{"id":58707,"date":"2023-09-06T17:27:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T21:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=58707"},"modified":"2023-09-06T17:28:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T21:28:01","slug":"the-equalizer-3-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/09\/the-equalizer-3-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Equalizer 3\u201d \u2013 Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                It has been five years since we last saw Robert \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d McCall, as played by the ever-arresting Denzel Washington. In that time, we\u2019ve had a pandemic, three seasons of the Queen Latifah TV series (not to be confused with the Edward Woodward TV series from the 80\u2019s), and plenty of time to forget about this iteration of the franchise. I wish Washington and director Antoine Fuqua had forgotten about it too, because they both could have used the time they wasted on this movie doing something worthier of their talents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The movie opens with the aftermath of a McCall killing spree on the staff of a Sicilian mansion. McCall had to get the attention of a crime boss (Bruno Bilotta) in a way that involved not getting killed, but getting captured so the boss could get personally involved. McCall\u2019s plan in this sequence and in the one at the film\u2019s climax have the same problem: they require the bad guys to show exactly the right amount of mercy. Even though McCall knows about their ruthlessness, he expects them to bide their time, toy with him a certain way, and not kill anyone unnecessarily, lest we hold him responsible for getting an innocent person killed because he had to get cute with his strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The showdown at the mansion leaves McCall wounded. He\u2019s found unconscious by the side of the road by a helpful small-town cop (Eugenio Mastrandrea), who takes him to a local doctor (Remo Girone), who lets McCall recover at his house. McCall quickly takes to the town of Altamonte, where everyone is friendly to him, but fearful of the local Mafia, especially payment collector Marco (Andrea Dodero), brother of big boss Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio, and yes, I do think it\u2019s funny that the actors playing brothers share a first name, but not a last). He tries to stay out of the locals\u2019 delicate relationship with the violent organization, but trouble seems to have a way of finding Robert McCall, and he soon finds himself having to topple the entire criminal empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                McCall\u2019s feud with the villains isn\u2019t limited to the parameters of the little town. He picked up some information at the mansion that ties the specific crime family to an elaborate cyber-crime ring. He relays crumbs of information to CIA agent Collins (Dakota Fanning). I expected Collins to help out McCall in some of the action scenes since he\u2019s injured, but the character frustratingly never really gets in the game. I honestly started questioning if she was some sort of last-minute addition to the screenplay to pad the movie\u2019s runtime, since she never interacts with any major characters besides McCall, and the movie\u2019s action is pretty scant anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                \u201cThe Equalizer 3\u201d has done very well for itself at the box office over Labor Day weekend, so I must admit that the project has paid off commercially for Washington and Fuqua. But did this movie really satisfy their creative appetites? Maybe they wanted an excuse to spend time in Italy? That was definitely the case with \u201cBook Club: The Next Chapter\u201d from earlier this year. But while that movie \u2013 for all its faults \u2013 made Italy look like Heaven on Earth, this movie can\u2019t help but make it look \u201cgritty,\u201d dragging it down to the tone of McCall\u2019s world. My theory is that Washington wanted to prove something to himself, namely that he can still carry an action movie as he approaches age 70. The film\u2019s box office definitely proves that he \u201ccan\u201d (and I would have said he \u201ccan\u201d even if the film wasn\u2019t performing well), though he \u201cshould\u201d have held out for a better vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Equalizer 3\u201d is rated R for strong bloody violence and some language. Its running time is 109 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver                 It has been five years since we last saw Robert \u201cThe Equalizer\u201d McCall, as played by the ever-arresting Denzel Washington. In that time, we\u2019ve had a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":58708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2540],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58709,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58707\/revisions\/58709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}