Now Streaming: THE ACCOUNTANT 2 Doesn't Add Up, But No One Cares. NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH Goes to Sleep.

If you're not able to get out to see Ballerina or Dangerous Animals or The Phoenician Scheme, you may wish to visit your local book store or comic book store or public library instead. Or, you can watch one or both of these films.

The Accountant 2
The film is now streaming on Prime Video.

Ben Affleck revisits his 'assassin posing as an accountant' role in a sequel that is risibly ridiculous in certain of its narrative elements, yet remains exceedingly entertaining, as long as you have no problem watching a lighthearted story of brotherhood cemented by killing dozens of people.

Revisiting the deadly and estranged brothers he created in the original film, Bill Dubuque, creates a framework that demands that they reunite, even as older brother Ben Affleck teams up with a financial crimes enforcement officer (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to discover who killed her boss (J.K. Simmons, looking exceedingly fit). Having just completed a murderous assignment, younger brother Jon Bernthal walks away from his crime scene, filled with dead bodies, to fly to Los Angeles, where he can bicker and banter with his older bro.

Gavin O'Connor returns to the director's chair he occupied for the first film and directs with his usual keen eye for composition and willingness to indulge in a little silly stylistic overkill to make the kills look snappy and not overly brutal, for all the blood that is shed. As a whole, the movie is far too clever for its own good, in that nothing on screen is ever believable or even remotely authentic.

Yet that is also its charm: The Accountant 2 resides in a happy bubble of Hollywood entertainment, where you imagine all the dead bodies getting up as soon as the director yells "cut" and laughing about what they've just done. It's not meant to be taken seriously, and it succeeds richly on that score as disposable entertainment.

Neighborhood Watch
The film is now streaming on AMC+.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid star as neighbors in a 92-minute movie that only has enough plot for about 30 minutes, at best.

They live next door to each other in an anonymous neighborhood. Morgan is a security guard who's been forced out of his job, while Quaid, who lives with his sister (Malin Akerman) has recently been released from a mental health facility after ten years.

One day, Quaid witnesses an abduction, but the police don't seem to take his story seriously. So he turns to his neighbor, and they begin a slow-motion investigation and/or search for the missing woman, who is a stranger to them both.

Directed by Duncan Skiles from an original script written by Sean Farley, the bare bones of the narrative are fine, but there's not much meat on the bones, resulting in a lethargic pace, repeating character points that have already been established, and beating them into the ground. Morgan and Quaid do their best to establish chemistry of the student/teacher variety, but the languid pace, limited energy, and formulaic narrative soon saps the drama of any thrills.

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows that are newly available on legal streaming services.