Monday, July 23, 2018

The Equalizer 2



Runtime: 121 minutes

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

Starring: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Orson Bean, Bill Pullman

From: Columbia and some other studios

This is a movie I thought was fun, even if it wasn't quite as glorious as the first one: 

Last night an air conditioner issue resulted in me seeing The Equalizer for the first time (which was a lot of fun) and then I was able to use the AMC Stubs A-List program (I can't put over enough how it's already saved me money or how easy it is to purchase a seat using your phone) to see the sequel on a giant IMAX screen. I thought the first film was a lot of fun and the final act was pretty glorious due to the setting and the “hell yeah!” moments of certain items being used as weapons. Naturally, this sequel is not as good and it does not reach those glorious heights... that does not mean I did not have fun also.

The plot is different from the original; this time there is an international case and Robert McCall ends up being targeted. Also, there are some small side stories and they serve to prove what a good dude he is... at the same time he is still someone who-even as a Lyft driver-is happy to do some old school Steven Seagal-esque limb breaking when some young D-bags do something pretty bad to a random woman. Only one of the subplots seemed kind of superfluous... still, it was resolved in a touching way so I can't get too mad.

The Seagal mention by me is actually apt as in this installment, McCall is pretty much unstoppable. As it is still glorious seeing him wreck dudes and cause a lot of havoc, I wasn't too bothered by it. The crowd definitely enjoyed the film and besides Denzel using all of his talent and charm to make the character so enthralling, I know they were here to see him be awesome... a few times you get to see some pretty badass moments and the audience was all for it, reacting loudly.

The finale was in an interesting setting and I liked seeing all of the action beats & dramatic moments. Unfortunately for it, it was not as memorable or fun as in the first movie. Still, for the first sequel that Denzel has ever done (that was a fact stated by a popular Letterboxd member and I did not realize it until I read his review) I did not think of this as bad or a waste of two hours. Hopefully for the members here or the general public that unexpectedly made this number one in the United States this past weekend, they won't think of this as disappointing or give this Lyft driver a low rating.

No comments:

Post a Comment