The Equalizer 2 crosses off the checklist of things you want it to do, and gets out of your way. It’s not ambitious. It’s not deep pensive moviemaking. It’s Denzel Washington with fists and weapons beating the crap out of indecent people, while lecturing them about their actions and preaching a bit. There are certainly worse ways to spend a couple hours.
Robert McCall (Washington), when we last saw him, was saving Chloe Grace Moretz from a horrible fate. Now he’s in Boston, driving for Lyft – when he’s not train hopping in Turkey – and helping out the helpless whenever he can, while getting them 5 star ratings. Suddenly, an old friend, Susan (Melissa Leo), gets murdered in Belgium, forcing McCall to come back from the dead, much to the surprise of his former partner, Dave (Pedro Pascal).
The first Equalizer was much too morose to have a good time, because it was trying to be more important than it actually was. Once we see Denzel in full Turkish garb on a train lay waste to faceless thugs while preaching to them, all so he can keep his favorite bookstore from closing, you know The Equalizer 2 is going to be much more of a romp. I almost wish Richard Wenk (writer) and Antoine Fuqua had taken the Lyft idea the whole way, where McCall uncovers an underground den of crime through Lyft. THAT would have been amazing. Instead we got a hollow plot about a military conspiracy that’s telegraphs all its lame twists; the smartest thing about the story is inserting a mentee for McCall (played by Moonlight‘s Ashton Sanders) who gets into the line of fire and needs to be helped by a man trying to right past wrongs. This emotionally grounds the story a little and leads to a really good tense scene where the kid gets caught in the conspiracy and McCall isn’t there to help him. But fear not, y’all Fuqua knows what you want. Thankfully, The Equalizer 2 culminates in an old school Western shootout in a deserted town from an oncoming hurricane. That’s as much fun to write as it was to watch McCall just plow through an elite military swat team by himself.
What do you want Denzel to do? He’s gotta be the coolest guy in the room. He’s gotta help people in need. He’s gotta get a cool speech. And he has to beat the crap out of anyone bad who threatens him. There’s a reason Denzel likes working with Antoine Fuqua: the director knows how to make Denzel look as cool as possible, even as a lift driver. The bad guys he hurts/kills are unrepentant assholes, and while Denzel is proving his alpha male status, he’s not only timing himself, but he’s looking to see amongst the evil if there’s a lost soul he can help out and set right. There’s an amazing monologue Washington gives to Pablo Pascal, which had my theatre hootin and hollerin. By the time we get to hurricane Denzel’s (see what I did there?) ghost town, we already know what’s gonna go down, and the straightforward plot services Denzel, by making him just SO much smarter than the already sorta smart tacticians he worked with in the past, that even the bad guy’s death is about as clean as you can get, so we can get outta here and rest comfortably. Thanks Denzel!
Denzel beats up people as a speechifying Lyft driver. Perfect. No need to say or do much more. The Equalizer 2 gets the creative forces out of the way and lets one of the great actors of this generation do his thing. I would personally love to see Robert McCall meet Brian Mills someday. Maybe McCall’s stellar Lyft rating will entice Mills to request him…