The Equalizer 3 (15)

Former government assassin Robert McCall has found relief from past sins by doling out rough justice on behalf of the weak, vulnerable and oppressed. During a retreat in southern Italy, Robert makes new friends and is shocked when they are targeted by the local crime boss. Unable to turn a blind eye to the deadly threat, Robert single-handedly takes on the mafia to protect his friends from further harm.

LondonNet Film Review

The Equalizer 3 (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Bookended by bloodbaths, The Equalizer 3 completes a gratuitously gory trilogy which reunited two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua to portray a former government assassin turned vigilante made famous on the small screen by Edward Woodward. Returning screenwriter Robert Wenk stitches loose narrative threads between the three instalments as he transplants Robert McCall to the cobblestoned lanes and charming piazzas of picture postcard southern Italy, where locals congregate to watch films projected on to a whitewashed building facade…

Death and dismemberment run rampant through paradise and the wanton bloodshed is exhausting. It is not enough for Fuqua to luxuriate over the aftermath of one rampage through a vineyard masseria – a gory tableaux of lifeless goons whose eye sockets and craniums have been forcibly introduced to every sharp object in the establishment. The Equalizer 3 needlessly flashes back to the slaughter through McCall’s jaded eyes, replaying each grisly kill computer-game stylee and bombarding us with cruelty and carnage until we wave a white flag in wearied submission. Washington’s committed performance, recuperating from his tormented character’s life-threatening wounds with a walking cane, delays the inevitable butchery and a protracted showdown with the Camorra that flirts uncomfortably with risibility as McCall singlehandedly neutralises a small army of gun-toting thugs.

The titular crusader is badly hurt during a high-stakes job in Sicily and loses consciousness on the outskirts of the picturesque fishing village of Altamonte. An off-duty Carabinieri (Eugenio Mastrandrea) spirits Robert to local doctor Enzo (Remo Girone), who performs surgery behind closed doors, removing bullets and dressing Robert’s deep wounds. “Will the bad men come looking for you?” asks Enzo. “No,” softly replies Robert. The American regains his strength and humanity in the close-knit community and befriends locals including warm-hearted waitress Aminah (Gaia Scodellaro) and family-oriented fishmonger Angelo (Daniele Perrone).

Alas, sadistic crime boss Vincent Quaranta (Andrea Scarduzio) is targeting Altamonte for a lucrative development of hotels and casinos and despatches younger brother Marco (Andrea Dodero) to terrorise the residents into submission through extortion and intimidation. Robert witnesses the bullying and refuses to turn a blind eye to the insidious threat of the criminal fraternity. “They’re like cancer, and like cancer – no cure,” laments Enzo, pushing the medical metaphor. Meanwhile, Robert lures CIA agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) to Naples to investigate shipments of amphetamines connected to an active Syrian terrorist cell.

The Equalizer 3 numbs us with relentless destruction against a backdrop of unspoilt European beauty. One smouldering ember of potential romance with Scodellaro’s waitress is extinguished by a tsunami of glossy crimson spewing from severed arteries as Fuqua and cinematographer Robert Richardson conceive elaborate shots to fixate on the exterminations. Be grateful this final chapter has the shortest running time of a saga of steadily diminishing returns.

– Kim Hu