![]() With Susan as his last close friend, McCall is a man constantly trying to help others who doesn’t seem to know how to save himself. With the exception of his occasional vigilante antics, McCall is mostly living a withdrawn life, although that doesn’t prevent him from reaching out to those in his community who need support - including a lonely older man (Orson Bean) and an aspiring artist (Ashton Sanders) tempted by peer pressure to dabble in crime. But whereas the visual gimmick was clever in the 2014 movie, here it’s less inspired, quickly becoming formulaic.īefore The Equalizer 2 shifts gears to become a more conventionally violent action movie, the filmmakers try to put us inside the head of their stoic, mournful hero, who is silently grieving for a dead wife. As in the first film, The Equalizer 2 features a few instances in which we see action sequences through McCall’s eyes before they occur - he’s such an elite killing machine that he can anticipate his adversaries’ moves in advance, always staying a few steps ahead. Reuniting with Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter Richard Wenk, Washington easily slips back into McCall’s steely persona, dispensing the random bad guys with swift, brutal precision. He suspects this wasn’t a random crime but, rather, a targeted murder - and he’s determined to find the perpetrators. McCall is lying low as a Lyft driver in Boston when Susan (Melissa Leo), someone from his old life, is slain. Washington again plays Robert McCall, a former government operative who now works as a private vigilante for those seeking justice. Remarkably, the film represents the first time the Oscar-winning actor has starred in a sequel, and certainly his box-office clout (aided by audience awareness of the original film) should result in solid grosses. ![]() Opening July 20 in the States and August 17 in the UK, this Sony release hopes to match or better the commercial success of The Equalizer ($192m worldwide), one of Washington’s biggest hits. The reliably commanding swagger of Denzel Washington helps to smooth over The Equalizer 2’s uneven or overblown patches. But no amount of Denzel Washington’s weary authority is enough to distract from the fact that this overstuffed, ultimately unsatisfying potboiler merely dresses up its clichés in strained gravitas. For a spell, this sequel to the 2014 hit intrigues because of its insistence on taking time to establish melancholy themes and thoughtful tone. The balance is off in The Equalizer 2, an action-thriller that wants to be a taut revenge tale, an over-the-top spectacle, a rumination on regret, a sombre character study and a paean to those on the margins of society.
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