular on Variety

In the aftermath, Riley is hospitalized for a month, evicted from her home, and approached by LAPD detective Stanley Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) to identify the shooters in court. Thanks to some comically corrupt judges and prosecutors, the killers are allowed to walk without trial, and Riley is committed to a mental hospital. Smashing Stanley over the head with a fire extinguisher on the way there, she escapes.

You might reasonably expect the rest of the film to concern itself with Riley’s years on the run, as she mourns her loved ones, trains to become a master of the deadly arts, tracks her family’s killers through webs of underworld intrigue, and revels in the queasy catharsis of dealing out final justice. Instead, “Peppermint” makes sure to keep the meat of its heroine’s journey largely offscreen. When next we see Riley, she’s somehow already turned herself into a finely-honed killing machine, left the bodies of the three gunmen strung up dead on a Ferris wheel, and launched into a one-woman campaign to take down Garcia’s entire cartel. Now a disheveled drunk, Stanley is dragged back onto the case, assisted by a straight-arrow partner (John Ortiz) and a hard-nosed FBI agent (Annie Ilonzeh).

As usual, Garner displays an almost heroic refusal to smirk, sigh, or sleepwalk through any of this, never acting as though the material is beneath her, even when it’s something she could be scraping off the bottom of her shoe. But it’s hard to say if the film would have necessarily been worse off if she let us know she’s in on the joke, as “Peppermint” is never more risible than in the moments it takes itself most seriously. From “Death Wish” onward, films of this ilk have long been dogged by a reactionary, if not borderline fascistic, approach to matters of race, and “Peppermint” makes a ham-fisted go at splitting the difference by casting actors of color in the supporting good guy roles, while also playing to Fox News’ swampiest MS-13 fever dreams in its depiction of Garcia’s gang. (It makes no attempt, however, to dodge the white savior tropes that are also endemic to vigilante pics, with one laugh-out-loud shot in particular pushing things well beyond the point of parody.)

Perhaps some viewers could ignore all that if “Peppermint” delivered on the action front, but save for one slam-bang shootout in a piñata shop, there’s a veneer of cheapness to the whole endeavor that keeps even the numbskull thrills from really connecting. Morel’s habit of shaking the camera to underscore every strong emotion does nothing to hide the script’s lack of a real character arc, and a score that seems sourced from Evanescence outtakes only strengthens the feeling that this film is a relic from some bygone era. Maybe it should have stayed there.

Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, September 5, 2018. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 101 MIN.

• Production: An STX Films, Lakeshore Entertainment, Huayi Brothers Pictures presentation of a Lakeshore Entertainment and STX Films production. Producers: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright, Eric Reid. Executive producers: David Kern, James McQuaide, Donald Tang, Renee Tab, Christopher Tuffin, Wang Zhongjun, Wang Zhonglei, Felice Bee, Robert Simonds, Adam Fogelson.
• Crew: Director: Pierre Morel. Screenplay: Chad St. John. Camera (color): David Lazenberg. Editor: Frédéric Thoraval. Music: Simon Franglen.
• With: Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz, Annie Ilonzeh, Juan Pablo Raba, Jeff Hephner, Cailey Fleming, Eddie Shin, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Richard Cabral, Pell James.

More from Variety

Parker posey auditioned for ‘mr. & mrs. smith’ movie 18 years before landing a role in amazon’s tv show, take-two earnings emblematic of endless risk-taking in gaming biz, quinta brunson and ‘abbott elementary’ have risen as broadcast tv’s heroes, emmys 2024: a closer look at who could take home their first trophy, ‘existential threat’ of ai central to animation guild negotiations, emmys announce official series nominees including surprise nods for brad pitt, rosamund pike and a history-making hat trick for garrett basch, more from our brands, j balvin ‘felt’ will smith’s ‘pain’ after infamous slap: ‘a mistake cannot define you’, the orient express is bringing its luxury train tours to italy, nhl’s tampa bay lightning in sale talks, owner says, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, jared padalecki joins fire country, will possibly lead spinoff — showrunner previews his ‘dynamic’ debut.

