The napkin folding, side-eye hurling book-beast Robert McCall is back, and this time he’s got a beard and a fucking harpoon.
Let’s get right to the cut. Equalizer 2 is a great action film. It continues in the same vein as the first movie, delivering high octane, emotionally fuelled action sequences.
There are cute bits. Funny bits. And even a few emotional bits. All boxes ticked.
For me, Equalizer 2 is on-par with the original – and that’s saying something because I fucking loved that film. In The Equalizer, director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Southpaw) built the value of the main character, Robert McCall, expertly, but the ‘good-guy’ supporting cast was a bit patchy (think back to the corny scenes with the fat guy and his crisp sandwiches. No-one really gave a fuck about his cholesterol or his fireman entry exam, did they?).
In Equalizer 2, the bad-guys don’t carry the same weight or individual menace, but the good-guy cast is more interesting, developed and compelling – and that adds weight to their plight.
Ashton Sanders put in an impressive performance as Robert’s new flawed protege, Miles (note: I had no idea who he was until I Googled him. Apparently he’s the main guy out of Moonlight — which is now firmly on my to-watch list).
Unexpectedly, we momentarily delved into the kid’s darker side, showing his seamless and unapologetic involvement with a local drug-gang – which forced the two main protagonists to (literally) butt heads. A welcome break from the slightly jarring ‘they just need an arm around them’ trope that ever-so-slightly undermined the last film.
That extra depth prevented the slightly stodgy middle-section of the film from losing the audience.
Summary:
I won’t give anything away about the plot – other than to say that a bunch of justice gets meted out. Denzel cuts some bastards up with quick, backhanded knife slashes and there’s a scene where he jogs backwards, pointing his fingers like guns grinning like a lunatic.
Also, kudos to Lyft for working in about 387 mentions of their second-string taxi service into the film. VERY FUCKING SUBTLE.
Rating:
*****
Five throat stabbings out of five. Would stab again.
Film Kiln 