The Equalizer (film)
2014
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Jul 20, 2018 · Roger Ebert pans the sequel to the 2014 action film starring Denzel Washington as a former CIA agent who kills criminals. He criticizes the plot, the violence, and the lack of intelligence and originality in the film.
Jul 20, 2018 · The Equalizer 2 delivers the visceral charge of a standard vigilante thriller, but this reunion of trusted talents ultimately proves a disappointing case study in diminishing returns. Read...
- (213)
- Antoine Fuqua
- R
- Denzel Washington
Jul 19, 2018 · Review: Denzel Washington Plays Judge, Jury and Executioner in ‘The Equalizer 2’. Share full article. Denzel Washington is an avenger with an arsenal in Antoine Fuqua’s “The Equalizer...
- Antoine Fuqua
- Manohla Dargis
- 121 min
Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Oct 29, 2019. Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews,...
- Goes through the (brutal) motions.
- Verdict
By Witney Seibold
Updated: Jul 25, 2018 4:43 am
Posted: Jul 18, 2018 5:00 am
Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer (released in 2014 and based on a mid-1980s TV series), remains, perhaps, the best Punisher feature film we'll ever see. Robert McCall, as played by Denzel Washington, is a righteous vigilante with an implacable sense of righteousness, and no small amount talent when it comes to violent killing. McCall quietly works blue collar jobs, eats in modest local diners, and who is slowly working his way through the 100 best books in the Western Canon at the behest of a fallen wife. He even has a gimmick. When McCall charges into a room to do damage to a large number of Russian pimps and scumbags, he times himself via stopwatch as if he's trying to beat his own record. Robert McCall is essentially a comic book superhero. It's easy to see, then, why Washington and Fuqua would want to make The Equalizer 2, the first time either of them has made a sequel or reprised a character. Robert McCall must be a fun character to play and offers both the director and the actor a chance to present a heroic vigilante with both thrilling violence as well as actual moral indignation.
He's certainly a modest delight to watch, at least in fits, as The Equalizer 2 contains some wonderful self-contained moments from McCall in both an action/fight capacity and in a civic-minded activist capacity. Indeed, so eager was Fuqua to see McCall in action that The Equalizer 2 introduces him twice: First, aboard a Turkish train, where he is seen taking out high-level gangsters with spinning kicks and well-placed fists, and again in a Boston high-rise where he beats a cadre of wealthy yuppies after they mistreat a woman. While the secondary establishment of McCall's badass cred is not needed for the film as a whole, it's still fun to see a rich, arrogant brat – probably named Brett or something – get sliced in the neck by his own sharpened platinum credit card.
When he's not kicking ass, McCall is making ends meet as a Lyft driver (the screenplay namechecks Lyft at least a dozen times) and conversing with the colorful locals. McCall can also be found cleaning the graffiti off of his Boston apartment building and reading the 100th book in his quest, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time: Time Regained. We also witness McCall actively reaching out to an at-risk teen named Miles (Ashton Sanders from Moonlight) who teeters between a life at art school and a life as a criminal. McCall even has a chance – late in the film – to give Miles a speech about the power of character and the importance of making the right choices. As one would expect from Denzel Washington, it's an excellently acted scene, providing a touching and intense moment of surprising depth and salient, modern morality.
The Equalizer 2's conventional storytelling is certainly weak, and the violence is particularly brutal, but Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua have created a unique Punisher-with-heart vigilante character that is a pleasant thrill to watch and a modest delight to revisit.
- Witney Seibold
Jul 18, 2018 · Film Review: Denzel Washington in ‘The Equalizer 2’. In his first sequel, Denzel Washington plays a ruthless vigilante with good intentions — though even those can't save this nasty thriller....
Jul 17, 2018 · ‘The Equalizer 2’: Film Review. Denzel Washington reprises his role as a retired government operative who is drawn back into action in 'The Equalizer 2.' By Todd McCarthy. July 17,...
