Peppermint (Movie Review)

 (This review contains spoilers)

Summary:

A grieving mother transforms herself into a vigilante following the murders of her husband and daughter, eluding the authorities to deliver her own personal brand of justice.

I am surprised that there wasn't more hype around this movie. Granted there were inconsistencies and quite a bit left to be desired but otherwise not a bad movie at all! Riley North witnessing the murder of her family during a drive by while suffering a head injury would be traumatic for anybody and anyone in that position would need some psychiatric help. But the inconsistencies in the first 10 minutes of the movie was beyond annoying. 

With Riley obtaining a gunshot wound to the head, she needed to be rushed into surgery and of course in these types of situations the surgeons will cut/shave the injury area but they would never just give a patient a whole God-damn haircut. I'm not sure if it was decided to give her a haircut to demonstrate the drastic change in her life but instead of just changing her hair while she's in the hospital, she could have had that typical dramatic moment where she cuts her own hair when faced with all her demons and the realization her family is never coming back. The hair being the symbol of her old life and all the pain while cutting it symbolizes her acknowledging the loss and trying to move on. 

Another inconsistency that irked my spirits was Riley doing a line up and identifying the three men that murdered her family just from their face tattoos but the kicker is that in the line up the majority of it were men without any face tattoos. No way in hell a line up would ever be done in that manner. It would be prejudicial and never admissible in court. That was just plain bad writing. Another example of bad writing is if someone like Riley would be bribed during the trial of their family's murderer wouldn't it they said it to the district attorney before and not after the case was dismissed? I understand that the trial was meant to demonstrate just how corrupt the justice system is but only saying you were bribed after you lost the case? Makes you seem like a big fat liar. 

I love the concept of taking justice into your own hands. Especially, when the bad guys get to bribe and pay their way to freedom. A female protagonist kicking ass and taking names is awesome to watch but only if the set up of the movie is done right. I don't know who the hell came up with the structure of the movie and the scenes but they seriously need to get out more and experience life. Why the hell were we not given scenes with Riley killing and torturing the 3 men who murdered her family and the lawyer who bribed her? You would think that would be the first action packed scenes they would include. Instead we were given a brief look at how the three murderers ended up. Hung upside down dead. The lawyer not even being mentioned. What a missed opportunity for the audience to be witness to literal justice being served. That gives me a huge feeling of disappointment and the ending almost anticlimactic. We were given a badass scene in a piñata shop with Riley killing a bunch of guys that we were never introduced to till they were pretty much dead. That scene was really great but otherwise what a let down! The first faces we are introduced to and we don't even get to see them suffer and die?

I did enjoy the part where Riley used social media to her advantage. She knew she was outmanned and outgunned and she was resourceful in not only letting the cops including the FBI know where she was but also outing Carmichael as a dirty cop. I'm happy we were able to be given a public viewpoint of how they felt about Riley and how they were extremely supportive of her. It's incredible she was able to take down the big boss Garcia no matter what. Despite being in custody she was able to get free by the help of a detective. I would love to see more of her but it would be hard to say what the sequel would be. Garcia was a small fish in a huge ass pond but she got the justice she was looking. It would take something really creative and emotionally engaging for everyone to see her again and see such a sequel. 

Rating:

I am going to give Peppermint 3.5 stars on 5. The inconsistencies and the letdowns were really overwhelming. Make it make sense and what was done in the first 10 minutes just did not. I expected more and going into this movie you expect to see Riley make the 3 murderers pay for what they did to her family. Not seeing the scene with those 3 guys and their lawyer play out was a huge let down. The movie itself was good and definitely had some strong bones but I personally thought it could have been better.