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The Equalizer 3

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Watch The Equalizer 3 with a subscription on Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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Another entertaining outing from Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington, The Equalizer 3 mostly makes up for its formulaic story with generous helpings of cathartic action.

With satisfying action, beautiful scenery, and another solid Denzel performance, The Equalizer 3 may leave you hoping for a fourth installment.

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Antoine Fuqua

Denzel Washington

Robert McCall

Dakota Fanning

Emma Collins

David Denman

Frank Conroy

Eugenio Mastrandrea

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In Sicily, an Italian drug lord and his child pull up in a jeep to a secluded villa. Strewn across the rustic courtyard, which, on better days, would be an ideal vacation spot, are the bloodied, dismembered bodies of a goon army. The man exits the jeep with a pistol, leaving the kid in the vehicle. He and one of his henchmen enter the home, where they discover more carcasses, whose causes of death—riddled with bullets, their faces cleaved by a butcher’s knife—grow increasingly gruesome. Noted hitman turned ghost Robert McCall ( Denzel Washington ) sits beneath two gunmen. Is McCall the prisoner, or are they? He, of course, dispatches them with ease, grabbing a set of keys from the dead drug lord’s body that hold what McCall came to retrieve.

You won’t guess what mundane package McCall has just murdered an army of killers to get. But it doesn’t really matter. While the ham-fisted McGuffin doesn’t serve the rest of the film, this opening scene—from its stomach-churning violence to the reliance on impractical effects—indicates where this once enjoyable nuts-and-bolts action franchise has gone wrong.

Antoine Fuqua ’s “The Equalizer 3” is not just what many assume will be the last film in the franchise; it’s the fifth overall collaboration between the director and Washington. Their partnership, on its face, is puzzling. Sure, their first teaming, “ Training Day ,” netted Washington his lone Best Actor win. But their successive films have only gotten harsher and dumber since that triumph. What exactly does Washington get out of these films? It’s a relationship that often recalls the run Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart experienced in their eight pictures together (though, to be sure, Fuqua-Washington has mined far poorer thematic treasures) when Stewart left his prestige perch, his good-guy image, and aw-shucks mannerisms to explore darker stories in Mann’s freeing Westerns. You can tell Washington gets the same pleasure here, not caring if the audience experiences the same adventurous sensations he does.

Because, make no mistake, “The Equalizer 3” is hot garbage. It’s also a fascinating but failed attempt by Fuqua and Washington to make their own Mann-Stewart film. Consider how the Western genre stains this picture. During McCall’s raid on the villa, he is critically wounded and eventually discovered by a local cop, Gio ( Eugenio Mastrandrea ), who takes him to a quaint seaside Italian village, where a local doctor named Enzo ( Remo Girone ) treats the hitman’s wounds. While recuperating in the restful town, McCall learns to love the people and the peace they provide him. Though a local young gang leader, Marco ( Andrea Dodero ), looms over them, McCall, who says he’s merely passing through, would rather avoid intervening. Like any Western, when push comes to shove, McCall will defend them while teaching these acquiescing people how to stand up to their oppressors.

Fuqua and cinematographer Robert Richardson (“ Platoon ” and “A Few Good Man”) provide further Western details through chiaroscuro lighting. Washington’s silhouette spells danger, while his weary frame expresses a close relationship to death. Richardson also captures the actor from extreme low angles, a la John Ford , painting heroic compositions. The problem, however, is they’ve made McCall so vicious we’re not quite sure if we should be rooting for him to kill. While it makes sense for the character to show greater brutality—after all, in the first “Equalizer,” he was once a calm man idling in retirement—now he’s a man fully bathed in blood and guts again. Even Washington can’t fully pull across that throughline, especially when the script is so weak.

