Mikes Film Talk

The Equalizer 3 with McCall’s new Italian friends, gives us a blast from the past. It features Dakota Fanning, all grown up, and appearing with her co-star Denzel Washington. The two have not worked together since 2004. This fact alone, makes this a sort of “red letter” event. (Pun intended.)

The First Act

McCall is in an Italian wine making business. A bearded gentleman arrives in a Land Rover. He tells the youngster in the car to stay put. The man then enters the winery to scenes of horrific suffering and death. At the end of his long cautious journey he finds McCall. He now has 9 seconds to live.

McCall dispatches his new “friends” with extreme prejudice, as promised. As he is leaving the area, the bearded man’s charge shoots him in the back with a .22 calibre rifle.

The Equalizer manages to leave the vineyard but passes out by the side of the road. He is found by Enzo, the local medico. Enzo is the first of his new Italian friends. The doctor patches McCall up and supervises his recovery. The village of Altamonte, he soon learns, has an abundance of villains terrorizing the locals.

The Second Act

McCall rings the CIA and speaks to Emma Collins (Fanning). He tells her of the Sicilian vineyard with wine from Syria. Meanwhile, another of his new Italian friends, after being beaten, loses his business to the local thugs.

Collins travels to Altamonte and questions McCall. She promises to follow-up their short conversation to find out why he reached out to her.

A young cop, Gio Bonucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea) incurs the wrath of the local mafioso. They begin to terrorize him and his family. The Equalizer steps in.

McCall makes more Italian friends and discovers that he likes Altamonte. He humiliates the young thug’s leader with some pain compliance.

The Third Act

Collins meets with the Italian legal authorities. The pressure is on Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio) and he promises a suitable payback. Just after Collins learns about the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, she narrowly escapes death.

Vincent promises to roll through the village like a war. McCall performs a pre-emptive strike.

The Wrap Up

In terms of characterization, action and, to some extent, plot; The Equalizer 3 is pretty much a “second verse, same as the first” drill. McCall is slow to react but when he does, it is a final gesture. In this third outing, the locale has changed. Similar to the second, where part of the action takes place in Europe, the action here takes place in Palermo, Italy.

Vincent has a “John McClane” moment and learns that all his men are dead. The claret is plentiful and despite all this blood letting the violence is not glorified. It is, like Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, in slow motion and disturbing in its low key satisfaction.

Like McCall’s new Italian friends, we want to see the bad guys pay. The fight and death scenes are impeccably choreographed.

Washington rocks this role, as usual. Fanning endears as the new kid on the block. Their time spent in this first outing together in 20 years, is far too fleeting.

Director Antoine Fuqua (The Magnificent 7, The Equalizer) loses nothing after this long break from McCall’s world. Fanning, now all grown up, still effortlessly knocks it out of the park. Denzel now wears the role of Robert McCall like a comfy pair of slippers.

The supporting cast all breath life into their prospective parts. All in all, this is a solid 4.5 star effort. It loses one half star because we really have seen all of this before. It is still worth a look, however, so head over to Netflix and enjoy.