The Equalizer 3: A Decidedly Unequal Sequel to a Slow-Moving Action Franchise

By Chris Knight

Rating: C-

Not all Equalizers are created equal. Just look at their output. Over its four seasons, the original TV show with the late Edward Woodward delivered not just 88 nail-biting episodes, but enough goodwill to engender the first Equalizer big-screen remake in 2014.

Then came another Equalizer, a pandemic-era TV series starring Queen Latifah, now three seasons and 46 episodes strong and counting. Not long before that debuted we saw The Equalizer 2, sequel to the first movie.

 Now The Equalizer 3 has arrived. Yes, just three chapters in nine long years, proving that while justice may be merciless, it’s anything but swift. (I stole that line from my review of The Equalizer 2 which no one will remember because it was written FIVE YEARS AGO!)

Denzel Washington is… well, you know.

This one opens in Sicily, with an Italian crime lord showing up for work only to discover that vigilante Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has already been there, wiping out most of the man’s staff. He’s waiting to finish the job.

 During their final, fantastically violent standoff, McCall manages to shoot one guy through the eye, then shoot another guy THROUGH that eye. There may be a metaphor in there, but I couldn’t see it.

McCall gets injured during the battle, but fortunately he’s patched up by a kindly local doctor named Enzo (Remo Girone). Enzo doesn’t make house calls, but he doesn’t have to. He lets this American stranger convalesce in his home, warning McCall to take it easy and go slow.

And boy, does he ever follow doctor’s orders! The Equalizer movies are not known for their rapid pacing, but No. 3 really ramps up the shambling languidness, with numerous scenes of McCall hobbling around the lovely south-central Italian town of Altomonte, gradually recovering from his wounds and getting to know locals like café owner Aminah (Gaia Scodellaro) and fishmonger Angelo (Daniele Perrone).

 Alas, all is not placid in this seemingly tranquil town. Brothers Vincent and Marco (Andrea Scarduzio and Andrea Dodero) are running drugs, shaking down the inhabitants for protection money, and generally acting like they own the place.

 They don’t have “Roberto” McCall to deal with yet, but that’s only because he doesn’t have his strength back. You can bet that when that happens, he’ll go from glowering across the room to lowering the boom. Just don’t hold your breath, as he’s the master of making haste slowly.

 This Equalizer, like its two predecessors, was directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk, whose credits tend to pair short titles with definite articles: The Expendables, The Protege, The Magnificent Seven, The Mechanic, etc.

 This kind of continuity would suggest a similar consistency of character, but it’s hard to pin down what’s under McCall’s hood. With his odd speech patterns and obsession with just-so neatness, he sometimes comes across as a man on the spectrum with OCD. Other times he just seems like a shy guy in a hat. His fluency in Italian is similarly fluid.

 Regardless, he’s definitely not one to suffer fools, tools or drug mules. And he seems to have an avuncular soft spot for local CIA operative Emma Collins, though that may just be because she’s played by Dakota Fanning, and they starred together in Man on Fire, 20 years ago.

 We’ll figure out their connection eventually, though like so much else in the movie it’ll take time. I also noticed that the Italian characters in The Equalizer 3 tend to speak more slowly than usual, almost as though waiting for the subtitles to catch up.

 If you can handle that pacing, interspersed with short bursts of intense violence, then The Equalizer may yet hold your attention. But at the tail end of a summer that delivered exciting new chapters in the Indiana Jones and Mission: Impossible franchises, that may be asking a lot.

 One thing this sequel has going for it is that it bucks the trend of ever more bloated running times. Where The Equalizer ran a needless two hours and 12 minutes, and Equilizer-er came in at two-oh-one, Equalizer-est manages to tell its tale in an hour and 49. That’s progress, until you recall that the very first Equalizer had everything sewn up in less than 48 minutes per episode, plus commercials and station identification. He had a cooler car too.

The Equalizer 3. Directed by Antoine Fuqua. Starring Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, and Andrea Scarduzio. In theatres September 1.