The Equalizer 3

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Yesterday evening me and the kids, well the two boys at least, sat down to watch The Equalizer 3 which has been sitting on my to-watch shelf for a while. I have quite liked the previous two instalments and this was was a quite good movie as well. It starts of with a fairly brutal, The Equalizer style, slaying of a bunch of bad guys but then McCall gets shot in the back by a kid and goes into a bit of a funk. The entire movie slows down quite a bit after that while McCall goes around moping. It was actually a bit boring and I could have been without that. Still, McCall is McCall and the movie does pick up speed again after a while. There are some quite nice action scenes as we approach the ending and the way McCall disposes of the bad guys towards the end is quite brutal. When I saw that the movie had an R-rating in the states I thought, yeah right this is another one of these movies where they show a boob or two or use adult language and then the easily offended whiners go all must-be-restricted-bullshit over it but I guess it was because of the brutal slayings after all. Still, in France it got a restricted from 12 years and below which is far from an R-rating and more reasonable. Guess we got less whining asshats here. Overall a good movie though. Technically, the filming and the acting was very good. If not for the boring parts for almost half the movie it might have gotten a 5 out of 5 from me.

A kick-ass third installment! The story depicted in <em>'The Equalizer 3'</em> is surprisingly straightforward, it's literally just Robert McCall reactively killing bad guys for almost two hours... so what's not to enjoy?! Denzel Washington in the lead role is as ace as he is in the prior flicks, I am yet to watch a less than good Denzel picture; 15 films deep into his filmography, what an actor! I don't recall the previous two movies from this trilogy featuring as many brutal deaths as this one does, which is great. I could be misrembering but, whatever, I really enjoyed seeing McCall do his thing in this one. The music is also noteworthy, while the Italian setting is splendidly portrayed - terrific choice of location! The support cast are inferior to Washington, naturally, but still solid, cool to see Dakota Fanning reunite onscreen with the aforementioned. End of the trilogy it seems, though there are murmurs on potentially more films in some sorta way - hardly unexpected. As for these three, 2 is my favourite followed by this and then 1. Antoine Fuqua (also yet to see a less than very good movie from him, from 7 watched) and Washington are evidently a top notch pairing, either way.

Anyone remember the little tune that went with the Edward Woodward television series? Well you won't hear it here in this rather procedural vehicle for Denzel Washington. His usually meticulous planning is compromised by a young lad with a rifle. This leaves "McCall" needing the care of a doctor "Enzo" (Remo Girone) in a small Sicilian town that is about to become the centre of the venal ambitions of "Vincent" (Andrea Scarduzio) and his henchman younger brother "Marco" (Andrea Dodero) who uses his team of thugs to extort from the local businesses. It's only a matter of time before heads clash and, well - you can guess the rest of this actually rather brutally predictable drama. Dakota Fanning appears now and again in a rather unnecessary sub-plot involving the CIA and some Syrian narcotics smugglers that is really undercooked - but for the most part this is really just Denzel being, well, Denzel on his quest to save his new-found friends from the grip of the unscrupulous Camorra. It's overlong for what it is, and I found Washington's performance to be rather sluggish throughout before a denouement that came across as rather simplistically rushed. It's fine, but forgettable.

Another solid entry in this franchise. Nothing fantastic and not as good as the first, but still entertaining thanks to the great Denzel Washington. Also nice seeing the reunion with Dakota Fanning and cool twist about her character at the end. The only downside is it doesn't have the visual pazazz compared with the first film and is kind of routine in its direction by Antoine Fuqua who is normally a solid director. **3.5/5** And as a side, not sure the last time I've seen a franchise so consistent at the box office with all three movies making ~$180 million worldwide and ~$35 million on opening weekends domestically.

The new Equalizer film franchise is devoid of the moderation, charm and gentlemanly grace of the original television series, with Edward Woodward. Instead, its mired in gratuitous, humiliating, dehumanising violence, with a key character who feels more like the Terminator, than an assassin with a conscience. In short its ugly stuff. I managed about 15 minutes of this, before calling it a day. I will say too, for me, this kind of unnecessarily violent nonsense, is part of whats wrong with the world today. In summary, brutally violent, ugly and inaccessible. I'll pass.