Rent The Equalizer 3 (2023)

Beautifully realised travelogue/thriller - The Equalizer 3 review by Alphaville

One of the attractions of the Equalizer franchise, besides Denzel’s charismatic lead, is its emphasis on beautiful settings and appealing characters. Here the setting is the picturebook town of Abrani, set in a canyon on Italy’s Amalfi coast (standing in for Sicily in the plot), beautifully filmed by Antoine Fuqua’s fluid camerawork. The mafia-harassed locals in need of Denzel’s skills are equally well-drawn. Even when there’s little going on in the plot, it’s good to spend time with them while we follow Denzel wandering around town getting to know them. You’ll want to visit. It’s almost a travelogue. As for the mafia baddies… they’re suitably nasty and really need to be equalized by our hero. Disappointments? Government sidekick Dakota Fanning has little to work with and the climax is a damp squib. Despite that, the journey there is beautifully realised and a joy to watch. Keep ‘em coming, Antoine.

Highly Entertaining Action Thriller - The Equalizer 3 review by GI

By now you know exactly what you're going to get and this doesn't disappoint. A highly entertaining action thriller and in this case a beautiful southern Italian setting. Denzel Washington reprises his role as the ADHD suffering former CIA black ops man who likes to right wrongs but is a troubled man due to the unbelievable amount of people he's iced over three films. He's reunited here with his Man On Fire (2004) co-star Dakota Fanning, who I have to say is a little underused but this is Washington's show. As McCall he's still out there dishing the violence on the bad guys and he's in Italy where after being wounded is recuperating in a lovely little town, befriended by the locals and ready to finally settle down for some well earned peace and quiet. Unfortunately the local mafia boss is a nasty piece of work and McCall decides to rid the town of him and his henchmen. This is done with some toe curling violence, beautifully choreographed and all great fun and what we expect with an Equalizer film. It's full on action and bloody and entertains from start to finish. If you enjoyed the first two then this will not disappoint.

After 2 magnificent films, the wheels truly come off in a mainly rubbish & nonsensical sequel - The Equalizer 3 review by TB

When Denzel Washington signed up to the 1st Equilizer film, reuniting with his longtime collaborator Antoine Fuqua, as well as the potential for it to become a series, a lot of people were interested & excited to see what they would create. Washington is an actor whose middle name could quite easily be gravitas, such is his extraordinary ability to command the screen & your attention, alongside an impressive track record of choosing mainly solid & decent scripts, even if the eventual film isn't a home run.

With both the 1st & 2nd films, not only were they brilliantly made, but also you genuinely enjoyed spending time in Robert McCall's company. As I said in my reviews, I loved the fact that the script work & characterisation really made McCall a solid & 3-dimensional protagonist, not just a random ex-military type who is wronged & then this used as a setup for various trite action scenes. The 2nd film finished on a high & also left the ground ready for another adventure.

But despite the same team returning for the 3rd outing, what they have produced is a fairly terrible & oddly emotionless film, in which all the components are there but little of it lands. There have also been some frankly horrible changes as well, which really don't ring true. The biggest one of these, which actually affects the whole tone of the film, is the extreme ratcheting up of the violence. Make no mistake, the previous films had moments of strong & unpleasant violence, but this fitted perfectly with it being a mature & serious story, mercifully unsanitized by a 12A/PG-13 obsessed Hollywood.

But this has been taken totally overboard here. In the opening scene, the camera roams through a house which McCall has turned into a bloodbath, slaughtering the mercenaries inside. And the camera fetishistically zooms in & pans around the graphic injuries that have been caused, really revelling in the nastiness. This tone continues throughout the film, as well as the level of cruelty that McCall displays, which is way over the top, culminating in him poisoning someone & then following them as they stagger away, taunting them. This bears no resemblance in any way to the previous incarnations of the character, who in many ways used violence sparingly & briefly most of the time.

Plot wise, this is also very thin. McCall ends up in a beautiful & tranquil part of Italy, full of gentle & salt of the earth people. Into this, the film thrusts a selection of cardboard cut-out, clichéd bad guys; people who can only really be differentiated by the tattoos & hairstyles they have. And leading them is a "big boss," who again is just an extremely horrible & violent monster who lives in a massive house & barks orders at underlings. McCall gets mixed up apparently by fluke with this Mafia group's drug operation, leading to them launching a crusade against him. This comes to an abrupt & sudden conclusion, which made me wonder if I'd missed a chunk of the film out.

But for me the worst thing about this film is also what was one of the most hyped-up parts of it: after first appearing together over 20 years ago in the magnificent Man on Fire, Washington is reunited with Dakota Fanning. But the magic of their 1st collaboration is nowhere to be seen. In what has been called a glorified cameo, she has about 20 minutes of screen time, almost no opportunity to develop her character & roughly half her lines are things which McCall has said to her, in effect rendering her a parrot. And that is such a massive waste: the combination of those two actors before literally broke my heart, such was the strength of their chemistry, but here it is almost an after-thought.

As much as I wanted to love this film, it's poor choices & script just make it a schlocky, run-of-the-mill revenge thriller, which is everything the previous films weren't.