Take the primary subplot, which sees Dakota Fanning reteaming with Washington—the two previously starred in “ Man on Fire ”—this time, as CIA Agent Emma Collins. McCall phones a tip to Collins' desk that’ll change her career; the information nonsensically takes her from working a call center to fieldwork. Her arc, nevertheless, is flat-out bad: She never proves herself to be a capable agent, and her case, involving an Italian drug ring, barely connects to McCall’s stay in the village. Fanning appears overmatched in the few scenes the pair occupy together as she unsuccessfully attempts to channel Jessica Chastain ’s turn in “ Zero Dark Thirty .”

I wish I could say the action fares better, but the staging lacks imagination; the editing doesn’t snap; the score sounds rote; the film would rather go gory and gruesome to paper over its limp choreography than craft anything bordering on memorable. The film’s only saving grace is how much fun Washington appears to be having. He makes some surprising decisions that initially feel like outtakes because of how random they are. Is he still playing McCall as the grieving widower or does he want to push this character further toward a psychopathic territory?

It’s become old hat (and kind of lazy) to compare every contemporary action film to “ John Wick ,” but this franchise, which launched the same year as the first “John Wick,” struggles to evolve like Keanu Reeves ’ films did. This trilogy has no emotional core, no narrative continuum, no pleasure with the genre it calls home. Instead, in its successive offerings, “ The Equalizer ” franchise is tragically uneven.

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Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the New York Times , IndieWire , and Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the Los Angeles Times , and Rolling Stone about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

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Film credits.

The Equalizer 3 (2023)

Rated R for strong bloody violence and some language.

109 minutes

Denzel Washington as Robert McCall

Dakota Fanning

Gaia Scodellaro

David Denman

Eugenio Mastrandrea

Remo Girone

Sonia Ammar

Daniele Perrone

Andrea Scarduzio

Andrea Dodero

Giovanni Scotti

Antoine Fuqua
Richard Wenk

Cinematographer

Robert Richardson
Conrad Buff IV

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‘The Equalizer 3’ Review: Brood, Kill, Sip a Cup of Tea, Repeat

Do we know why Denzel Washington’s vigilante is in Italy? No. This third franchise installment just assumes you’re here for the entertaining violence.

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Denzel Washington holding a gun at a man whose back is facing camera.

By Manohla Dargis

As one does in Italy, Robert McCall likes to sit in a little cafe, watching the world pass by. McCall — an enigmatic avenger played by Denzel Washington — likes tea, but he’s fine with the coffee that a beautiful server brings him with a smile. People often smile at McCall, perhaps drawn to his looks, his quiet mien and the restrained intensity of his physicality, as if he were holding back a great and terrifying force. Or maybe, like the rest of us, they are trying to silently encourage McCall to just get on with it and start painting the town red.

This is the third and apparently last “Equalizer” movie that Washington will make. Maybe he’s grown tired of the franchise’s same-old ultraviolence or perhaps he’s bored with the predictable predictability of it all, even if this installment is as reliably watchable if ethically challenged as the previous ones. Whatever the case, little has changed since the first “ Equalizer ” (2014). McCall is still the enigma all in black who, when brutal push comes inevitably to more-brutal shove, demonstrates extraordinary combat skills, near-superhuman strength and a genius for predicting the trajectory of bodies flying and falling in space.

Washington is unsurprisingly the primary reason to watch “Equalizer 3,” which is basically a showcase for him to smolder, swagger and light up the screen as he wanders a tiny, wildly beautiful town on the Amalfi coast. Tucked beneath a mountain and facing the sea, the town is miraculously free of swarming tourists, which is one of the story’s more outlandish conceits. McCall lands there soon after the opener, a big, splashy number in Sicily that sets the darkly brooding mood and underscores that villains should never be too cavalier about leaving their corkscrews lying around. Our guy isn’t going to use it to uncork a bottle of Nero d’Avola.

