The Equalizer was a solid success both critically and commercially that it was hailed an entertaining action flick headlined by Denzel Washington, who was bad-ass and driven. So, in his filmography, which was surprising and rewarding simultaneously, he was never in a sequel until this movie will have come out. I am assuming why Washington wanted to this is because that 1) he enjoyed the character so much (he is selective in choosing his scripts) and 2) he has a great, professional working relationship with director Antoine Fuqua, who garnered him a Best Actor Oscar. There were vibes of great energy in the action of this sequel and there is a good story of a young kid looking up to him but it seemed that the brutal tone of the main plot and the nice, light sub-plot did not seem gel together that it felt like too movies, one with a predictable outcome and another that seemed like it was fresh.
Robert McCall (Denzel Washington), previously a worker in some sort of Home Depot store, is now working as a Lyft driver as he is driving an elderly man named Sam (Orson Bean), who is in the middle of a case and trying to locate his long-lost sister. McCall often interacts with his passengers while observing others. One night he is told to take home a young woman named Amy (Caroline Day), who has been drugged and implied to be raped. McCall takes her to the hospital and he returns to the apartment of the guys who assaulted her and he beats them up brutally.
While McCall is wiping off the vandalization from a neighbor's garden, he is met by Miles (Ashton Holmes), an inspiring artist who frequently interacts with him. Miles offers to help McCall to take it down for a price. Later on that night, McCall has a friendly dinner with Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo) at his home, who he worked with in his past. Susan currently works with a colleague named Dave York (Pedro Pascal) as they are currently working on a murder case and they fly off to Belgium to investigate it. Later on, McCall is informed that she was murdered in her hotel room according to her husband, Brian (Bill Pullman). He tries to go figure out who was behind her murder.
I am mixed with this movie as I was thoroughly entertained by the action sequences and yet another committed performance by Denzel Washington. But, the reason behind the murder, which I did spoil because it was shown in the promotional campaign, was oversimplified and was a bit generic for a mystery crime thriller and that disappointed me. Plus, you can identify by the casting who is up to no good and that frustrates me a little. Compared to the first movie, which I found more suspenseful in its quiet build-up moments to the action, I found its structure to be a bit unfinished, especially in the beginning, in which we get two introductions to Washington's character. It is cool to see the Turkish train scene but it would have been as a deleted scene on the Blu-ray or DVD. But, I already know him as a character, I do not want to see again how good he is in killing people...again.
Again, Denzel Washington always gives 100% in his performances but it seemed that Fuqua forgot to highlight a lot more certain actors than him. Pedro Pascal is real solid as the government official who seems a bit deceitful. Also, Ashton Holmes delivers a nice supporting performance that made this movie different and interesting. He is a great talent. Yeah, I wished that we had more time of Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman because they were seriously underused.
I think the problem with this movie is I did not see as much direction from Fuqua as much as in the first one. I felt he was showing off the violence that it is irrelevant to the nature of his character and to the main structure of the movie. The train sequence in the opening is great but there is not as much background and the violence felt a bit more exploitative than I thought. I felt that there needed to be one more run-through at looking at the movie and deduct some minutes to make the story tighter and give the movie some levity, like I wanted more of the Ashton Holmes story than the predictable main plot. So, yes, I was mostly entertained by the movie but I was pondering the nature of why this sequel was made and I conclude that this is sort of product of violent action that did not seem to connect this time around. I cannot recommend you all to go to the theaters to see it but if you want to have a good time, wait for it to come out on streaming services to rent it. I mean, it's Denzel, he is one of the few actors left that can get you to go see a movies based on star level.
**1/2
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