CALIFORNIA, Md. – Hitting theaters August 31st, The Equalizer 3 is the last blockbuster of the summer season. Starring Denzel Washington, this movie is the final chapter in the trilogy of an action/thriller box office phenomenon.
IMDB.com describes the movie’s plot as follows: “Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy, but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends’ protector by taking on the mafia.”
The movie begins as one would guess – dead bodies and the tense reveal of Robert McCall, who has slayed an entire group of bad guys. Gore, violence, and one-liners fly at top speed to start things off.
However, McCall gets injured on his way out, landing him in a small town in Italy to heal. We follow as his healing journey begins, and he falls in love with the quaint, tight knight community. Unfortunately, this is where the film takes a much slower pace.
While we’re taken to breathtaking Italiano vistas, we learn far too slowly that something else is afoot. McCall has stumbled upon another group of bad guys out to destroy the little town he now calls home. Painfully, we watch as the CIA gets somewhat involved in the beginning battle royale, leading Agent Collins, played by Dakota Fanning, to find McCall and ask some questions. While I’m all about a Man on Fire reunion, Fanning’s role is unnecessary, and it feels like they wrote her in just for the reunion’s sake.
It’s only near the end of the movie, which runs approximately one hour and 49 minutes, does the action, fighting and excitement pick up to end on a lovely note of peace, finally, for McCall and his long career.
There’s much to be said about the cinematography and the use of string instruments versus a typical base soundtrack, but it feels like jazz. If you get it, you’ll love it. If you don’t, you’re left feeling a few ups and downs but ultimately, dare I say, bored.
The acting is superb, and the fight sequences are unique and ingenious, but the plot is thin, and it’s hard to feel a real emotional connection to the characters. Of course, you don’t like the bad guys, and you want to see McCall kick some major butt, but a lot more butt-kicking could have helped the movie’s pacing. This felt like a tour of Italy as opposed to the ultimate end to such an insanely tense trilogy. The first two films served that purpose better.
If you enjoy this genre and have seen the first two films, you will enjoy this. Movie 101 rules, no matter how far along in a franchise, every movie should be able to stand alone without having to know anything prior to it. Things will be lost in translation if you missed out on the prior releases.
In the end, it is Denzel’s impeccable acting, the aggressive fighting style and the happy ending that saves this movie. The peaceful end for the character’s long, self-sacrificing retirement is satisfying. McCall’s internal battle of “Is he ultimately a good man or a bad man?” is also something the audience can chew on.
Screen it, Stream it or Skip it: Stream It
Equalizer fans may want to see this in theaters to get the full effect of the slicing and dicing. For everyone else, if you have some extra time on the weekend and want an easy-to-swallow action movie, this would be enjoyable from the comfort of your home. It is rated R, for good reason, so the kids may need to be in bed. But Denzel brings his A game, as always, and that’s something that should never be missed.
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I looked up The Camorra and that group exists. Did they have permission to use the name ?
In real life the Camorra might want vengeance. For real.