Without a doubt, Denzel Washington is one of the best actors we have working today and he is one of the best actors of all time. He’s been nominated 10 times for the Academy Award for his acting yet he’s only won twice. And in a controversial way, he lost for Fences, but didn’t get nominated for Philadelphia, even he was just as good as Tom Hanks.
Washington helped break down the racial barriers that are still common but not totally demolished. In movies like Philadelphia and Flight, he played roles that weren’t specified for a black actor. And his latest movie The Equalizer 3, he plays Robert McCall, a retired secret agent with the CIA, who’s very deadly when he has to be. The movie franchise (Washington’s only) is based on the 1980s thriller series of the same name which featured English actor Edward Woodward in the role. McCall is a perfect role for Washington, who at 69, shows no sign of slowing down.
Washington has only appeared in one comedy in his career, which was Heart Condition. But he’s mostly stuck to dramas, action movies and even horrors/thrillers. Yet, he still has some of that charm where he can flash a smile and let out that laugh, you know you’d want to have a beer with him or just hang out with him. All three Equalizer movies are directed by Antoine Fuqua, who directed Washington in his Oscar-winning role as a dirty LAPD cop in Training Day. They also made the remake to The Magnificent Seven which featured him with Ethan Hawke again. It wasn’t the best but it had its moments and it was nice to see Washington as a cowboy.
However, this time around, McCall is too cocky, something that Washington isn’t known for unless it’s needed for the role. Set mostly in Italy, probably because Washington wanted to take a vacation to the Mediterranean, McCall finds himself dealing with a crime lord over a coastal southern Italian town after being wounded when he deals with another Italian gangster on Sicily. He finds some friendly people and a caring doctor along the Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately, the town he’s in isn’t much different from the Sicilian village where he was at the beginning.
This time around it just feels like the filmmakers either gave up or there was a much longer script that the studio and corporate daddy Sony cut down to the bare bones. The action scenes are good despite the use of CGI. And while I’m sure audiences will chuckle as McCall shoots a bad guy in the ass, the violence of this movie is way too much. Members of a Camorra in the picturesque Italian village act like one-dimensional caricatures harassing, beating, and killing people in ways that seem too brutal for an action movie. An elderly man in a wheelchair is thrown of a second story window with a noose around his neck. A crooked police chief has his hand cut off for refusing to follow the crime boss’ orders.
If this is to make us sympathize with McCall as he constantly blows people’s brains out and slashes their throats, I don’t think it works. You hardly get to know the bad guys before they’re dispensed. It’s almost like an afterthought. Main crime boss Vincent Quaranta (Andrea Scarduzio) only appears in the final act and even the other main heavy whose his brother, Marco (Andrea Dodero), is comical and poorly acted. There’s a similar scene to the “King Kong” scene in Training Day which raises a question, why didn’t the village residents stand up before now? There only seems to be a couple of dozen henchmen, but there are hundreds in the village.
There’s some subplot that is barely mentioned in some areas involving terroristic attacks and drug smuggling. This brings in Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) with the CIA who is actually the daughter of Brian and Susan Palmer (Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo from the previous two entries). But Collins only seems to be added for a chance for Washington and Fanning to reunite nearly two decades after Man on Fire. This is why I feel that there was a bigger script that was written that was meant to end the franchise but rather do something like John Wick 4 which was nearly three hours long but still worked, it was sliced up to make it more commercial friendly.
Wenk is one of those writers who has written many action thrillers like this, including the second Expendables and second Jack Reacher movie as well as the previous Equalizer movies. However, the first two movies had a feel to them where you felt was building up to something. McCall says he feels very comfortable in the Italian village but everything including the conversations with the residents feel forced.
Washington has said that this is his last outing as McCall despite it being a success at the box office. And there is a sense of finality in the last scene. It’s right for him to leave. This is one of his worst movies. There’s no reason for him to return.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 