The corkscrew ends up in the same vulnerable spot where you’d expect it to go, especially if you have seen the first “Equalizer.” In that movie, the skewered baddie was a minion in the Russian mob; the human cork here is in the Italian mafia (specifically the Camorra ). The repeat of the corkscrew bit adds to the movie’s retrospective quality, as if Washington and his principal collaborators in the series — the screenwriter Richard Wenk and the director Antoine Fuqua — were bidding a nostalgic farewell to McCall and the grim, dark (morally, literally) fallen world that he has been trying to set right all these years.

A reliably energetic, often restless director, Fuqua has tamped down his customary visual flamboyance, and for the most part he simply oscillates between many, many sweeping aerial shots and closer ones of the actors (the cast includes Dakota Fanning and Remo Girone) doing their thing. Some of these eagle-eye points of view may be a function of the town’s tight coordinates, though Fuqua may just like playing with drones. He also tosses in a few cineaste nods — McCall’s head is shaved again, so cue “Apocalypse Now” — as he offers up a vision of modern Italy (old men with fishing nets) as canned as anything shot on an old Hollywood lot.

Although the locations and supporting actors are generally new, nothing else is, familiarity being part of the appeal of this kind of genre standard. Once again, a broodily charismatic, patriarchal American loner serves as jury, judge and executioner, meting out punishment to the wicked and avenging the wronged. To that end, it is instructive that you don’t learn why McCall is in Italy until very late. You may briefly wonder what he’s doing in the country — is he retired, on a mission or vacation? — but this information is as irrelevant as the names of those he dispatches. All that matters is watching McCall kill, for justice and entertainment.

The Equalizer 3 Rated R for extreme gun, knife and corkscrew violence. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic of The Times, which she joined in 2004. She has an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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The Equalizer 3 (2023)

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‘The Equalizer 3’ Review: Denzel Washington Leans on His Star Charisma Once Again in Brutal Vigilante Sequel

Reteaming for the fifth time, director Antoine Fuqua and his ‘Training Day’ star leverage the familiarity they’ve established for the audience’s benefit.

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Denzel Washington stars as Robert McCall in Columbia Pictures THE EQUALIZER 3. Photo by: Stefano Montesi

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As McCall recuperates, he makes connections with the locals: a flirty cafe owner, a fish seller who won’t let him pay, even a priest. Before long, he begins to relax and think of this place and people as his community. However, his trained spy eyes notice what’s lurking beneath this friendly surface — namely, that the mafia has a hold on these lovely people, controlling them with threats and extortion. The vigilante in him wakes up, and he proceeds to protect his new friends.

Washington holds the screen like the popular star he is. It’s hard not to root for his characters. Even at the all-media screening, there was cheering when he taunted one of his enemies, and when the bad guys got what they deserve. Beyond the righteous action and visceral violence, it’s Washington’s swagger and charisma that compels. His face and voice, his distinctive walk, his trademark gestures — the smirk and pursed lips before he takes action — are so recognizable and familiar that this journey through Italy feels like a visit with a benevolent but ruthless friend.

This time, he even gets to speak Italian and show a different side of McCall. True to formula, the movie gives him a chance to mentor a younger person. This time it’s Fanning’s spy. Their scenes together have a familial undertone, even if they are supposed to be strangers. The actors have worked together before (in 2004’s “Man on Fire”), and Fanning brings out Washington’s humorous side, as their time together becomes a short respite from the fury elsewhere.

Like its two predecessors, “The Equalizer 3” demands a strong stomach. There’s violence aplenty, loud bullets, body impalement and maiming. Some of it is cruel but draped in a veil of good intentions so earnest, its purpose is never questioned. There’s even a well-staged “Spartacus” moment in the town square where everybody comes together to support McCall, making it easy to accept, even applaud, when the bad guys are sadistically dispatched.

Fuqua orchestrates the action with propulsive style. Some of the visual motifs might be obvious — blood running into red wine — but it works. Collaborating with DP Robert Richardson, he takes advantage of the Italian setting to give the film a spacious feel. The creative team knows their ace in Washington, showing him off in dark and shadowy compositions, as if he were an avenging angel from the heavens. Zarvos’ music has two modes: threateningly ominous or loudly throbbing. It’s all very effective, like so much of the film, delivering exactly what’s expected. No more and no less.

