The Equalizer 3 (5/10)

by Tony Medley

130 minutes

R.

Director Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington have had a fertile relationship with some reasonably entertaining movies. Alas, this time Fuqua brought his trademark grisly violence but forgot a believable story.

They telegraph that what you are about to see is nonsense by an opening sequence that is utterly absurd, and that continues throughout the film. Robert McCall (Washington) is that hoary character, a vicious government assassin who is turning over a new leaf and wants to be a normal guy. Wounded from his last encounter he comes to an Italian village and takes on the local Mafia.

Written by Richard Wenk, that might make for a good film, but the problem is that this film makes no sense whatsoever. There are no believable relationships; McCall is never seen to be in any danger even though he constantly puts himself into ludicrous situations, always emerging unscathed.

I guess there’s supposed to be some non-romantic chemistry between Washington and Dakota Fanning who plays some sort of US government agent, but that totally fizzles. Exacerbating the lack of verisimilitude, Washington has put on a lot of weight and it’s a real stretch to think this guy could engage in combat with young men and generally escape to fight again.

Filmed in southern Italy, the two things good about it are the scenery and cinematography (Robert Richardson). But the denouement is so ridiculous that what came before just validates the idea that Fuqua really didn’t have any idea where to go with this, so he just winged it.