Advertisement

Supported by

Review: ‘Peppermint’ Is Neither Sweet Nor Good

• Share full article

By Aisha Harris

• Sept. 6, 2018

You have seen “Peppermint” before. Directed by Pierre Morel (“Taken”) and starring Jennifer Garner as Riley North, a hard-working suburban mom turned avenging angel, the vigilante thriller hits all the major tropes of the genre. If Hollywood diversions like “Death Wish” and the bizarro “Face/Off” are your bag, choosing to spend 90-plus minutes watching Ms. Garner return to her early action-hero roots and peel off dozens of evil men with ease might seem like a no-brainer. Yet “Peppermint” is a belabored exercise in lazily constructed déjà vu, without the grit or stylized ham of predecessors it so baldly steals from.

During a family outing, Riley’s husband and child are gunned down by members of a Latino cartel led by Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba), and the killers she identifies escape punishment because of a crooked legal system. She runs away before being committed to a mental institution and spends five years globe-trotting incognito, training to become an expert fighter and gunwoman in order to seek revenge.

As Riley, Ms. Garner growls and scowls her way through her ruthless murder spree, limping like Bruce Willis’s John McClane when injured, but the script’s attempts to forge a resonant emotional connection with her character’s loss ring hollow: After interacting with a young boy on a bus who reminds her of her daughter, for instance, she follows his deadbeat father into a liquor store and threatens him at gunpoint, demanding he be a better father — or else. It is meant to evoke Riley’s transformation into some sort of mama bear-Batman hybrid, but the whole scene is just embarrassing.

Riley rarely mumbles more than a couple of hackneyed lines when confronting her targets. TV news talking heads who comment on the action, as well as “Law & Order”-style rundowns by the detectives on her case — Moses Beltran (John Ortiz), Stan Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) and Lisa Inman (Annie Ilonzeh) — are employed by the screenwriter Chad St. John to fill in the character-building. But “John Wick” this is not: Even the action scenes lack heft, as Riley is such an expert shooter that hardly any of the adversaries she confronts put up a fight.

The paper-thin characterization and clumsy aesthetic choices (frequent, distorted-looking flashbacks) should at least make “Peppermint” a solid contender for so-bad-it’s-goodness; collective audience cackles reverberated through the screening I attended. Unfortunately, the film plays dangerously into violent Latino stereotypes. One blood bath takes place in a piñata warehouse, where Riley mows down Diego’s unsuspecting gang one by one, to the tune of a heavy metal song with Spanish lyrics. All of the dead appear to be Latinos (save for a couple of Korean mob allies), but she leaves the sole white guy working there alive in order to interrogate him. The moment says a lot about the way Hollywood continuously villainizes people of color and values certain lives over others.

Follow Aisha Harris on Twitter: @craftingmystyle .

Rated R. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes.

• GOALxRemezcla

What Latino Film Critics Are Saying About ‘Peppermint’

A female Death Wish . That seems to be the selling point and inspiration for Jennifer Garner’s new film Peppermint . After losing her husband and daughter at the hands of three gang members, Riley North (Garner) sets out to exact revenge on her own. Five years after the tragedy that forever changed her, she returns to Los Angeles as a cut-throat assassin intent on taking out everyone and everything that denied her young girl the justice she deserves. That means targeting not just the corrupt judge and lawyers that helped the three gang members go free but the drug cartel they belong to. From Taken director Pierre Morel, Peppermint follows Riley’s revenge spree all around LA, from piñata stores to Skid Row, leaving few standing bodies in her wake.

With an abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score, it’s clear critics have not taken kindly to it. Lauding Garner’s acting chops and “special set of skills,” reviewers mostly found the action flick lackluster, with some finding fault with its seemingly timely politics. Todd Gilchirst of The Wrap asks whether it’s “a good idea in 2018 for almost every one of the villains in the film to be written as and portrayed by Latino,” concluding “Probably not, but it’s easy.”

Hoping to see those kinds of asides be more central in reviews of Morel’s film, we reached out to a handful of Latino critics to get their thoughts on this Jennifer Garner star vehicle. Read their takes below.

Peppermint opened in theaters on September 7, 2018.

"The filmmakers unwittingly tap into the current administration’s anti-Latino hysteria, giving 'Peppermint' a relevance it doesn’t deserve."

You can trace a direct line from Michael Winner’s insidious 1974 vigilante film Death Wish to Peppermint , Philip Morel’s by-the-numbers, and problematic, revenge film. Both have as their protagonist a white person who seeks to avenge a brutal attack against their loved ones by, mostly, people of color after the legal system lets them down. Both tap into their respective era’s political moment: one deliberately, the other by sheer serendipity. Death Wish gave voice to the anxieties of denizens of a large metropolis –New York, but really, Anywhere, U.S.A. – as it dealt with rampant crime. And while there is no doubt that Peppermint ’s villain du jour, the Mara Salvatruchas, are brutal and violent, the filmmakers unwittingly (and I am here giving them the benefit of the doubt) tap into the current administration’s anti-Latino hysteria, giving Peppermint a relevance it doesn’t deserve.

