The Equalizer 3 Review
Theatrical Movie Review - Action/Thriller
My husband is not very good at taking down time. Sitting and resting is not his strong suit, and the truth is, it’s hard for a lot of people. We have a strong “rise and grind” culture that makes many of us feel like rest is laziness. It’s why we frequently hear about folks who retire only to find themselves even more busy than they were when they were working a full-time job. For the title character of “The Equalizer 3” by director Antoine Fuqua, this idea is explored in some detail.
Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is following up a job in a small town in southern Italy and as he is leaving, he is injured. He is taken by a kind policeman (Eugenio Mastrandrea) to Dr. Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone) who operates on him and houses him as he recovers. As “Roberto” spends time in this small town, he finds that it suits him and he grows to enjoy the company of the residents. But he sees them being terrorized by a mob organization led by Vincent Quaranta (Andrea Scarduzio) and his brother Marco (Andrea Dodero). In order to protect his new friends and their way of life, he will have to take on the mob all by himself.
In a time when action movie franchises like “Mission:Impossible” or “John Wick” have elaborate backstories and intricate plots, “The Equalizer” franchise is simple in its storytelling. There aren’t complicated motivations or secret organizations. It’s just the mob, filled with bad guys, and a town, filled with good guys. But if you’re going to jam a gun into a guy’s eye socket and then fire through the back of his skull at another bad guy, they had better be unequivocally bad.
At 69, Washington is still a very convincing ex-CIA member. He continues to ooze both charm and menace in a way that no one else can quite manage. The rest of the cast is definitely elevated by his performance. But again, this isn’t a nuanced tale where people need to dig deep into characters. None are developed and that’s not really necessary. For the most part, I think that’s fine, though I do wish that Dakota Fanning’s character could have been fleshed out a bit more. She felt the most tacked-on in this story.
If you’re looking for a detailed or subtle story about good and evil, this movie is probably not for you. If you’re looking for a movie with very clear divides between saints and devils where the saint dispatches all of the devils in extremely gruesome ways, then you should check this out. If you’re looking for a way to spend your retirement, you can probably take McCall’s advice on settling down in Sicily, but you might want to let someone else clear out the mobsters first. Seems like a lot of work for someone looking to get some rest.
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on September 3, 2023.