Tag: Antoine Fuqua

The Equalizer 4 & 5

DENZEL WASHINGTON to film EQUALIZER 4 & 5!

There have been numerous rumors and speculation about Denzel Washington’s possible retirement from the Acting Business. Been there, done that and already being extremely particular about the projects he does take on, does make you wonder how much longer he will continue to make movies. Denzel just turned 70 years old last December, and has been acting for almost 50 years. He made his acting debut in the 1977 tv movie Wilma. He has been nominated and won numerous awards throughout his acting career.

When Denzel Washington and Director Antoine Fuqua made The Equalizer 3, they both stated that that was the end of the franchise. Denzel said they might decide to do another one, possibly a prequel, but he wouldn’t be in it. It is the end of the road for Robert McCall, he is tired of fighting and he found a place in Equalizer 3 he could call home and retire with a possible love interest in the quaint little Italian seaside town.

But according to an interview with Esquire Magazine dated November 19, 2024 Denzel Washington said:

“I told them we would do another Equalizer, and we’re doing 4 & 5. People are happy about that, they love those daggone Equalizers. But I’ve come to realize that they are for me too, because they’re for the people. They want me to get the bad guys. “We can’t get them so you go get them.” And I say…”Okay, I’ll go get them. Just wait right there and I’ll be right back.”

HURRY BACK DENZEL!

As of this date there is no other official word on Equalizer 4 & 5. Given that there were 4 and 5 years between the other two sequels, it will be quite some time before we do hear of any projected timeline for production. Equalizer 3 came out in 2023 so it might be 2027 or 2028 before we do see another Equalizer movie. It makes you wonder what the next Equalizer would look like.

Related Articles:

The Equalizer

The Equalizer 2

The Equalizer 3

THE EQUALIZER “100 BOOKS LIST”

THE EQUALIZER TRILOGY: STORY & TIMELINE

THE EQUALIZER TRILOGY: STORY & TIMELINE

Denzel Washington stars as Robert McCall, a Marine Special Forces Commando who faked his own death and is living a very quiet unassuming life in Boston, Massachusetts. He lives in a sparse apartment above a bar and works at Home Mart, a big box home improvement store. He has OCD (Denzel Washington had the idea to add OCD to Robert’s character and did research by talking to OCD patients and groups for the role) and often can’t sleep at night so he goes down to the local diner to have a cup of tea and read. He always meticulously wraps his own tea bag in his own napkin together with a spoon to take with him. Always sitting at the same table in the diner, and meticulously unfolding the napkin as a placemat. He is reading The 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die in tribute to his wife.

It is not clear what happened to his wife Vivienne although it is implied that she died from an illness. She was reading the 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die list and made it to 97 before she died. And Robert was making his way through the list in her honor. Robert faked his own death on a black ops mission so that he could marry Vivienne and spend his life with her in Brant Rock Beach, Massachusetts. She owned a bakery there and they lived in a beach house together (where Robert goes to in Equalizer II to battle his old crew at the end). After she died Robert couldn’t bear to be in the beach house nor sell it, so he got a small apartment in Boston and the job at Home Mart to keep him busy. Seeing people around him taken advantage of by criminals brings out his sense of right and wrong, and he can’t stay anonymous and ignore the military training that would allow him to help these people.

He wears a Suunto Core All Black Sports Watch (The Link is an Amazon Affiliate link where we earn a small commission that does not affect the retail price) complete with an Altimeter, Barometer, Compass, Temperature, Storm Alarm, sunrise/sunset times, stopwatch and a depth meter for underwater use. Given his military black ops background and his OCD he uses the watch timer to time everything throughout all three movies. How long he reads, how long he showers and how long it takes him to kill. After helping Alina get her freedom back from the Russian Crime Syndicate, Robert decides to use his commando talents to help people who find themselves in similar situations and help them overcome their unfortunate circumstances with the talents he possesses.