Mother Riley (Jennifer Garner), father Chris (Jeff Hephner) and cute and foul-mouthed daughter Carley (Cayley Fleming) are your prototypical white working class family overburdened by debt. Riley works at a local bank, Chris is the owner of an auto shop. Father and daughter are gunned down by drug lord Diego García’s (Juan Pablo Raba) henchmen while they are out celebrating Carly’s birthday. Riley not only manages to survive a bullet to the head but is able to identify the shooters. The case is thrown out of court and Riley is ordered by the corrupt judge to be sent to a mental facility. She escapes, of course, and disappears. She returns on the fifth anniversary of the shooting, turned into a “shoot ‘em in the head” John Wick-like assassin, leaving a trail of Latino blood and brains in her wake (curiously, the only two white people she kills in her rampage –the judge that threw out the case and García’s lawyer– are executed using far more elegant and sophisticated methods).

Morel and writer Chad St.John eschew any backstory; other than an expository meeting between the Justice Department and the local police force, they barely hint at how this mom could have turned into this ruthless killing machine. They cut to the chase, giving audiences what they want (the audience at a recent word-of-mouth screening were screaming their approval at every thudding, bass-heavy shot fired by Riley). Neither do they bother to give Garcia any dimension that would make him a true well-rounded antagonist; he, and his army of tattooed gangbangers come out of casting central, meat to be ground down by a hail of bullets.

And when they gratuitously introduce Garcia’s daughter and wife, they are treated no more than a plot contrivance designed to set up an unnecessary third act. Even the one redeemable Latino character, a police detective played by John Ortiz, is used as such. One fellow critic saw this as a clever use of misdirection, I as clumsy scriptwriting.

Visually, Morel borrows every stylistic trick from Tony Scott’s stylebook without Scott’s elan. Peppermint at times feels like a low-budget relative to Scott’s very own bad hombre film, the equally reprehensible Man on Fire (2004).

– Alejandro A. Riera

"The film’s setup plays like Trumpian rhetoric made flesh. It’d be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous."

The key moment that anchors Pierre Morel’s Peppermint , the one that sets its revenge plot in motion, is a pitch perfect study in emotional manipulation. After a loving family outing at a nighttime fair, Riley North (Jennifer Garner, in full Alias mode), watches as her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) and daughter Carly (Cailey Fleming) become victims of a coordinated drive-by shooting. The soundtrack fades away, the action slows down. Riley’s screams remain mere contorted facial expressions. Shrouded in darkness and protected by the black car they’re in, the men responsible for these murders are shadowy figures reduced to their face tattoos and their oversized guns. The moment is jarring and demands our tears. Riley, we’ve seen, is a devoted working mother trying to make ends meet. She’s the victim of the senseless violence that gang members and drug cartels have brought into what we’re led to believe is her otherwise safe suburban life.

Those murders are what drive Riley to identify her assailants and testify against them only to be met with corruption that runs from the cops to the DA and all the way to the judge, all of whom conspire to let these three smug thugs walk away. The film’s setup, like the murder scene, plays like Trumpian rhetoric made flesh: here lies a corrupt justice system that would rather let killing gangsters run free than protect your kids. It’d be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.

The revenge fantasy that follows plays like a drab and muddy take on Grand Theft Auto . Shaky-cam moves and establishing shots of LA ripped from a cop procedural drama frame a nonstop killing spree of brown bodies. It’s a first-person shooter video game mapped onto a thin white-woman-wronged plot. Every new person Riley encounters is merely a corpse in waiting, another faceless baddie she needs to take down. Rarely are they afforded the sympathy she grants a white alcoholic father she decides to set straight while fleeing yet another crime scene on the bus.

The involvement of actors like Richard Cabral (Emmy-nominated for American Crime ) calls into question precisely what kinds of roles are still being offered to Latino actors today. As I kept watching more and more heavily-tattooed (aka “scary”) Latino characters pop up only to be killed, I wondered what those auditions looked like, what kinds of decisions these actors had to make, what it might feel to know that “Piñana Guard #2,” “Shop goon” and “Dead Thug” (all actual character names listed on the film’s IMDB) are the roles you’re able to book, able to read for, able to celebrate getting.

