Flicks, Tony Stamp
The Equalizer 2 begins on a train to Istanbul. Denzel Washington, wearing a skullcap and beard, is reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between The World And Me. Soon after, he murders a couple of very bad Turkish men.
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The Equalizer 2
Denzel Washington rejoins director Antoine Fuqua for the sequel to 2014's neo-noir action thriller, based on the '80s TV series of the same name.
Retired CIA black ops operative Robert McCall (Washington) - a man who serves an unflinching form of justice - returns to his old ways after discovering the murder of a friend. McCall sets out to find and punish the perpetrators.
Less2018Rating: R16, Graphic violence, drug use & offensive language120 minsUSA
ActionCrimeThriller
- Director:
- Antoine Fuqua ('Training Day', 'Olympus Has Fallen', 'Southpaw')
- Writer:
- Richard Wenk
- Cast:
- Denzel WashingtonPedro PascalAshton SandersBill PullmanMelissa LeoJonathan ScarfeOrson BeanSakina Jaffrey
The Equalizer 2 | Reviews
52%206 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Flicks, Luke Buckmaster
Blue collar heroes who administer vigilante justice tend to be ideologically interesting characters, squashed by the same system they see themselves as morally above. The protagonist of The Equalizer films, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington), espouses a conservative ethos, believing bureaucratised institutions have reduced the capacity for basic fairness. Like virtually any character, in life as in film, he regards himself as the hero of his narrative.
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Variety
Judging by the ponderous tone and pace, Fuqua thinks he's making high art (likely aspiring to something existential like Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samouraï"), but this is a grisly exploitation movie at best.
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The New York Times
Like all great actors, Mr. Washington commits to the performance, but every so often he also breathes fire, imbuing a scene with such shocking ferocity and bone-deep moral certitude that everything else falls blissfully away.
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The Guardian
That Washington is charming enough to disguise McCall's clear streak of Travis Bickle-level sociopathy ranks as this production's greatest asset.
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Stuff
This solid, but unspectacular sequel (Washington's first in a more than 50-film career) is a movie that plays by a "very particular set" of rules.
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Hollywood Reporter
This distinctive character is gradually subsumed by familiar genre imperatives that eventually make McCall seem less special and singular than he did on first exposure in 2014.
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Herald Sun
The climactic dispensation of rough justice... is almost worth the price of admission. However, the grind of the getting-there could have you requesting a discount.
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FilmInk
Builds on the low-flash action chops of the original to bring us more of the good stuff.
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