At the end of Equalizer I, he opens up his laptop at the diner and puts an ad on Craigslist (“Odds Against You? Need Help?”) looking for people he can help. In The Equalizer II he is carrying on in his anonymous goodwill missions with the help of his old DIA friend and colleague Susan Plummer. Susan has been assisting him by providing the intel he needs for his missions. His new job driving for LYFT gives him more opportunities to find people who need his help. Equalizer II opens with Robert in Turkey securing the release of a young girl kidnapped and he returns her anonymously to her mother, who we find out is the Bookstore owner where he has been ordering books for the 100 books list. Sam Rubenstein, a holocaust survivor who he gives LYFT‘s to, talks about a lost portrait from when he was young of his sister that he wants to find. Robert finds his sister instead and at the end of the movie you can see them reunited. And we find that Robert, having gone back to his old house he shared with Vivienne, has decided to move back into the house on the beach.

One of his LYFT passengers is a retired bricklayer named Greg Dyer. One day when Robert was giving him a LYFT, he complains to Robert about how a cyber-criminal robbed him of his Pension of $366,400. Robert tracks down the Cyber-Criminal to the vineyard in Sicily, Italy, where Equalizer III starts. He discovers while retrieving $366,400 cash for Greg Dyer’s lost pension that the vineyard was also a way station for illegal drugs. He calls Susan Plummer’s daughter, Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning), getting her number from the little black address book that used to belong to her mother. Robert was given the book by Susan’s husband after she was murdered in Equalizer II. Robert teaches and coaches Emma by helping her break up the Drug Ring. In the end he mails her the little black notebook with the note, Your mother would be proud.

Emma returns Greg Dyer’s $366,400 pension money to him in Boston, and goes on to get a promotion for her work thanks to Robert. It appears that Robert, having completely fallen for the people and the charming little Italian seaside town of Altamonte, and grown weary of the violence and life he has led, has decided to live a more peaceful life and stay there. And I can’t say as I blame him. And you can see that there is a spark of chemistry between Robert and the waitress in Altamonte that hints at Robert leaving the past and his wife’s memory behind, and finally seeing a future beyond it. This a great story and is well acted by Denzel Washington and the rest of the actors. You can see the closeness between Denzel and Dakota who have known each other a very long time. I loved Remo Girone as Enzo. Chloë Grace Moretz is also very likable as Alina.

You can watch all of these movies without watching any of the others, but I feel you miss a lot of the story by doing so.

I definitely recommend watching them in order to catch it all.

You might also like:

The Equalizer “100 BOOKS LIST”

The Equalizer

The Equalizer 2

The Equalizer 3

The Equalizer 4 & 5

The Equalizer 3

2023   Sony Pictures

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  49min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller

Directed by:  Antoine Fuqua

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Eugenio Mastrandrea, David Denman, Gaia Scodellaro, and Remo Girone.

“I’m really beginning to like this place and the people. I’m starting to believe, from the bottom of my heart, that this is where I’m supposed to be. So, whatever it is that you and your friends do, please do it somewhere else.”

Denzel Washington returns as Robert McCall in the final chapter of THE EQUALIZER Trilogy. We find him at a vineyard in Sicily Italy where he has just killed the Vineyard owner Lorenzo Vitale and his crew. As he is leaving Lorenzo’s son shoots Robert in the back. He makes his way to his car, makes it to the ferry and across to the mainland. A short way down the highway he collapses on the side of the road behind the wheel due to the loss of blood from the bullet hole.

He is discovered by a passing Policeman named Giorgio Bonucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea) who takes him to his nearby town of Altamonte. There Gio and the town Doctor Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone) remove the bullet and bandage Robert up. Dr. Enzo puts Robert in a bedroom in his house where he sleeps for three days recovering. When he comes to he ventures into the charming little seaside town, finds the little cafe in the square and gets some tea. As he recovers and gets better, he also gets to know the people of this little town and they become his friends.

He calls the CIA anonymously to tell Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning), A CIA Financial Operations Agent, about the Vineyard in Sicily and the illegal contraband there. She starts an investigation that coincides with Robert finding out the local gangsters terrorizing Altamonte are connected to the Camorra Crime Syndicate, and had a hand in The Vineyard operations Robert disrupted. As he has fallen for the people and the town of Altamonte, he feels he must free the town of the crime cancer they are spreading. And that’s exactly what he does by going to war with the Camorra Crime family.

