It’s been said, “revenge is a dish best served cold.” In Peppermint’s case, revenge is a five-day-old piece of reheated meatloaf with a side of fascism and a dollop of racism. The film wants to be a drama about the dehumanizing nature of violence, but has the subtlety and racial politics of a Death Wish sequel.
 
Riley North (Jennifer Garner) is an ordinary housewife who’s just trying to make ends meet, and keep her daughter, Carly (Cailey Fleming), happy. Unfortunately, her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) is contemplating robbing a Mexican drug lord – a generic sadist played by Juan Pablo Raba. Even though Chris has decided not to rob the kingpin, a hit is ordered and Mexican gang members gun down Carly and Chris in the street, while Riley is struck in the head by a bullet. After waking up from a coma, Riley identifies the criminals, but because the cartel has paid off every official who could (legally) mete out justice, the gang members all go free. Riley breaks down, and goes off the grid for five years, after which time she reappears as a badass killing machine on a roaring rampage of JUSTICE!
 
One of the most irritating things about Peppermint are the scenes where we meet Riley’s family. They are written so maudlin and over-the-top preachy that when you realize these characters only exist to be killed, it makes the film mean-spirited and boring. For example, when Riley and her daughter are accosted by a bitchy mother for selling Girl Scout cookies at the wrong grocery store, Carly says to Riley, “you should have punched her,” to which Riley responds “if we go around punching all the jerks it just makes us as bad as them.” I guess that’s supposed to be a “theme,” but through very little exploration, Peppermint comes down on the side of “punching and killing the people who have aggrieved you is the right thing to do.” I get it. This is supposed to be a straightforward piece of pulp exploitation cinema, but don’t try to jam a theme in here if you’re not gonna explore it!
 
That brings me to the villains of the film. If I were to say the words “Mexican gang member” and “Mexican drug lord,” what are the images that come to mind? You’ve just envisioned the villains of Peppermint. They work out of a pinata factory and have catholic iconography everywhere – even in a drug lab. Not that there necessarily needs to be nuance to the villains of a vigilante revenge picture, but …it’s 2018. A white woman brutally murdering Mexican thugs is a little off-putting. In fairness, she also murders the corrupt Judge (who’s white) by nailing his hands to a desk and blowing his house up.
 
Pierre Morel’s direction is fairly straightforward, and the action scenes are fine, but because there’s no real sense of urgency to the film nothing really matters. There are a couple moments where Morel acts like he’s making a Tony Scott movie, but they’re half-hearted. The script by Chad St. John is loaded with clichés, and is overall lazy storytelling.
 
The cast does what you expect. No one is given any real characters, except clichéd characteristics and exposition. Garner is the only one who stands out, and it’s great to see her return to the action genre as a badass antihero – I just wish the movie around her was better.
 
If you’ve seen one revenge vigilante movie, you’ve seen most, and Peppermint is exactly the movie you’d expect. A sloppy and lazy film composed of clichés, fascist to its core, and a little racist. The only saving grace is that film is mercifully short.
 
One star out of four.