The Equalizer 3

2023 Sony Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 49min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller

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!

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

NEWS FLASH!!!!

DENZEL WASHINGTON to film

EQUALIZER 4 & 5!

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

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!