Washington tends to alternate between action movies and prestige Oscar projects. While this film and others like it might not win him awards or critical raves, they remain watchable and entertaining, aided in no small part by the directors in charge. Both Fuqua and the late Tony Scott (with whom Washington also made five films) are able to deliver well-made adrenaline jolts. And Washington never phones it in. He’s always immensely present, knowing what his audience wants and giving it to them in true movie star fashion.

Reviewed at Regal Union Square, New York, Aug. 28, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 108 MIN.

Production: A Columbia Pictures release, in association with Eagle Pictures, of an Escape Artists, Zhiv production. Producers: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Denzel Washington, Antoine Fuqua, Steve Tisch, Clayton Townsend, Alex Siskin, Tony Eldridge, Michael Sloan. Executive producers: David Bloomfield, Tarak Ben Ammar, Andy Mitchell. Co-producer: Richard Wenk.
Crew: Director: Antoine Fuqua. Screenplay: Richard Wenk, based on the television series created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. Camera: Robert Richardson. Editor: Conrad Buff. Music: Marcelo Zarvos.
With: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, David Denman, Eugenio Mastrandrea.

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Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 3, an open penknife dangling from one finger

The Equalizer 3 review – one in the eye for the mob

The mafia are no match for a ruthlessly efficient Denzel Washington in the latest instalment of the visceral thriller

T he mysterious vigilante Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) returns to exact yet more extravagantly bloody vengeance on an assortment of deserving bad guys. This time, for tenuous reasons that are not made clear until the end of the film, he finds himself in Italy. Specifically, a small town on the coast of Sicily full of smiling, thoroughly decent townsfolk, plus a gang of firebomb-happy mafia thugs. Eyeing the town as a potential location for his much-postponed retirement, McCall delves into his unique skill set and seemingly inexhaustible weapon stash to deal with the Camorra, while CIA agent Collins (Dakota Fanning) is on hand to tie up the loose ends.

With Antoine Fuqua once again in the director’s chair, and a violence-heralding musical motif on the score that sounds like an electric guitar being butchered, it’s very much business as usual in the third instalment of the Equalizer franchise: one that includes rigidly black and white moral delineations, decapitations and eye-socket trauma. But while there are no surprises here, there are visceral kicks to be found in the businesslike efficiency of McCall’s retribution, and the devilish glint in Washington’s eye as he delivers it.

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Denzel Washington
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'The Equalizer 3' Review: Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua Deliver a Gleefully Violent Final Installment

As we say farewell to this action series, this film ensures it goes out with a bang.

This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist. There's a good argument to be made that Denzel Washington is the greatest actor working in the industry today. He's a two-time Oscar winner, renowned by almost all, can perform in any genre, and you would be hard-pressed to find someone on this planet who doesn't like at least one of his performances . While his dramatic work in films such as Fences , Training Day , Malcolm X , and Glory are incredible feats of acting all by themselves, he's also one of the most badass action stars in the business. There are films like Man on Fire to Unstoppable as well as the highly underrated The Magnificent Seven reboot, but the first two The Equalizer films are the ones that stand out the most amidst his pure action-driven roles.

This might sound sacrilegious to some, but Antoine Fuqua and Washington are one of the most effective director-actor duos out there. Washington has always brought out the best in Fuqua, and of course, Fuqua directed the thespian to his second Oscar win. For the longest time Washington was on the very small list of movie stars who had never done a sequel. Then along came The Equalizer in 2014, an action-thriller loosely based on the 80s television series of the same name. The film became a smash hit at the box office and, while critics were a bit more lukewarm on the film, audiences ate up every minute of it. In 2018, the The Equalizer 2 debuted in theaters and was another hit. Five years later, Fuqua and Washington are teaming up once again, for the third and apparently final chapter in the hit franchise: The Equalizer 3 .

