EQUALIZER 3 : Tuesday 5th September 2023.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE EQUALIZER 3' at my local independent movie theatre this week, and this American action thriller film is Directed and Co-Produced by Antoine Fuqua and is the sequel to 2018's 'Equalizer 2' and the third and final instalment in the 'Equalizer' trilogy. Those first two films, also Directed by Antoine Fuqua grossed US$383M off the back of combined production budgets of US135M, and is loosely based on the TV series which ran for a total of eighty-eight episodes over four seasons from 1985 through until 1989 and starred Edward Woodward as the titular Equalizer, Robert McCall. This film has so far grossed US$75M from a production budget of US$70M since its release last week, and has generated mixed or average reviews. Earlier last month, Antoine Fuqua is reported to have commented that there have been discussions to develop a prequel movie detailing the origins of Robert McCall, and later that while internally talks were had about this being the final film chronologically, he would be interested in returning as Director for a future instalment if Denzel Washington was interested in returning to the role. 

The film opens with a drone shot of a Land Rover driving along country lanes in Sicily surrounded by row upon row of grape vines, until the car pulls up outside a secluded winery. Out steps Lorenzo Vitale (Bruno Bilotta), leaving his young son in the passenger seat, having first retrieved his revolver from the glove box. Vitale is greeted by another man, carrying a semi-automatic weapon who tells him that he was ordered to wait outside. Vitale gingerly makes his way in the through door and down into the depths of the winery stepping over numerous dead bodies along the way, who have all seemingly died very violent deaths. Sitting in the basement is Robert McCall (Denzel Washington, who also Co-Produces here) held captive by two of Vitale's henchmen. McCall gives Vitale nine seconds to consider his options before all hell breaks loose and McCall kills the three surviving henchmen and finishes off a badly injured Vitale with a bullet to the head. McCall then removes a bunch of keys from Vitale's belt to gain access to the winery's vault and recoup money stolen in a cyber-heist (the reason he is there which is revealed later). 

On leaving the winery however, McCall is shot in the back by Vitale's young son. Slumping down on a step after the boy has fled, he considers suicide due to his injury, but instead takes the ferry back to the mainland. Later that night, McCall's car is seen pulled over somewhere on the Amalfi Coast with the lights on, and the drivers door wide open with McCall unconscious from shock. He is found and rescued by Gio Bonucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea), a local Carabiniere, who takes him to Altamonte, a remote coastal Italian town, where he is treated by the local doctor Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone) who removes the .22 calibre bullet, and stitches McCall back up. 

McCall makes a steady albeit slow recovery, having to use a walking cane and initially struggling to use the stairs, but, he is determined to get his previous strength back. He becomes acquainted with the townsfolk, including a waitress named Aminah (Gaia Scodellaro), and becomes fond of the town and its people. He makes an anonymous phone call to CIA Agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) to tip her off about the winery's role in the illegal drug trade under the guise of day to day business transactions in Sicily. Collins and other CIA operatives including her superior officer Frank Conroy (David Denham) later arrive at the winery and find millions in cash along with bags of Captagon tablets hidden inside hundreds of fake wine bottles within a storeroom, confirming McCall's suspicions. She later tracks down McCall at his local cafe, who is evasive about his identity. She tells him that he is a 'person of interest' in her investigations, to which he replies that he's just an 'interesting person'. 

In the meantime, members of the local Camorra clan harass and kill villagers in an attempt to coerce them out of their housing and take over Altamonte for the purpose of building hotels, resorts and casinos in the coastal town. McCall overhears Marco Quaranta (Andrea Dodero), a high-ranking Camorra member, beat up a local seafood storeowner named Angelo (Daniele Perrone) for payments when he is unable to make his weekly dues. To make an example, the Camorra firebomb Angelo's fish store as the townsfolk attempt to douse the flames and watch on. Bonucci reviews video of the firebombing and places a call in to Italian central Police with an inquiry on the van involved. He is later attacked by the Camorra in his own home while his wife and two young daughters are forced to watch on held at gunpoint. Later, while McCall is having dinner at a local restaurant, Marco and two of his henchmen burst in and demand that Bonucci, who is also dining with his family, set up a boat for them. Overhearing them, McCall requests Marco to move their operations to a someplace else, however, when Marco refuses, McCall kills him and his goons outside in a quiet street.

The Naples' head of Police is threatened and tortured by Marco's brother and head of the local clan Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio) to find who killed him. Vincent has Collins' car rigged with a bomb, but she narrowly escapes with non-life threatening injuries after McCall warns her. Vincent later threatens to shoot Bonucci in front of the entire town if McCall doesn’t reveal himself. McCall does, but before Vincent can kill him, the gathered townsfolk begin to record the unwinding scenario on their mobile phones, causing Vincent and the rest of the Camorra clan to flee, as Police sirens are heard approaching. Later that night, McCall stealthily infiltrates Vincent's heavily guarded home and one by one executes his henchmen leaving Vincent to last but not before he has seen the extent of the carnage that McCall has bestowed upon his home. He binds Vincent to a pillar with wire around his neck and his hands and forcible feeds him a handful of the Captagon tablets. When Vincent comes around already foaming at the mouth McCall undoes his bindings and tells him he has six minutes to live before the overdose kills him. Vincent stumbles to his legs and drags himself out of his home and into the streets before finally falling on his back and succumbing to the very drugs he peddles. 

McCall later visits Collins in hospital with a back pack containing US$366,400 in cash that he had previously retrieved from the winery, saying that it is for an elderly couple living in Boston who had their life's pension fund hacked at the touch of a button, leaving them with nothing. Later Collins, visits that couple and delivers the back pack containing the cash. Back in Langley, Virginia, Collins receives a promotion for her role in ending the Altamonte drug trade. With the Quaranta brothers dead, McCall celebrates with the locals after their team wins a football game. 

With 'The Equalizer 3' Director and Co-Producer Antoine Fuqua has delivered another offering in this franchise that follows a similar well trodden formula to its two predecessors, but this time switches the setting from Boston, Massachusetts to the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy. Apart from that one glaring factor, very little has changed from the previous two offerings, except that Washington has grown older, wiser and still has the ability to dispense with them bad dudes with violent aplomb in all manner of brutal ways, and, turn on the charm and the emotion when its warranted. The mid-section of the film labours a little while McCall hobbles about with the aid of a walking cane and gradually recuperates while under the watchful eye of Fanning's Collins, but is book ended by two scenes of graphic violence that show off McCall's very particular set of skills that he uses to unflinching effect to dispense with them pesky baddies. And in the closing scene all is good in the world, as Collins gets the promotion, and McCall is embraced by the locals in his new Italian home on the south coast. A fitting end to a fairly predictable run of the mill third instalment that is rescued by Washington's gravitas.

'The Equalizer 3' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-