It is the most violent, gruesome and bloody of the three right at the very beginning. But I definitely feel it is the best of the three Equalizer movies. I love that little town of Altamonte and like Robert I felt myself feeling like I could belong there. To live there by the sea in Italy……………. smelling the salt air…………….hearing the seagulls and the boats……………..eating fresh pasta and fish……………drinking red wine…………. watching movies at night in the courtyard……..…living a quiet simple existence………….

SNAP! Back to reality and the blog Bobby!

There is a lot going on in this movie, all of them really, story wise. There are some things I didn’t talk about in this movie and the other two. I didn’t want to give away too much in case you haven’t seen any of them. I’ve decided that tomorrow I will do a follow up on the whole trilogy and talk about things not addressed yet that are important to the whole story. Along with some final thoughts and maybe some things about the movies you didn’t catch.

So, Equalizer 3…..

The best one yet.

Highly recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

You might also like:

THE EQUALIZER

THE EQUALIZER 2

THE EQUALIZER 100 BOOKS LIST

THE EQUALIZER TRILOGY STORY

NEWS FLASH!!!!

DENZEL WASHINGTON to film 

EQUALIZER 4 & 5!

According to an interview with Esquire Magazine dated November 19, 2024 Denzel Washington said:

“I told them we would do another Equalizer, and we’re doing 4 & 5. People are happy about that, they love those daggone Equalizers. But I’ve come to realize that they are for me too, because they’re for the people. They want me to get the bad guys. “We can’t get them so you go get them.” And I say…”Okay, I’ll go get them. Just wait right there and I’ll be right back.”

HURRY BACK DENZEL!

The Equalizer 2

2018   Sony Pictures

Rated:  R

Length:  2hr  1 min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller

Directed by:  Antoine Fuqua

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman, and Orson Bean.

“There are two kinds of pain in this world. The pain that hurts, and the pain that alters……today you get to choose.”

Denzel Washington returns as Robert McCall in the second installment of The Equalizer trilogy. He is still living in Boston but has a different apartment and now works as a Lyft driver. As we saw in The Equalizer, his attempt to put his past behind him and remain anonymous failed miserably as he felt compelled to take action on Alina’s behalf.  Now we find him working as a Lyft driver to find people who don’t yet know that they need his help. Robert is using his talents to “Equalize” situations for people who have unfortunate circumstances they cannot remedy on their own. There are a lot of stories going on here, most of them being people he has helped.

The movie starts with Robert on a train in Turkey confronting a man who has kidnapped his daughter and taken her away from her mother in America. Robert promptly decimates the man’s bodyguards and delivers stopwatch justice. Then delivers the daughter back to the mother anonymously, who we find out, is the woman who owns the bookstore where he gets his “100 books to read before you die list” books.

There is the girl he picks up in front of a condo building, put in the car by a young man, who is in obvious need of medical treatment. He drops her off at the emergency room and goes back to the condo. Under the pretense of the card payment was declined, Robert enters and sees a group of young men he is convinced drugged and raped the girl named Amy. Justice served with a stopwatch.

There is the old man, Sam Rubinstein (Orson Bean), a holocaust survivor who has been looking for a lost portrait of his sister for years. He was very close to her and lost track of her during the holocaust, not knowing if she survived or not. Robert goes above and beyond and in the end we find out he got Sam Rubinstein way more than a painting.

There is a young kid that lives in Robert’s apartment complex named Miles Whittaker (Ashton Sanders).  Miles is struggling between trying to be someone and do something with his life, and the pull and influence of drugs, gangs and street life. He has artistic talent and wants to be an artist. Robert takes a liking to him and goes out of his way to snatch him up out of the grasp of gangs and drugs. He convinces Miles to stay in art school and pursue his dreams.

And there is his old friend Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo), who has been helping him with the information he needs to fulfill the goodwill missions he sets out on. Robert learns that she has been killed in Brussels, Belgium while investigating an incident for The DIA. Devastated he vows to find out what happened to her and why. That journey leads him to his old Marine Special Services team who thought he had died. Robert finds out they were responsible for Susan’s death and goes to war with his old wrecking crew.

I have seen all three of The Equalizer movies several times and, while you can watch each one independently, I highly recommend watching them in order. There is so much of the story that you miss if you don’t, and I feel you have a better understanding of each movie as the story progresses across the three of them. Equalizer 2 is just as good as the first one.

That’s a yes.

Highly recommended!

Two Thumbs up!