RELATED: 'The Equalizer 3' Director Antoine Fuqua on Why Audiences Respond to Denzel Washington as Robert McCall

'The Equalizer 3' Showcases Denzel Washington's Best Attributes as an Action Star

Set some time after the events of the second film, The Equalizer 3 opens with a Silician mobster entering his base of operations to find that almost all of his men have been brutally murdered. It's not long until he comes face-to-face with Robert McCall (Washington), in an encounter that leaves our protagonist gravely wounded. McCall is soon rescued by Enzo Arisio ( Remo Girone ), a doctor in a small town on the shores of Southern Italy. McCall quickly becomes comfortable in Italy, forming close friendships with Enzo and many of the locals, but soon discovers that his new home is under the control of the Silician Mafia. With limited options, he must once again take matters into his own hands by going to war against his dangerous new adversaries.

If you've seen the prior Equalizer films, you should know exactly what you're getting into with the latest installment. It follows a similar formula as the previous films while trading in the suburbs of Boston for a European setting. For the most part, this works. The new location puts Washington's character in unfamiliar territory where he doesn't know everybody by name or have the help of his late friend Susan ( Melissa Leo ). The film hints that Emma ( Dakota Fanning ), a young CIA analyst, will play a major role in aiding McCall's latest gratuitous path of revenge, but for the majority of the film's runtime, her subplot never takes off. Outside a reveal that comes at the film's third act, Fanning's role feels mostly forgettable. But that isn't why you're coming to see this sequel.

Fuqua and screenwriter Richard Wenk are completely aware that the audience is showing up to see Washington inflict almost cartoonish levels of pain against any mobster who stands in his way, and that's what you get. While there is a 15-minute stretch in the film's second act where the titular vigilante is nearly absent, every other minute of the film is time well spent. Washington may not be as young as some of the modern-day action stars like Chris Hemsworth or Michael B. Jordan , but he's still extremely believable in this action-heavy role. He's intimidating, fierce, and dangerous, but also extremely charismatic and lovable. Sure, the movie shows him doing things to the human body that many would presume to be impossible, but at the same time, he's the kind of character you'd be more than happy to sit at an Italian bakery and have some tea with. Between all the violence, the film has several scenes showing Washington doing just that, and yet it never manages to bore you. If The Equalizer films were to star any other actor other than Washington, we probably wouldn't have ever gotten a third movie, or even a second movie for that matter. Much like the first two films, The Equalizer 3 works because of Washington's total commitment to this role.

'The Equalizer 3' Won't Disappoint Longtime Fans, but It's Not Going to Convert the Naysayers

While the latest Equalizer film may not live up to the previous two installments, it still comes pretty close. The story is nearly nonexistent for much of the runtime, but it does make up for that by having some of the trilogy's most gory sequences to date. The violence is almost on the level of a Saw movie and the amount of tonal whiplash between scenes of Washington buying fish at the local market to dismembering bad guys isn't going to convert anybody who wasn't big on the previous installments.

Fuqua has always been great at directing the ultimate "Dad" movies, and the first two Equalizer films have always had a special spot in the "Dad Movie Hall of Fame." The pacing is brisk without once overstaying its welcome, it has an ultra-charismatic lead, plus boasts all the violence, chaos, and melodrama one could want out of this particular movie.

2023 has brought audiences some technically marvelous and innovative action movies, such as the latest installments in the John Wick and Mission: Impossible franchises, and while The Equalizer 3 may not live up to the high heights set by those films, it still delivers on having plenty of satisfying action of its own. What more could you possibly ask for?

The Big Picture

Denzel Washington's latest performance as Robert McCall in The Equalizer 3 showcases his incredible range as both a dramatic actor and an action star.
The third installment follows a similar formula to its predecessors while introducing a new European setting and an epic path of revenge against the Sicilian Mafia.
While the story may be lacking at times, the film makes up for it with intense action sequences that will satisfy longtime fans. However, it won't win over those who weren't already on board with the franchise.

