Equalizer 3 is worth the cost of ticket and corn

For a dead zone movie, Equalizer 3 falls into the rare category of a quality August movie. How do I come to this conclusion? Have no fear, I shall elicidate. But I’ll save the clincher for the last.
Not all actors are created equal

The Equalizer 3 stars the insanely talented Denzel Washington. If you need me to run down the massive list of reasons I come to that conclusion, thanks for coming, grab a fruit bar on the way out and have a nice day. As an actor, sage and whole person…Denzel is a Hollywood man among boys. There are very few exceptions (Keanu).
Washington plays Robert McCall, an ex-special operative who has self-retired from ‘the Agency’. What agency is never clearly stated (though Google says he’s ex-Marine and DIA). It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that McCall is an unwilling killer, a hesitant force of nature who is in constant battle not only with those that would do evil but also himself and the evil within. We also never know for sure what McCall has done in the past in service of God and country. But it haunts him. It fuels his conscience, which kicks into overdrive and spurs him into action. Lots and lots of action.

This aint your TV Equalizer. Either version.

The Equalizer 3 gives us a McCall who is more than your average super-good-guy arse-kicker. He combines the sure-handed knowledge of how to inflict maximum pain to maximum effect like Bryan Mills (Taken) or Jason Bourne (duh) with the 360 degree nearly precognitive awareness of surroundings ah la Sherlock Holmes (the Downey Jr version). That in itself is cool enough, but Washington adds the aforementioned gravitas to bring a performance that really packs a punch. McCall has reconciled in himself the rightness and necessity of the shite-storm he unleashes, even as he is clearly suffers the burden of it. Not as much as his enemies suffer the burden of it, but still…

How does Equalizer 3 differ from 1 & 2? I personally found it to be the best of the three, and what sets it apart is the personal growth we see in the character. Where this could easily have been yet another Wick-like killfest (and in truth, that’s what I expected for a dead zone film) the writers did us all a solid by giving Denzel a vehicle that allowed him to show another side of McCall. In the first two iterations, we saw McCall doing yeoman’s work protecting the little guy. In Equalizer 3 we get to see him find a place of peace and, as fate would have it, fight savagely to protect it. Now, not only is he fighting for the little guy, he becomes the little guy he’s fighting for. And of course, Denzel being Denzel, he brings that cauldron of mixed emotions to us in a way that very few in Hollywood can.

The scenery of the crime

I would be remiss if I didn’t give proper credit to Antoine Fuqua and the film crew for their amazing work. Mrs Average Dude and I have a list of places to visit on this earth. Scicily was not even on the list. Oh, but it is now. Or rather, the small southern Italy town of Campania (where much of the movie was filmed). It was so very good for the soul to see a little slice of the world that somehow seemed to find a happy medium between old and new. In this country, if it’s old, it’s torn down and replaced with something ‘new’. But this is the Old Country. Buildings were made to stand the test of time, and they most certainly do. I love that. I think it’s something that we Americans have lost, to our detriment. We can re-learn to slow down and enjoy a cup of tea in a little cliff-side café and also casually scroll our email. We do it while on vacation. They do it as a way of life. That is aspirational.

Fanning the flames of WTF?

Equalizer 3 was not perfect, no sir. It introduced Dakota Fanning as Emma Collins, an Agency agent that McCall feeds intel to throughout the movie. Fanning is a very capable acteur in her own right (her performance in War of the Worlds is standout) and at first, offered all kinds of promise. However, what started out as a fantastic quasi-adversarial relationship between the two sort of fizzled out, which was really disappointing. I’m guessing there might be some good stuff left on the cutting room floor.

Conclusion: I loved Equalizer 3 and am giving it a 4/5 conditionally. That condition is that this should be the last of the series. If they try to do it again, I’m deducting a point for sheer greed and stupidity. Both of which Hollywood is famous for.

The clincher for this movie, as promised: Mrs Average Dude was somewhat hesitant to see this with me. I bade her, watch the first two (both are a mere remote click away in the Average Dude collection). She politely declined. After seeing Equalizer 3 with me two nights ago, she could not wait to watch the first two (which she also loved).

Sigh…when will she learn to trust me on these things?

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