Not that anyone at my screening was remotely concerned with any of that. They mostly rejoiced when Riley found new ways of shooting guys in the face.

– Manuel Betancourt

"'Peppermint' makes no distinction between gangsters, cartels, immigrants, or US Latinos, and neither will those who come to watch with xenophobic eyes."

Welcome to the Trumpian fantasy known as Peppermint , where a working class white woman loses her loving husband and daughter at the hands of tatted up Latino thugs with machine guns. In this outrageously implausible, pro-gun realm, a good girl with a gun is most certainly the answer to violent people of color hurting “real Americans.”

Based on the full cast list of this clumsily written and ideologically poisonous wreck directed by Pierre Morel and starring Jennifer Garner, Peppermint seems to have one of the highest concentrations of Latino actors of any studio movie this year. That could be interpreted as progress; however, nearly all of them are portraying stereotypical criminals (from cholos to cartel bosses) and are brutally murdered by Garner’s character Riley North. At my screening, their executions were cheered on by bloodthirsty spectators groomed to see these men as disposable villains.

Only one Latino is spared, Detective Moises Beltran (Nuyorican veteran John Ortiz), as if to let us know that perhaps some of us are not that bad, but only if we are in law enforcement or a similarly patriotic profession. Two homeless kids seen throughout the story, Maria (Kyla-Drew Simmons) and Jose (Gustavo Quiroz), represent youth of color, but their only purpose is to exalt their white savior’s kind heart.

It would be unfair to judge any working Latino thespian for accepting one-noted, disparaging, and stereotypical roles like the ones in this formulaic actioner, because there are so few offers for them that aren’t similar to these. This garbage is what’s on the table, and people need to pay their bills and get out there in hopes that more thoughtful and prominent parts will come. Yet, the industry continues to regress to tropes that embolden a racist narrative and lump all Latinos together in a cesspool of negative perceptions.

Peppermint makes no distinction between gangsters, cartels, immigrants, or US Latinos, and neither will those who come to watch with xenophobic eyes. On the contrary, those already corroded by hatred will be reassured about how they see us thanks to this dangerously tactless vigilante tale.

Overused hazy fast-forwarded shots, embarrassingly trite dialogue, and plot holes galore add to the long list of reasons that make this release an all-around cheap mess. Garner also destroys a warehouse with handcrafted piñatas, candy, and party decorations, and that’s truly an unforgettable and wasteful shame.

– Carlos Aguilar

"Nearly everything in 'Peppermint' comes back to how immigrants – specifically Latino immigrants – are destroying the country."

When Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado came out earlier this year, I feared it would spark a wave of anti-Latino films aimed at Middle America, reminding them that “bad hombres” lurk around every corner, ready to destroy good, white families. A little over two months since that film came out we have Peppermint , a movie picking up where Sicario 2 left off, taking the battle to the nice, white suburban world of girl scout cookies and school carnivals.

The Norths are an average family, as straight-arrow as their name implies. Four days before Christmas, Riley North (Jennifer Garner) watches her husband and daughter die in a vicious drive-by at the behest of Los Angeles drug kingpin Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). It doesn’t matter that her husband thought about ripping off Garcia to give his family a new life. No, what matters is a group of tatted-up, gun-toting cholos killed her family and they must pay!

Nearly everything in Peppermint comes back to how immigrants – specifically Latino immigrants – are destroying the country. Riley uncovers a growing conspiracy where white men, from judges to lawyers to cops are all on the take with the drug-runners, a reminder that the government and its laws – its “sanctuary cities” – allow these men to thrive. These Mexicans are so bad, a corrupt cop can’t even hide his disgust when Diego threatens to kill a child. Yes, white men have a line in the sand and these savages are crossing it! A subplot involving social media and 24/7 news coverage championing Riley only seeks to remind audiences of the presumed silent majority that is just as racist and gun-happy as Riley is.

Director Pierre Morel and screenwriter Chad St. John see the world in black and white, or at least brown and white. Latino men rock face tats and worship at the altar of candle-lit grim reapers like they’re cult devotees (and their base of operations is a piñata factory), while the few Latinas are just sniveling victims waiting for a backhand or sitting in their underwear working the narco circuit. Riley, and all her #whitefeminism, is the only one who can save Los Angeles and by extension, the world. Her crying womb and her mothering nature is what America needs to stop immigrants from killing our children. Sure, Riley could stop bad white guys – like the drunken man she meets on a bus who mistreats his kid – but Latinos are the real problem!