The Equalizer 3 is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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Like many a burnt-out employee, “The Equalizer” desperately needed a vacation.

And so, for its final chapter, “The Equalizer 3,” the Denzel Washington vigilante-justice film series jets off to Italy, and soaks in the sun of the Amalfi Coast while soaking the Amalfi Coast in the blood of irredeemable criminals.

THE EQUALIZER 3

Running time: 109 minutes. Rated R (strong bloody violence and some language). In theaters Sept. 1.

The first two movies in this ultra-violent and gory franchise, directed by Antoine Fuqua, were pathologically unpleasant. Way too dark with a drab Boston setting and far more plot than necessary, the slogs grated on the brain.

Washington was always good in them, of course, but the lift was too heavy even for the experienced Oscar winner.

Finally, on the series’ supposedly last outing, one of its films lives up to the ever-deepening talent of its leading man. “Equalizer 3” adds nothing new to the thriller genre, true, but it wisely acknowledges what’s worked well before.

Namely, the mafia.

The Threequalizer begins with Robert McCall (Washington), a former CIA black ops agent with a skill for killing, at a winery in Sicily surrounded by mangled corpses. The dead — McCall’s victims — are mafiosos who have used the vineyard as a front to smuggle deadly synthetic amphetamines from Syria.

Often frustratingly unbeatable, this time McCall is shot in the back and wakes up confused in an idyllic town near Naples recovering at a doctor’s home.

“Are you a good man or a bad man?” the doc asks.

A woozy McCall replies, “I don’t know,” and passes out.

Giorgio Antoninu (left) and Andrea Scarduzio

Making Washington’s badass bedridden and then hobbled lends the usually impenetrable McCall some vulnerability and a watchable arc that the first two films lacked. For once, an “Equalizer” is more than a murderous walk in the park.

As the weeks go by, the hardened man calls himself Roberto, begins to love his adopted home, befriends the locals and decides to stay put. He’s determined to protect the tormented citizens from the mafia-like Camorra forces by any means necessary — a k a ruthlessly gruesome death.

Fuqua likes to drain these films of color, nearly to grayscale, but Italy nonetheless looks as beautiful as it does foreboding. The roars of motorcycles outside, ubiquitous in Western Europe, amp up our paranoia about what nefarious forces could be riding in on them.

As he settles in, McCall helps a CIA agent named Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning), who’s both suspicious of and intrigued by the mysterious informant, track down the Sicilian drug traffickers.

Every fix Fuqua makes this time is for the better. Surprisingly for the end of a trilogy, “3” is the shortest of the “Equalizer” series, clocking in at 30 minutes less than the first one. Belíssimo .

Italian organized crime makes a weightier match for deadly McCall — a Godzilla versus Mothra of the world’s seedy underbelly. Individually, the baddies are static and uninteresting, but their unique personalities are beside the point.

The reason for this franchise is Washington, who was 59 when he began in this role nine years ago, and who imparts impressive pathos on a man who we watch shove a fireplace poker through a thug’s throat. Sometimes he even wrings a hearty laugh or two out of his killing sprees.

It’s nice to see “The Equalizer,” a series I hated until now, go out with a film so unequal to its rotten predecessors.

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The Equalizer 3 Review

30 Aug 2023

The Equalizer 3

There’s something about Denzel Washington as a righteous avenger of wrongs that just feels pleasingly natural. It’s an archetype that he’s perfected throughout his career, and in action movies like Man On Fire , The Magnificent Seven , and the first two entries in The Equalizer franchise, he’s added complexity to heroes with flawed pasts. Paired once again with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, Washington finds yet more layers to unfurl with Robert McCall in this threequel, even as the film itself at times struggles to be as compelling as its protagonist.

