The Equalizer 3 (2023) Columbia/Action RT: 109 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence, some language) Director: Antoine Fuqua Screenplay: Richard Wenk Music: Marcelo Zarvos Cinematography: Robert Richardson Release date: September 1, 2023 (US) Cast: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Eugenio Mastrandrea, David Denman, Gaia Scodellaro, Remo Girone, Andrea Scarduzio, Andrea Dodero, Daniele Perrone, Zakaria Hamza, Manuela Tassciotti, Dea Lanzaro, Sonia Ben Ammar, Alessandro Pess. Box Office: $92.4M (US)/$191.1M (World)
Rating: ***
Is it just me or did this summer go by fast? I can’t believe it’s already Labor Day. It doesn’t seem that long ago when I reviewed the first of this summer’s movies Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Now I’m reviewing the last of them The Equalizer 3. I know it doesn’t bode well for a franchise picture to open on the last official weekend of summer, but I’m happy to report this three-quel isn’t a bummer.
Director Antoine Fuqua and superstar Denzel Washington reteam for this supposedly final installment of the series loosely based on the popular 80s TV show. In this episode… I mean entry, ex-government agent/vigilante extraordinaire Robert McCall finds himself in Italy facing off against a Mafia family trying to take over the small coastal village of Altamonte. That’s where he ends up after he’s shot by a kid after wiping out members of a drug gang operating out of a vineyard in Sicily. The local doctor Enzo (Girone, Ford v Ferrari), after tending to his wound, asks McCall if he’s a good or bad man. McCall doesn’t have an answer for him. This is about as deep as The Equalizer 3 gets.
While recovering from his injury, McCall starts to get to know the people of Altamonte. He likes it there because it’s peaceful…. mostly. There’s a gang of Mafia punks hassling the locals. The leader Marco (Dodero, Blocco 181), under the orders of mob boss and big brother Vincent (Scarduzio, Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One), is trying to push everybody out to make way for yet another vacation mecca that caters to wealthy tourists. Common sense tells McCall to stay out of it; it’s none of his business. His sense of right and wrong tells him otherwise. Take a guess who he listens to.
Meanwhile, there’s that nasty business back at the villa. It seems that McCall stumbled onto something big while getting what he went there for. It’s big enough for him to make an anonymous call to the CIA call center. The agent who answers, Emma Collins (Fanning, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), asks the usual questions- i.e. who are you, where did you come by this info, how did you get this number, etc.- and McCall dodges them as usual. She eventually catches up to him in Altamonte where he’s only too glad to pose for the secret pics she’s taking with her phone. She knows there’s more to this mysterious American than meets the eye, but that gets set aside when a connection between the drug gang and terrorism is uncovered.
The Equalizer 3 marks the fifth collaboration between Fuqua and Denzel (EQ1 & 2, Training Day and The Magnificent Seven), but that’s not the only reunion going on. Denzel co-starred with Dakota in 2004’s Man on Fire when she was a mere lass of nine. She more than held her own against the acting titan and does it again two decades later. I don’t mean to get ahead of myself here, but if Fuqua decides to continue the series with or without Denzel, Dakota just might be able to pull it off. I still have yet to see her in full action mode, but I imagine with the right physical training, she could be a total bad ass. She does a good job with what she’s given to do; that’s not the problem. The problem is the screenplay. A connection between the case she’s investigating and what’s going on in Altamonte is never really established. There are a few hiccups in Richard Wenk’s (EQ1 & 2) script, but at least it’s clear who the bad guys are and what their motive is unlike EQ2.
Denzel is top-notch as always. He’s good in everything and while the Equalizer movies aren’t exactly Oscar bait, they’re a lot of fun. That is, if you enjoy seeing a lone vigilante take out various bad guys in brutal and bloody ways. There’s a great kill early on in the proceeding. While fighting the last of the bad guys at the vineyard, McCall shoves a gun barrel through somebody’s eye and starts firing. OMG, it’s cool! Denzel gets to dispatch plenty of creeps and criminals over the course of 109 minutes and it’s always fun to watch.
As I waited for The Equalizer 3 to begin, I told myself to just lighten up and enjoy the ride. It’s not Shakespeare; it’s a dopey action flick. I tried to look at it as a B-movie with a higher price tag. It worked more or less. I liked The Equalizer 3. Sure, it has some narrative deficiencies and lacks character development. That didn’t really bother me. All I wanted was a good violent action movie to end the summer on. That’s what I got. I can’t think of a better way to say aloha summer, until next year.