The camera employs rapid-fire editing and effects ripped straight from an episode of Sons of Anarchy . The characters, with the exception of Riley, are there to either help or hinder her. But really it’s just laughable to watch a movie where LAPD allow a white woman to point a loaded gun at a Latino and she’s not immediately struck down – not the best timing, considering the recent death of Latina Vanessa Marquez in Southern California. All of this just continues to play on the fear and racist rhetoric that’s fueled the entirety of 2018.

– Kristen Lopez

"The antagonists are two-dimensional Latino gangsters rendered into literal faceless vessels."

In the closing act of the ultra-violent revenge flick Peppermint , a group of cars drive into Los Angeles’s Skid Rowfor a final showdown with the film’s vigilante hero Riley North (Jennifer Garner). Riley is a pissed-off mother who has spent the last hour and a half massacring everyone – mostly tattooed Latino gang members – implicated in the cold-blooded murder of her husband and daughter.

The scene becomes the perfect metaphor for the way French director Pierre Morel ( Taken ), screenwriter Chad St. John ( London Has Fallen ) and Peppermint producers feel about the Latinos they’ve included in their film. When the car doors open, the antagonists step out, their faces obscured by masks – they are two-dimensional Latino gangsters rendered into literal faceless vessels through which to propagate a tired stereotype Hollywood has been churning out for decades. It’s as though the film is saying, “It doesn’t matter who is behind the mask, just as long as audiences know they’re bad hombres.” Those Latino characters whose faces we do see, including LAPD Detective Moises Beltran (John Ortiz), are written with the same shallow attributes.

As the United States witnesses its President and his hardcore base vilify Latino immigrants as rapists and murderers who are infesting America, Peppermint is the wrong film at the wrong time. It proves that some out-of-touch corners in Hollywood are still blind to the complex and dangerous issues all immigrants are facing today.

Everyone involved with this project should be embarrassed. And they need to be called out on it. As a film critic, it would be easy enough to write about the other elements of Peppermint that make it a subpar movie – from the cliché and often illogical script, to the lazy direction and some of the laughable acting. But that kind of criticism pales in comparison to the negative – and frankly, dangerous – perceptions the movie’s very premise propagates. The people behind Peppermint need to hear the more uncomfortable discussions their movie provokes. They need to listen, take note and realize that in 2018 they should be better than this.

– Kiko Martinez

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

How to Prepare Your Kids for School After a Summer of Screen Time

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

• Parents say (11)
• Kids say (9)

Based on 11 parent reviews

Great Action Movie

This title has:

• Great role models
• Too much violence

Report this review

Garner kicks.

• Great messages

Teens and up

Over the top violence and language in gory jennifer garner thriller..

• Too much swearing

This is my Kind of "Chick Flick"

Still don't understand why it is called peppermint, plot hole after plot hole after plot hole, revenge movie, that does not satisfy, i know the critics hated this film, but i found it totally entertaining.

Why It Makes Total Sense Jennifer Garner’s Peppermint Has Been Trending On Netflix This Month

The "lone hero takes violent revenge" genre of action movie has been so popular since the success of Liam Neeson's Taken that it's more than likely that some of the movies that have been released in the last few years have floated past you entirely unnoticed. If I told you that Jennifer Garner actually made a movie in this style back in 2018, you might vaguely remember a film called Peppermint , or you might think I was making the whole thig up. Except it seems that there are quite a few people who only recently discovered that Peppermint happened, because the movie is huge on Netflix right now.

As of this writing, Peppermint is the number four title in Netflix's Top 10 in the U.S. which is a pretty impressive place to be for a movie that made barely more than $50 million worldwide when it was released. Clearly, with a box office take like that, the people watching it on Netflix right now are not people who loved the film the first time around and are taking the opportunity to revisit it. Instead, these are largely people watching it for the first time, but really, this is behavior we've seen before from Netflix viewers and Peppermint is exactly the sort of film we would expect to benefit from that.

Usually, the the projects that grab viewers eyeballs are exactly the sorts of things you'd expect. Netflix original films and series are almost always in the top 10 when they launch. There's no place else to watch them and for many those original projects are the reason people have Netflix in the first place. We also see the big movies that were huge hits in the top 10. When Netflix was full of Disney movies, specifically Marvel Cinematic Universe items, they were frequently near the top.

