The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Tipping the scales
A fiery performance from Denzel Washington slightly lifts up ‘The Equalizer 2’
All things being equal, “The Equalizer 2” would be a perfectly ordinary action movie, never all that interesting but never that frustrating, either. ¶ But it stars Denzel Washington, so all things are not equal. ¶ As he did with 2014’s “The Equalizer” — based on the late-1980s television series — the Academy Award winner lifts the sequel above perfectly ordinary, if only a bit.
While it never succeeds in becoming engrossing, the almost-plodding but incredibly violent tale of a man who rights wrongs in the world around him earns the mildest of recommendations.
In the first “Equalizer,” we were introduced to Washington’s version of Robert McCall, a highly skilled former CIA operative believed to have died in the line of duty. When he sees someone falling victim to powerful, violent people, Robert can’t seem to resist using those skills to fight for them, and he’s not afraid to leave a trail of bodies in his wake.
When we catch up with him at the beginning of “The Equalizer 2,” he is aboard a train 400 miles from Istanbul, looking nearly unrecognizable thanks to headwear and a thick beard. We soon learn he is there to see a man, an abusive man who has kidnapped his own daughter. After terminating, with extreme prejudice, the man’s henchmen, Robert gives him a choice, with one option resulting in less pain for this man. Next, we see the man’s daughter happily reuniting with her mother in America.
And so Robert goes back to filling his days reading — he is continuing to work his way through a list of 100 great books as a way of honoring his late wife, Vivian, the loss of whom still stings him mightily — and earning money as a Lyft driver.
When Robert picks up a woman who clearly has been abused in terrible ways by a group of young rich men having a little party complete with cocaine, he takes it upon himself to make their treatment of the woman to be the worst decision these guys ever have made.
He also begins to mentor a teen, Miles (Ashton Sanders), in his Boston neighborhood, a good kid with potential as an artist who has fallen in with a drug-dealing crew and is skipping school. Because it takes so long — a bit too long — for the main plot of “The Equalizer 2” to emerge, this subplot feels like too much of a digression and seems to represent a lack of focus in the script by Richard Wenk, who penned the first film.
Eventually, though, this element of the story will connect to the main one. The plot that drives “The Equalizer 2” begins with a brutal slaying of a woman, and then her husband, in Brussels. It turns out the man was a CIA asset, which leads to the involvement of Robert’s dear friend and former associate, Susan (a returning Melissa Leo), and her partner, York (Pedro Pascal), who also goes back years with Robert.
Susan and Brian must travel to Belgium to investigate, and an occurrence there will, of course, bring Robert into the fray.
From there, the violence quotient in “The Equalizer 2,” only increases. And there is just something about the way director Antoine Fuqua films this violence that sticks with you more than that of other violent movies. It feels equal parts designed to disgust you and to get you into theater seats.
This is Fuqua’s fourth collaboration with Washington, the pair most notably working together on the 2001 drama “Training Day,” which earned Washington a best-actor Oscar.
As he did with “The Equalizer,” Fuqua gives “The Equalizer 2” an odd rhythm, almost refusing to let the movie pick up some needed steam. For an action film, it has this bizarrely almost-meditative quality.
On the other hand, Fuqua knows how to bring out peak Denzel — Washington is absolutely captivating in a couple of scenes as this ultra-capable oneman army who’s almost always two steps ahead of everybody else.
The talented Leo (“The Fighter,” Showtime’s “I’m Dying Up Here”) adds a little bit to the affair, and Pascal (HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Netflix’s “Narcos”) does a bit more than that.
Bill Pullman (USA’s “The Sinner”) also returns from the first film, reprising the role of Susan’s scholarly husband, Brian.
While certainly not up there with “Training Day” or some of Washington’s other best work, such as 2016’s “Fences,” “The Equalizer 2” at least is a rebound from last year’s “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” While Washington’s performance was that movie’s best asset — it should be noted it earned him his third Oscar nod for best actor — that film largely was a mess.
“The Equalizer 2” isn’t messy, but it also isn’t mighty.
Were Washington not around to un-equalize the whole thing, you might even say it’s meh.