The Equalizer 2 | Little White Lies

The Equal­iz­er 2

14 Aug 2018 / Released: 17 Aug 2018

A man in a blue jacket pointing a gun at the camera.
A man in a blue jacket pointing a gun at the camera.
2

Anticipation.

The Sequalizer.

3

Enjoyment.

Denzel Washington, getting it done.

3

In Retrospect.

More of the same from this franchise please.

Den­zel Wash­ing­ton emphat­i­cal­ly reaf­firms his action star cre­den­tials in this slick sequel.

An awful lot of fuss has been made this sum­mer over Tom Cruise’s appar­ent­ly super­hu­man abil­i­ty, at the ripe old age of 56, to con­tin­u­al­ly defy the laws of biol­o­gy and physics. He is with­out ques­tion an excep­tion­al and excep­tion­al­ly durable icon of mod­ern block­buster cin­e­ma. But con­sid­er this: Den­zel Wash­ing­ton is eight years Cruise’s senior, and, although you won’t see him rou­tine­ly fling­ing him­self out of planes and scam­per­ing across the tops of build­ings, is arguably just as com­mit­ted and endur­ing an action star.

Giv­en his sim­i­lar­ly broad appeal, longevi­ty and seem­ing­ly tire­less work eth­ic, it’s a won­der why Wash­ing­ton doesn’t receive more atten­tion for his on-screen exploits. He’s pub­lic­i­ty shy, per­haps, but nonethe­less remains a major Hol­ly­wood brand in his own right. Indeed, it’s hard to think of a lead­ing man of the past 30 years who has turned in more high-grade per­for­mances on such a con­sis­tent basis. Cruise included.

A direct fol­low-up to Antoine Fuqua’s vig­i­lante thriller from 2014The Equal­iz­er 2 sees Wash­ing­ton game­ly reprise his role as jus­tice-dis­pens­ing obses­sive com­pul­sive Robert McCall. In a tone-set­ting call­back to the first film, he is rein­tro­duced aboard a speed­ing train some­where in Turkey, vio­lent­ly clash­ing with a car­riage load of slick-haired bad­dies in a bid to res­cue a kid­napped child. Soon after, McCall is reunit­ed with his for­mer CIA col­leagues Susan Plum­mer (Melis­sa Leo) and Dave York (Pedro Pas­cal) – not entire­ly hap­pi­ly in both instances.

Two men, one wearing a dark uniform, confronting each other in a dimly lit indoor setting.

As the boil­er­plate revenge nar­ra­tive unfolds details of McCall’s mys­te­ri­ous past are grad­u­al­ly revealed, which com­bined with his nur­tur­ing of an artis­ti­cal­ly gift­ed but trou­bled teenag­er named Miles (Moon­lights Ash­ton Sanders) has the desired human­is­ing effect. Wash­ing­ton has a knack for play­ing strong yet flawed heroes, but he is such a won­der­ful­ly charis­mat­ic and emo­tive actor that it would have been a shame had McCall once again been writ­ten as a cool­ly detached, clin­i­cal executioner.

Remark­ably this is Washington’s first ever sequel (he has appeared in his fair share of remakes) and, although the film doesn’t quite reach the heights of Fuqua’s Train­ing Day, Spike Lee’s Inside Man or even Tony Scott’s Unstop­pable, it is a marked improve­ment on its pre­de­ces­sor. An unnec­es­sary sub­plot con­cern­ing an elder­ly Holo­caust sur­vivor and a miss­ing paint­ing adds an unwel­come lay­er of schmaltz to pro­ceed­ings, but this is an enjoy­able ride for as long as Wash­ing­ton is allowed to sim­ply do his thing.

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