The last time I saw Jennifer Garner act was in 2013’s Dallas Buyer’s Club and she was unconvincing as a doctor, I’ll say that. Actually I just realized that I also saw her in that wonderful movie that came out earlier this year, Love, Simon, where she played a supportive mom who kind of faded into the background. (If you haven’t seen that yet, rent it!) So she hasn’t stood out for me and she hasn’t been notable recently. That’s why it’s a surprise to see her in a starring role kicking ass again like she did on her Alias.

The trailer for Garner’s Peppermint is out. It’s directed by Taken’s Pierre Morel and it has some commonalities to Taken. Garner’s character, Riley North, is avenging the deaths of her daughter and husband. She fails to get justice in court so she goes away for five years, trains to be an assassin I guess, and then returns to bring vigilante justice to the men who murdered her family. It’s formulaic but the trailer makes it look like a female-helmed John Wick and Garner seems believable as the lead. She even goes undercover to infiltrate the neighborhood and stop crime. Here’s the trailer:

This starts getting good around 1:10, when we get the buildup for Riley’s transformation and revenge. My favorite line is this one “It’s not a coincidence that makes this area low crime. It is low crime because of her.” The second best line comes around 2:00 in, when they’re discussing how Riley has become a cult hero. “She’s a multiple homicide suspect.”

“Not to them she’s not.”

It’s refreshing to see a 46 year-old woman heading up an action movie and having it be about the plot, not how sexy she looks. If Liam Neeson, Daniel Craig and Bruce Willis can do it, so can Garner. She’s not the most subtle actress but you don’t need to be for this kind of role. She really transformed her physique for this too. Garner reportedly doubled her workouts, doing boxing, martial arts and dance aerobics early each morning with trainer Simone De La Rue. It shows.

I love mindless action movies and will definitely see this as long as it doesn’t get panned. It’s out September 7th.

In other Garner news, she got new six baby chicks and took votes on Instagram to name one of them. Hennifer was the winner, which is kind of cute. Also she did a singalong with Juliette Lewis on the set of their HBO show, Camping. It’s really cheesy and I’m not going to embed it but you can see it on Instagram.

Also, if this is a hit I bet she’ll get a bunch of sequels a la Taken. That trailer is making me view these candid pics of Garner in a new light.

Photos credit: Backgrid