Back in 2016, Ben Affleck starred in The Accountant, a thriller in which he played Christian Wolff, a man whose autism grants him stunning mathematical abilities that he uses for illicit ends. Thanks to the training required by his father, Christian also possesses top-flight fight skills.

Accountant made $155 million worldwide on a budget of $44 million, a figure that meant it turned a profit but didn’t become a real hit. Still, I guess that seemed good enough to greenlight a sequel years later, as the existence of 2025’s The Accountant 2 indicates.

Former Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit (FinCEN) director Raymond King (JK Simmons) meets his death as he attempts to track a missing Salvadoran family. His protégé and current FinCEN leader Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) discovers a mysterious message Raymond scratched onto his arm: “FIND THE ACCOUNTANT”.

This leads Marybeth to Christian Wolff and she recruits him to pursue the case. Along with estranged brother – and professional hitman – Braxton (Jon Bernthal), Christian gets involved, an endeavor that comes with plenty of danger along the way.

Although I liked aspects of the 2016 film, I felt the first Accountant bit off more than it could chew. It threw so many plot beats at the viewer that it turned into a semi-incomprehensible mess.

Happily, Accountant 2 tightens up matters considerably. While it comes with a few twists and turns, it nonetheless mainly pursues one particular narrative, and that allows it to streamline matters.

Of course, it also helps that the film doesn’t need to bother with Christian’s “origin story”. I don’t think the 2016 movie devoted a ton of time to an explanation of how Christian became “The Accountant”, but that exposition bogged down the flick to some degree.

However, the main issue with the 2016 tale came from the aforementioned overly busy plot. With Christian’s “origin story” out of the way and a more coherent story, Accountant 2 already earns points to place it over its predecessor.

The movie also succeeds because the overall narrative stays on a steady path. While not without some sidetrack domains, the story largely orients toward the goal mentioned in my synopsis, so it lacks the constant clutter of the original flick.

I will note that Accountant 2 brings more than a few scenes that don’t serve the plot. Normally I think these should get cut, as the flick could lose them without added confusion for the viewer.

However, these all exist as character moments, and they seem too delightful for Accountant 2 to lose. For instance, we watch Christian’s attempts to rig a speed-dating event as well as Braxton’s nervous energy when he attempts a simple phone call with a dog breeder.

While these don’t serve the overall tale, they give us useful character information – and they’re also simply really entertaining. Which leads to another reason Accountant 2 tops the first flick: the chemistry between Affleck and Bernthal.

Although Bernthal popped up as Braxton in the 2016 movie, he didn’t get a lot of screen time there. Accountant 2 allows him much more room to play.

Bernthal delights in his solo scenes, and he connects with Affleck in a terrific manner. The contrasting brothers – one socially unaware and nerdy, the other overly chatty and sociopathic – form a quirky team that the actors make a constant pleasure to watch.

Accountant 2 probably runs too long and even though the script seems more concise than the prior flick’s screenplay, it still meanders a bit too much. Still, Affleck and Bernthal carry the day and the narrative does just enough to make this a largely engaging thriller.

The Accountant 2 appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The image replicated the native 4K source well.

Sharpness seemed strong. Virtually no softness emerged, so the result seemed concise and accurate.

Shimmering and jagged edges remained absent, and I witnessed no edge haloes. Print flaws failed to appear, so this was a clean presentation.

Orange/amber and teal dominated the palette, but not to an oppressive degree. The colors were fine within their stylistic restraints, and HDR added kick to the tones.

Blacks looked deep and taut, and shadows showed good clarity. HDR brought extra impact to whites and contrast. This turned into a pleasing transfer.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, no complaints accompanied the excellent Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Accountant 2. With plenty of action, the soundscape often opened up in a dynamic manner and used all the channels to positive advantage.

Various vehicles zoomed around the room and guns peppered the soundscape to solid effect. The soundfield added to the experience.

Audio quality worked well. Speech remained natural and distinctive, without edginess or other concerns.

Music was bold and dynamic, and effects satisfied. Those elements were expressive and impactful, as they showed fine definition and power. This was a very good mix.

No extras appear on this disc.

With a tighter story and good chemistry between its leads, The Accountant 2 manages to turn into an effective thriller. Indeed, it becomes a rare sequel that easily tops its predecessor. The 4K UHD provides excellent picture and audio but it lacks supplements. The flick delivers a good little character-based action flick.