Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Antoine Fuqua, Columbia Pictures, MA, 121 Minutes.
Academy award winning actor Denzel Washington is back as Robert McCall, the lone avenger in this no-holds barred action crime thriller dishing out his own style of justice to wrongdoers as well as helping those victims being persecuted.
The movie opens with McCall involved in securing the release of an abducted child in Turkey before resuming his job as a freelance taxi driver ferrying various passengers, except when it requires his intervention in assisting an abused victim.
For McCall, injustice and violence is everywhere, even in his apartment block where Miles Whittaker (Ashton Sanders –‘Moonlight’) an artistic African American is being lured by some black youth to join their gang after losing his brother to gang violence.
As they attempt to retaliate against McCall he wastes no time in displaying his lethal skills by disposing of the thugs and later managing to arrange much-needed work for Miles for which he is suitably remunerated.
The turning point in the storyline comes with the sudden shooting of close friend and CIA collaborator Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo -‘Equalizer’) in a suspicious hotel room robbery at which McCall’s former colleague Dave York (Pedro Pascal –‘Great Wall’) was present.
Determined to uncover the conspiracy behind the murder McCall sets about tracking down the perpetrators who gunned down his friend and dispense his kind of rough justice that they deserve despite the consequences for the CIA.
This is the fourth time that Washington has collaborated with director Antoine Fuqua and is his first ever sequel with the filmmaker demonstrating his star presence by taking on such an enjoyable action role that only he can execute.
Comparing the sequel to the original, it appears that Fuqua has toned down the violence depicted in ‘Equalizer 2’ and time will tell if he will team up again with Washington in making a third exciting thriller.
Vic’s Verdict: 3 ½ Stars
