The Accountant 2 (in theaters)

How you feel about “The Accountant 2” will depend on how you feel about the original.

The sequel is a more dramatic, messier, funnier version of the 2016 original, leaning into some of its strengths while making brand-new mistakes. If you didn’t have any interest in the first film, or didn’t like it, this new one isn’t going to change your mind. If you really enjoyed the first one, you might be disappointed by the changes. If you liked the first movie but thought it was too muted in tone, you’ll enjoy the changes. If your favorite part of the original was the relationship between Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal, you’re really going to like this one.

The movie starts with the murder of J.K. Simmons’s character, and he leaves a note asking to find the Accountant (Ben Affleck). His former protege does, and the accountant/assassin ropes in his mercenary brother to help solve the case. As the two try to untangle a web of human trafficking, they also try to figure out how to be brothers.

Like the original, “The Accountant 2” is an action movie that’s relatively light on action. A lot of it focuses on Affleck’s character’s way of looking at the world, which is a form of autism-as-superpower that also manages to be incredibly isolating. Some people might see the portrayal as offensively inaccurate, but the movie also casts actual autistic people for Affleck’s teenage hacker crew. Not a traditional form of representation, perhaps, but certainly something different.

Just like this movie.

Grade: Two and a half stars

Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story

There are a lot of sports movies, and there’s a decent number of movies about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What there isn’t a lot of, however, are movies that combine the two.  

Local filmmaker T.C. Christensen is here to change that. His latest film, “Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story,” is the sweet, touching tale of the first member to make it to the Olympics. Though the beginning is somewhat unfocused, much like Richards himself seems to be, the movie really gets rolling once Richards finds his passion. By the end, you’ll be cheering for Richards just as much as you would any plucky underdog athlete or sports team. Add in an excellent guest appearance by Anthony Garcia as a young Jim Thorpe, and you have a heartwarming family sports movie with just the right amount of faith.

In 1908, Alma Richards drops out of school after being harassed by the teacher. He struggles to figure out what he wants to do until a coach channels his ability to run and jump fences into a promising track career. He heads up to BYU and then the Olympic trials, struggling to be taken seriously without ever losing sight of his faith.

Paul Wuthrich, who also starred in Christensen’s “Escape From Germany,” brings both good-heartedness and flashes of humor to Richards. You’ll get to know the real Richards in Christensen’s fantastic credits, which have a moment as tense as any you’ll find in the movie. There’s also a credits scene at the very end that’s a lot of fun and as deeply satisfying in its own way as an appearance at the Olympics.

Grade: Three stars

Jenniffer Wardell is an award-winning movie critic and member of the Utah Film Critics Association. Drop her a line at [email protected].

Credit for photo ©Amazon MGM Studios