But these under the radar films frequently sneak in as well. At the end of the day, movies like Peppermint are a big reason to even have streaming services. They give you easy access to films and TV you might not otherwise consider. After you've finished binging The Crown , and you're looking for something new to watch, there's no harm in checking out a movie like this. People tend to like Jennifer Garner , and the description of the movie "mild-mannered mom remakes herself into a badass vigilante" is certainly intriguing. Who wouldn't want to watch that? Maybe you wanted to see this movie in theaters but missed it. Maybe you were never even aware it existed, but now that it's watchable at the touch of a button, why not?

And the beauty of Netflix is, you lose nothing by giving it a chance. If this was the days of VHS or DVD rental, you're spending money to give this movie a try, but with Netflix, your money is already spent, and if you turn on Peppermint and 15 minutes in, the movie isn't working for you, you can just stop watching it and move on to something else. There's a decent chance that many viewers have done exactly that.

Peppermint isn't a lost classic, but it is an entertaining action movie that does some different things with this genre of story, not only by making the main character a mother, but by not making her a superhero. Seriously, if you have a problem watching women being the subject of violence, this might not be your movie because for all the ass that Jennifer Garner kicks in this film , she also gets hers kicked pretty hard as well. But if that works for you, then maybe give Peppermint a look, assuming you haven't already.

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

The Umbrella Academy’s Final Scene In The Park Left Me With Two Huge Questions On Top Of What Those Flowers Meant

One Piece Creator Shared Shocking Advice For The Anime Remake, But It Actually Has Me Excited

90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After's Tell-All Tackled Angela's Cheating Allegations Against Michael, And I See Why This Relationship Didn't Work Out

Most Popular

• 2 The Umbrella Academy’s Final Scene In The Park Left Me With Two Huge Questions On Top Of What Those Flowers Meant
• 3 One Piece Creator Shared Shocking Advice For The Anime Remake, But It Actually Has Me Excited
• 4 Killing Gawker: Everything We Know About Matt Damon And Ben Affleck’s Hulk Hogan Movie
• 5 Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harington Reveals The ‘Excruciatingly Embarrassing' Fan Encounters His Friends Troll Him Over

Screen Rant

Peppermint review: jennifer garner can't save bland action romp.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Stephen King Praises Major 2024 Action-Comedy After $400M Box Office Run

Star wars’ new movie logo breaks a five-year winning formula, & i really don’t like it, civil war streaming release date revealed, despite a committed performance by garner, peppermint is an extremely forgettable and bland action movie that leaves no impression with the viewer..

Marking Jennifer Garner's return to the action genre,  Peppermint is the latest film from Taken  director Pierre Morel. Ever since that Liam Neeson vehicle broke out nearly a decade ago, there has been a new rise for the vigilante sub-genre, with a number of entries that follow the same basic formula, but attempt to mix things up by rotating in a different star for the lead role. This time, it's Garner's turn to extract revenge on criminals, but unfortunately the setup has become tired by now. Despite a committed performance by Garner,  Peppermint is an extremely forgettable and bland action movie that leaves no impression with the viewer.

After their daughter's birthday party doesn't go as planned, Riley North (Garner) and her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) decide to lift young Carly's (Cailey Fleming) spirits with a spontaneous trip to the Christmas Fair to have fun and ice cream. Before leaving, Chris calls his friend Mickey (Chris Johnson) and pulls out of a proposed robbery job that would see him receive a handsome payday, not wanting to risk anything for his family.

Unfortunately, word of Mickey's plan spreads through town quickly, and the drug kingpin Mickey wanted to steal from, Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Rabla), makes his move first. Henchmen of Garcia's follow the Norths to the fair, gunning down Chris and Carly in front of Riley. Due to corruption in the system, the killers are allowed to walk free, while Riley is to be brought to a psychological care ward. Escaping, Riley falls off the grid for five years, returning when she's ready to bring the murderers to justice on her terms.

Peppermint is a mess from a structural perspective, playing almost like an extended third act after a very generic opening that hits the usual beats (touching family moments, etc.) before the inciting incident. Curiously, the script by Chad St. John skims over the most interesting aspects of the narrative (namely, the kindhearted Riley's transformation into ruthless killer) in favor of by-the-book shoot-'em-ups where Riley hunts down the members of Garcia's crew. This negatively impacts the film's pacing, making  Peppermint feel longer than its sub two-hour runtime. It certainly feels like there's a stretch of movie missing, and while it's appreciated that Morel wastes little time in getting to the action, he would have benefitted from fleshing out Riley's journey. The end result lacks the catharsis he's aiming for, as  Peppermint crawls towards its inevitable conclusion.