And tonight’s watch ………. Equalizer 3

You might also like:

THE EQUALIZER

THE EQUALIZER 3

THE EQUALIZER 100 BOOKS LIST

THE EQUALIZER TRILOGY STORY

NEWS FLASH!!!!

DENZEL WASHINGTON to film 

EQUALIZER 4 & 5!

According to an interview with Esquire Magazine dated November 19, 2024 Denzel Washington said:

“I told them we would do another Equalizer, and we’re doing 4 & 5. People are happy about that, they love those daggone Equalizers. But I’ve come to realize that they are for me too, because they’re for the people. They want me to get the bad guys. “We can’t get them so you go get them.” And I say…”Okay, I’ll go get them. Just wait right there and I’ll be right back.”

HURRY BACK DENZEL!

The Equalizer

2014   Sony Pictures

Rated:  R

Length:  2h  12 min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller

Directed by:  Antoine Fuqua

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Bill Pullman, and Melissa Leo.

“The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.”

Denzel Washington stars as Robert McCall quietly living an unassuming life in Boston Massachusetts. He lives very sparsely in an apartment above a bar and works at Home Mart, a big box home improvement store. He has OCD and often can’t sleep at night so he goes down to the local diner to have a cup of tea and read. He always meticulously wraps his own tea bag in his own napkin together with a spoon to take with him. Always sitting at the same table in the diner, and meticulously unfolding the napkin as a placemat.

Robert befriends a young prostitute named Teri who frequents the diner at night in between turning tricks. As they get to know each other, Teri reveals her real name is Alina and wants to be a singer. Robert encourages her and says she can change her life and do anything she wants to do. One night as they are walking home from the diner, Alina’s pimp Slavi pulls up, slaps her and forces her into his car. She assures Robert it’s ok as she is forced into the car. Slavi hands Robert a business card and says “This girl is no good. Call me and I will get you another.”

A couple of days later Robert finds out Alina is in the ICU and learns from her friend Mandy that Slavi beat Alina up to make an example of her to the other girls. Robert wrestles with staying anonymous or approaching Slavi. The side of Robert we don’t know about wins out and he goes to the restaurant where Slavi and his men are in their office. He makes his way in and offers to buy Alina’s freedom from Slavi for $9800 cash he has in an envelope, and places it on Slavi’s desk. Slavi ridicules him and tells Robert to take his money and go home.

Robert heads to go out the door but instead shuts the door and locks it. He turns around to face Slavi and his men, sets the timer on his watch, and that’s when we find out who Robert McCall really is. A former Marine Special Forces Commando who faked his own death to disappear and live a quiet life. Now these Russian mobsters have interrupted that life and hurt someone he was starting to care about. He promptly decimates the whole crew and stops his watch timer….19 seconds it took him. He tells Slavi as he is bleeding to death, “You should have taken the money.”

Robert soon finds out through his former DIA colleague Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo) that Slavi and his men were part of a large East Coast Russian Crime Syndicate. Russian Oligarch Vladimir Pushkin, who heads the syndicate, being furious that his men are dead and business has stopped sends his fixer Teddy Rensen to investigate. What follows is Robert McCall, The Equalizer, singlehandedly kicking butt and dismantling the entire east coast syndicate.

I wanted to review The Equalizer 3 and decided it best to revisit 1 and 2 before I did.

What’s not to like, Denzel Washington is one of my all time favorites. He is excellent in this. Non stop action as he neutralizes the bad guys and gets justice for Alina and anyone else wronged in his life.

Yes, yes and yes.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

You might also like:

THE EQUALIZER 2

THE EQUALIZER 3

THE EQUALIZER 100 BOOKS LIST

THE EQUALIZER TRILOGY STORY

NEWS FLASH!!!!

DENZEL WASHINGTON to film 

EQUALIZER 4 & 5!

According to an interview with Esquire Magazine dated November 19, 2024 Denzel Washington said:

“I told them we would do another Equalizer, and we’re doing 4 & 5. People are happy about that, they love those daggone Equalizers. But I’ve come to realize that they are for me too, because they’re for the people. They want me to get the bad guys. “We can’t get them so you go get them.” And I say…”Okay, I’ll go get them. Just wait right there and I’ll be right back.”

HURRY BACK DENZEL!