THE EQUALIZER 3 (2023)

THE EQUALIZER 3 (2023)

Tagline: Justice knows no borders.

(Action, Crime, 9 Seconds) [R]

What happens here, happens in many towns. The Mafia. They're like cancer. No cure.

In this one, Robert McCall is caught off guard and badly injured landing him in Southern Italy where he is helped by the locals. Over time Robert is made to feel at home, but the jovial town is being terrorized by mob bosses who want to build casinos and resorts in the area. Robert has finally found some peace in his life and will not hesitate to use his skills to fight back. 

First off, I have not seen the first 2 movies in this series. From what I can tell though, you don’t really “need” to in order to watch this. We figure out in the previews and in the opening scene that Robert McCall is pretty much John Wick’s best friend. These two should go on a “let’s kill bad guys” world tour in 2025 or whenever. Well, this movie doesn’t happen in the same universe as John Wick, but it really should. 

The pacing is pretty great and to be honest I find Denzel Washington (THE BOOK OF ELI) to be mesmerizing in nearly everything he does. He elevates every film he’s in. I think that the fact that he interviews well and seems like a very genuine person only adds to his “legend” status. It is extremely hard not to love him as a person and one of the better actors we’ve seen in a generation. His ability to play duplicitous characters is off the charts and make no mistake about it, Denzel carries this film. If anything I wish this was 3 hours because I would have used a bit more exposition and interaction between him and the town’s people. 

Acting wise aside from Denzel this movie is loaded with solid performances. 19 years after MAN ON FIRE, Dakota Fanning (OCEAN’S EIGHT) rejoins Denzel Washington in this one and delivers a very commendable performance. I am not going to say that Dakota blows me away with her performance in this, but she gets the job done playing Emma Collins. Eugenio Mastrandrea doesn’t get as much screen time as I wish he did as Gio Bonucci, but Eugenio kills this role. I love when we get a character that refuses to back down from what is right, even if it could cost him everything. I know it’s controversial to say that or whatever, but true character is standing up to evil at all costs. In Gio’s case, it’s upholding the law because he is literally a cop in this film. Gaia Scodellaro is pretty decent in this as Aminah. She only gets about 5 minutes of screen time in this movie and I feel like it just wasn’t that demanding of a role for her. It was nice to see Remo Girone in this as Enzo. He plays a doctor in this that houses Robert while he’s recovering. I never reviewed MY NAME IS VENDETTA, but he was good in that as well. 

There are a few sequences where I felt slowing it down just a bit might have helped draw out more emotion, but we do get quite a bit of heartfelt dialogue in this and I was definitely more moved when it came to that than I was JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 which is mind-blowing, but almost completely just non-stop action. One thing that also really makes this a pleasant movie to watch is the setting. This town in Italy is incredible.

There isn’t really anything new about this storyline, but Antoine Fuqua’s direction is solid and the cinematography is fantastic. There are a few script changes that I think could have helped tie parts of the story together better, but overall this thing gets a solid 5 out of 7. 

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