Garner does her best to make up for the shortcomings of the screenplay, dutifully handling all the required set pieces and convincingly portraying a broken woman who has nothing to lose.  Peppermint toys with the idea of Riley being mentally unstable, which does add a much-needed layer of unpredictability to Garner's turn. However, the film never digs beneath the surface of that, so audiences simply sit back and watch Garner mow through enemies with precision, instead of being left on the edge of their seats, wondering what her next move will be. Due to the very basic character motivation, it's easy enough to get behind Riley and root for her, but as presented on the page, she's a very thin protagonist.

That being said, Garner's co-stars fare even worse, given very little material to work with. The villains are as by-the-numbers as they come, with most amounting to little more than faceless cartel and gang members looking to track Riley down before she causes more problems for their operation. Rabla's Garcia makes for a threatening enough presence, but the writing here is very standard and all of his henchmen are interchangeable. Detectives Stan Carmichael (John Gallagher, Jr.) and Moises Beltran (Ray Ortiz) stand out a little more, though that isn't to say their performances are exactly memorable. Their roles in the narrative are quite rote, following a trajectory savvy viewers will be able to spot a mile away. Even Riley's family (the emotional core of the film) is given limited shading before moving on. Nobody in the supporting cast is bad, but it's all common procedure for the genre.

Given Morel's previous filmography, it isn't surprising that  Peppermint's strongest assets are the action scenes. Granted, they are " John Wick lite" in terms of their execution and emotional investment in the characters, but they're still well-crafted enough to provide some mindless thrills. Morel embraces the R rating and serves up the brutality, with Riley taking no prisoners in her quest for vengeance. There isn't a single set piece that stands above the rest as  the sequence audiences will be talking about long after the credits have rolled; they're just perfectly serviceable within the framework of this particular movie.

In all likelihood, few were expecting  Peppermint to be the next bona fide action classic, but the results are nevertheless disappointing. The combination of Garner and Morel's particular set of skills had the potential to deliver pulpy genre fun as we transition into the fall movie season; however, it wasn't meant to be in this case. Unless one is a die-hard fan of the principal players or revenge thrillers, there's little incentive for general audiences to check this one out in theaters.

Peppermint is now playing in U.S. theaters. It runs 102 minutes and is rated R for strong violence and language throughout.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments!

Key Release Dates

• Movie Reviews
• 1.5 star movies

Get the Reddit app

The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Submissions should be for the purpose of informing or initiating a discussion, not just to entertain readers. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions.

Official Discussion: Peppermint [SPOILERS]

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll.

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here.

Click here to see rankings for 2018 films

Click here to see rankings for every poll done

Riley North's husband and daughter are killed in a drive-by shooting, on her daughter's birthday, by members of a cartel. When the killers walk free owing to corrupt officials on the cartel's payroll, she takes matters into her own hands and seeks vigilante justice against those who destroyed her life.

Pierre Morel

screenplay by Chad St. John

Jennifer Garner as Riley North

John Gallagher Jr. as Carmichael

John Ortiz as Moises

Method Man as Agent Barker

Richard Cabral as Salazar

Annie Ilonzeh as Inman

Juan Pablo Raba as Diego Garcia

Tyson Ritter as Sam

Pell James as Peg

Chris Johnson as Mickey

Kyla Drew as Maria

Cailey Fleming as Carly

Michael Reventar as Ortega

Rotten Tomatoes: 18%

Metacritic: 32/100

After Credits Scene? No

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue

• Koffee Kult
• Amazon Music
• Movie Series
• Bonus Content
• InSession Film Awards
• Year-End Top 10 Lists
• Women InSession
• Chasing the Gold
• Extra Film Archive
• Latest Releases
• Classic Reviews
• Video Reviews
• Oscars Predictions
• Awards Analysis
• Retrospectives
• Monthly Previews

Director: Pierre Morel Writers: Chad St. John Stars: Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz

Synopsis: Peppermint is a revenge story centering on a young mother who finds herself with nothing to lose, and is now going to take from her enemies the very life they stole from her.

