Equalizer 2 a guilty pleasure for Denzel
Print Edition
YOU won’t usually find Denzel Washington in a movie sequel. He just doesn’t do them. Something about not wanting to repeat himself. So there must be something special indeed for him to break his own rule for “The Equalizer 2.”
Fans of the first film will instantly know why Washington is drawn to the character of Robert McCall, a quiet middle-aged retired special-ops agent who fiercely believes in justice, likes to help others and dispenses the occasional lethal killing for those deserving.
“We all have to pay for our sins,” he tells a group of very bad guys in the new, highly satisfying edition, before vowing to hunt each one dead.
“The Equalizer 2” reconnects many of the people behind the 2014 debut alongside the always-vital Washington‚ Antoine Fuqua returns to direct, as does writer Richard Wenk and actors Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo.
In the first film, a hooker with a heart of gold pulls McCall out of retirement when she is badly beaten by her pimp. By the end, McCall has blown up most of Boston’s waterfront, exposed a nest of corrupt local cops and systematically executed every member of a Russian gang, even going to Moscow to finish the job. The second film takes place sometime later, with McCall now a Lyft driver, selectively helping people he encounters. He’s kind to old people (a Holocaust survivor, for extra depth) and little kids, who adore him. He mentors a troubled teen (Ashton Sanders), hoping to steer him away from drug dealing and toward art school. Few people could pull off this cheesy sainthood like Washington, oozing charisma and self-assured masculinity.
The film somewhat confusingly toggles through various initial threads before landing on the main one‚ someone crucial to McCall’s murky past is murdered in Brussels and that reveals a barrel of bad government apples. We get to see McCall solve the crime from his Boston apartment by putting himself in the crime scene like an episode of “Crossing Jordan” and then avenge the death.
“The Equalizer” is a guilty pleasure for anyone who enjoys that old-school, blue-collar American chivalric hero with a dark past. The one who was in “The Quiet Man” and behind the mask in Batman.
He’s the kind of guy who cauterizes his own wounds, never permits collateral damage when he’s on a killing spree, wears a knit polo to a showdown with four heavily armed tactical fighters and reads great books of literature to honor his beloved dead wife.
He’s cool, with moral clarity and he’s three moves ahead of everyone. No wonder he’s such a welcome sight in 2018 America and no wonder Washington wanted another go-around.
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