The Equalizer 2
26/08/18 Filed in: Cinema
Denzil Washington stars in this sequel to the 2014 adaptation of an 80s TV series. I enjoyed the earlier film and it must be said that this latest story is cast in very much the same vein. Critics reviews haven't been very favourable but it seems that audiences have been more inclined to have enjoyed what they saw. Denzil Washington is of course a big draw and despite arguably being too old to do what his screen persona Robert McCall does, the credibility factor doesn't seem to dissuade his fans.
As with many action films, the opening sequence has little to do with the ultimate plot, it being an introduction to McCall's penchant for taking up just causes on behalf of people with whom he has but a casual acquaintance. On this occasion it's the local bookseller, whose daughter has been abducted by her father. Cue the interior of a Turkish train, with McCall lightly disguised as some sort of religious elder having a conversation with the aforesaid father, as three mean looking henchmen sit in the background. We all know what's going to happen as McCall sets his watch timer to zero.
In this outing McCall is a taxi driver. We're treated to another bit of cameo action when he picks up a young woman who has been abused by a group of rich young men. When he returns to the building, after taking the woman to hospital, one of the abusers says, "You knocked on the wrong door tonight, pops". The watch is set to zero, and you can guess the rest. There are other sub-plots, such as helping out an elderly Holocaust surviver (nothing physical in this case) and mentoring a young coloured neighbour, Miles Whittaker, who fact becomes implicated in the main plot.
The said main plot revolves around the murder of a couple in Brussels, killings that were set up to look like the wife's murder followed by the husband's suicide. McCall's friend, Susan Plummer of the Defense Intelligence Agency, travels to Brussels to investigate the circumstances of the killing, the man involved being an agent of the DIA. She travels with Dave York, a member of McCall's former military team. The events that then unfold confirm that the killings were something more than a marital spat, although Plummer doesn't live long enough to pursue an investigation. Enter McCall, who will now avenge his good friend's death.
This leads us into the main action, as McCall takes on a group of highly trained assassins, all of whom featured in his past. As you would expect, there is a final action sequence, on this occasion enhanced by the fact that it takes place on an island in the teeth of a hurricane. Marvel at McCall's ingenuity as he takes on four highly trained killers using more or less what is available in the now deserted buildings. The improvisation of a flour cloud to form a high explosive mixture is particularly ingenious. And everything is complicated by the presence of the young Whittaker, who has been brought along by the killers as their contingency plan.
As McCall says to the four assassins, "I'm going to kill each and every one of you, and my only disappointment is that I only get to do it once."
The said main plot revolves around the murder of a couple in Brussels, killings that were set up to look like the wife's murder followed by the husband's suicide. McCall's friend, Susan Plummer of the Defense Intelligence Agency, travels to Brussels to investigate the circumstances of the killing, the man involved being an agent of the DIA. She travels with Dave York, a member of McCall's former military team. The events that then unfold confirm that the killings were something more than a marital spat, although Plummer doesn't live long enough to pursue an investigation. Enter McCall, who will now avenge his good friend's death.
This leads us into the main action, as McCall takes on a group of highly trained assassins, all of whom featured in his past. As you would expect, there is a final action sequence, on this occasion enhanced by the fact that it takes place on an island in the teeth of a hurricane. Marvel at McCall's ingenuity as he takes on four highly trained killers using more or less what is available in the now deserted buildings. The improvisation of a flour cloud to form a high explosive mixture is particularly ingenious. And everything is complicated by the presence of the young Whittaker, who has been brought along by the killers as their contingency plan.
As McCall says to the four assassins, "I'm going to kill each and every one of you, and my only disappointment is that I only get to do it once."