When I first saw a trailer for Peppermint , I thought to myself, “Jennifer Garner playing Frank Castle? I’m in!” I grew up with Garner kicking ass on Alias and I’m a big fan of the moral ambiguity and overall grittiness of the Netflix Marvel shows, so even if it looked a bit predictable and derivative, I was ready for the ride. And, for the most part, I wasn’t wrong, but I was disappointed.

Peppermint is an interesting mix of several classic action movies and TV shows, including the Daredevil and Punisher Netflix shows (a particularly bold move considering Garner’s noncanon link to the franchise), the Death Wish franchise (another bold move releasing Peppermint so close to the newest installment), the Kill Bill movies, Die Hard, and Fight Club , among others. I think it’s worth noting that the general critical consensus for Peppermint is fairly low (13% Rotten Tomatoes score and a Metacritic rating of 29, as of the writing of this review) while audiences seem to be receiving it fairly well (81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes). I think, in general, action film fans have fun seeing the tropes and genre elements play and see the reuse of tropes as more of an homage than a ripoff, while critics (myself admittedly included) tend to find the reuse of the same tropes tiring, lazy, and predictable. Neither side is wrong, it’s just a difference in perception. If the genre in question were one of my favorites, like sci-fi or horror, I’d be on the other side of the line, for sure.

Personally, when it comes to this movie, I could have sat back and enjoyed things like Garner’s character Riley North channeling Tyler Durden for no apparent reason or imagery almost exactly mirroring images from season two of Daredevil if the script had been a little tighter and more thought out. Instead of carefully crafting characters and plot, Peppermint just throws in various archetypes and tropes together in a kitchen sink stew, stirs till it bubbles, and dishes it out. Garner’s character jumps to the crazed revenger archetype with no subtlety or explanation and neither she nor the script can seem to figure out if she’s a misunderstood vigilante hero, an anti hero, or a downright villain. The law enforcement characters have some of the most stereotypical, stiff dialogue I’ve ever heard and the villains of the movie are one-dimensional, archetypal, and downright racist caricatures whose only character descriptors include “Mexican” and “ drugs”, though they notably weren’t members of the Drug Cartel.

The plot of Peppermint also meandered quite a bit, spending way too much time on Riley North’s past when all we really needed to see was a happy memory montage, the tragic deaths, and a courtroom scene to seal the seal. Bam. Setup complete in 10 minutes, top. Instead, we spent the entire first act following Riley around when we know full well how things are going to go. Once things finally kick into gear in the second act, we spend so much time with the police officers and the villains that we almost forget about Riley.

Really, all this movie needed to do to meet my expectations was spend more time with Riley post-tragedy, not only so that we understand her character a little better but also because Garner carries this movie. The fact that we spend so much time away from her makes me think that someone somewhere down the line didn’t have faith that she could carry it. I have my suspicions as to why that might be, but suspicions aside, it was the wrong call. This movie needed way more Garner and, hey, let’s cut out the racist villain caricature while we’re at it.

It’s slightly more understandable when it comes from studio-era espionage thrillers, but it’s 2018. Do we really need Hollywood movies perpetuating negative stereotypes that are already being perpetuated on a national, political level?

Anyway, easily the biggest takeaway of this movie, for me, is that Garner still kicks ass. Alias might not hold up as a super awesome show in this golden age of television, and Elektra certainly stunted Garner’s chance at being a big screen badass, but 13 years later, she’s back and she kills it. The script may lack emotional depth and any sort of subtly, emotionally or otherwise, but she’s able to make up for a lot of that with her facial expressions and body language throughout the film. The action set pieces are actually pretty awesome, too. If I sound surprised, it’s because I am. I’m a big fan of superhero action and hand-to-hand combat, but when it comes to gun fights, my attention wanes quickly. But the action in this movie kept my attention. Even when it was at its most ridiculous and unbelievable, it was fun enough to make it worth my time.

For as awesome as Jennifer Garner and the action set pieces throughout this movie are, though, the rest of the movie, unfortunately, does too much harm to the quality of the movie overall to make this movie one I would recommend aside from to the biggest of action flick fans. Maybe if the villains weren’t so offensive I could’ve gotten past the cliches and bad dialogue but, alas, that is not the case. I’m not writing Garner off as an action star, but I am giving this movie a hard pass.

Overall Grade: D+

Similar Articles

Movie review: ‘family portrait’ is timeless and pure, movie review: ‘borderlands’ is a cheap imitation.

MOST POPULAR

List: 90s erotic thrillers, oh my, interview: warren fischer, director of ‘the serena variations’.