The Equalizer

Special treat today: I just came back from seeing “The Equalizer 2,” one of my most wanting to watch movies this summer. Before I talk about that, I have to talk about the first movie, released in 2014, and what I thought about that.

Retired secret agent Robert McCall, played by Denzel Washington, helps innocent people in danger. When a young prostitute, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, gets assaulted, McCall kills her pimp and goes after the Russian Mafia section.

Kim Newman said in her review, “The premise of the 1985-’89 TV series The Equalizer was less important than the star casting, and this big-screen reboot cannily substitutes Denzel Washington’s brand of quiet, controlled, middle-aged cool for the late Edward Woodward. Washington’s McCall holds down a job in a home supplies depot in Boston and spends his nights reading great works of literature in a diner copied from an Edward Hopper painting... until he spots an injustice being done in the neighbourhood, and turns into a deadly, calculating action man.”

The story is nothing special, with something that feels like a romanticized version of “Taxi Driver” and a guideline demonstration of tattooed Russian Mob man and sneering crooked cops effortlessly surpassed by the protagonist. Newman said, “At 132 minutes, it plays like a slow-motion version of the sort of caper Steven Seagal or Chuck Norris used to wind up inside an hour-and-a-half, with added philosophical brooding. Director Antoine Fuqua, calming down after the ludicrous Olympus Has Fallen, plays up the star’s slightly stiff, almost smug presence — even the action scenes are steadily paced and a trifle pompous.” When McCall does his awesome slow walk away from an amazing explosion he made, it gives attention to the fact that this protagonist wanders everywhere at a slow pace, even in race-against-time epics. Newman mentioned, “Chloë Grace Moretz does something with a conventional tart-with-a-heart part and Marton Csokas seethes as the hero’s ex-Spetsnaz doppelgänger, but this is all Denzel’s show.” After “Man on Fire,” this type of hired avenger isn’t really up to par, but Washington is not even close to not being watchable and his intensity gives power that the script doesn’t really provide. Newman said, “There’s a pleasant low-tech aspect to McCall’s vigilantism, with household and garden tools used to fashion death-traps — though he’s so omnicompetent that there’s seldom any suspense unless innocents are dragged in as hostages, whereupon Washington moderates his stare to suggest he’s especially ticked off.”

Despite being strained and a little tedious, this is a nicely acceptable star film with more than enough honorable vengeance for a time of exclusive pleasures.

I know this movie is basically the usual Denzel Washington revenge plot, but it was still nice and stylized with the way the action was done and thought out. If you’re a Washington fan, like I am, then you should definitely check this one. You will absolutely love this one.

However, what can be said about the sequel, released last month? Let’s find out:

Denzel Washington playing a Lyft driver? Nobody would have thought of that decision. However, in “The Equalizer 2,” the first sequel ever in Washington’s acting career, he gets behind the wheel and picks up riders in the Boston area. Beware of ticking him off. Washington’s character, Robert McCall is still a retired special-ops agent with a mission on equalizing the criminals he meets on the job. His disguise last time was a job at Home Depot, but the Lyft job gives him the ability to see the worst of people. Peter Travers said in his review, “Edward Woodward, who starred in the 1980s series on which The Equalizer is based, never got to lay on rough, R-rated justice like Denzel does.” You’re probably thinking, isn’t the two-time Oscar winner going way down low in a vigilante movie? Yes, but that doesn’t lower his famous strength.

With director Antoine Fuqua returning, the sequel to the first thriller gives Washington a trusted teammate. Being superfluous to tell the description for the character like the first time, the sequel is faster than before. Travers said, “Yes, Richard Wenk’s threadbare script still insists on showing us McCall dispatch a few baddies just to give us a taste of his MO. There an opening scene on a train in Turkey in which the hero makes mincemeat of baby traffickers who’ve stolen a infant from her American mother.” Bet on this man, who wants to help those helpless people, to equalize the criminals.

Just don’t think you’ll get anything original. Remember in the first movie when McCall murdered the Russian pimps to save Teri, the teen prostitute? Now he helps out Miles, played by Ashton Sanders from “Moonlight,” an African-American art student who’s letting his desire to be friends with criminals and drug-addicts. McCall, the main father figure, is not going to let that happen. He gets interrupted when he is visited by his former Agency coworker Susan Plummer, played by Melissa Leo, who still cares about him.

Then something happens to her in Paris that gets McCall worked up. To know more, he goes to his intelligence friend Dave York, played by Pedro Pascal, who thought McCall was dead all these years. Not even close. This builds up to a really violent shootout with the villains (and a kidnapped Miles) in a violent storm near the beach house McCall once lived in with his wife. This is where you get the nicely choreographed bloody gunfight. Fuqua doesn’t waste the violence. Travers said, “It’s just the moral issues that go begging.”

Travers goes on to ask, “Yet the question persists: Why would a quality actor like Washington (who just gave a titanic performance on Broadway in Eugene O’Neill’s classic The Iceman Cometh) waste his time with B-movie bang-bang? You could theorize that this son of a Pentecostal preacher identifies with these Equalizer stories about young people in danger of falling through the cracks of society. He has publicly stated he was once in that position himself and got help.” Regardless of why, Washington brings a sympathy and a significant dramatic weight to the role of McCall that the movie he’s in can’t really match. “The Equalizer 2” feels irregular and not equal. However, Washington isn’t, regardless of the bad accessories, there’s not one better to watch in action.

Now the first one felt like a simple, straightforward plot, but this one felt like two or three stories in one movie. Certain characters you forget were in the movie, but come in again when you forgot about them, and it feels similar with Washington now trying to save the boy like he did with the girl in the first one. However, it’s still nice to see Washington in action and being ninja-like with his murders, so I say definitely check this one out, despite it not being as good as the first one.

Alright, thank you for joining in on today’s review. Look out this Friday for the conclusion of “The Muppet Month.”