Fuqua wastes no time in getting to the Equalizing. Opening on the gory aftermath of an encounter between McCall and several unfortunate foes, the film begins with the Equalizer being caught off guard. For maybe the first time ever, we see shock and doubt etched across McCall’s face; that Washington communicates all those emotions wordlessly only makes the scene more potent. From then on, the character’s journey this time around becomes clear: whereas the first two Equalizer films were about McCall finding purpose for himself and others, this sequel is about whether salvation and peace are still achievable goals.

This sequel is about whether salvation and peace are still achievable goals.

For a while, it looks like they are. As Fuqua and cinematographer Robert Richardson take in the beautiful sights of the small Italian town in which McCall finds a haven, so too does our hero absorb the culture through warm-hearted conversations with people in his adopted community. The other part of his life is never far away, though: CIA agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) has tracked him down, unsure if McCall is friend or foe. Washington and Fanning still have that easy chemistry they showcased in Man On Fire , and it’s fun to watch their back-and-forth, gradually working towards something resembling trust.

Frustratingly, McCall's adversaries aren’t nearly as interesting to watch. Too unprincipled to be intellectually stimulating, and with thinly drawn personalities, they're an unmemorable bunch who don't offer us anything that we haven’t seen countless times before from villains in this genre. A bigger issue is that for all their depravity, there’s never a sense that they actually offer much of a challenge for McCall. Nothing here hits the highs of the first Equalizer ’s showdown at a home-supplies depot, and the final face-off hits a bit of a flat note.

Nonetheless, Washington still makes for an eminently watchable action star. When he commits to taking an enemy down, it’s quick, efficient, and brutal as ever. If this is the final time he puts on McCall’s signature stopwatch, then so be it. But with any luck, there are more avenging heroes in his future.

Movies | 24 08 2023

Movies | 01 08 2023

Review: Headed for the Amalfi coast, ‘The Equalizer 3’ packs attitude and plenty of red sauce

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The blood flows like wine in “The Equalizer 3,” as dark as chianti, seeping into cobblestone streets, splattering onto stained glass and statuary. Star Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua have used the third installment of this trilogy as the opportunity for an Italian vacay, with vigilante hero Robert McCall (Washington) leaving Boston behind for the old country and a taste of “la dolce vita.” But first, Robert has to take care of business before he can truly enjoy retirement on the Amalfi coast, which means ridding a charming village of some pesky mafiosi.

It’s clear Fuqua has been watching his Italian gangster movies, and he revels in the visual drama offered by the setting and subgenre. His compositions are stuffed with religious iconography, Baroque embellishments, claustrophobic medieval alleys and lots and lots of pasta. But he and cinematographer Robert Richardson put their own stamp on the imagery, draining and desaturating the color palette of the picturesque seaside town of Positano.

Speaking of Positano, the iconic Instagram-influencer destination poses here as a village called Altomonte, which is a real place situated between Sicily and Naples, though it is much further inland. It’s unclear why Fuqua renamed such a recognizable slice of the Italian coast for another town, but it’s sort of par for the course when it comes to the plot of “The Equalizer 3,” which is the most ephemeral of the series.

We don’t come to “Equalizer” movies (based on the 1980s TV series ) for story, and this third installment privileges performance and visceral, dramatic thrills over everything else. We start in media res: Robert has already laid waste to a group of anonymous men at a Sicilian winery, butcher knives buried in brains. He will soon punch a pistol into another guy’s head and get shot himself in the process while fleeing.

A woman in a blue blazer speaks on a cell phone.

The bullet in Robert’s back will be extracted by a kindly doctor in Altomonte, and while recovering in the village, he will fall in love with the warm hospitality of the people and the peaceful way of life. He just has to dispatch the bloodthirsty Camorra gang, who seek to intimidate the residents out of their homes so that they can develop resorts and casinos.

The appeal of this film is watching Washington do what he does best, and he’s having a hell of a lot of fun here, quietly threatening bad guys, flashing toothy grins, pontificating about good and evil and the necessity to do evil in order to be good, putting the hurt on swaggering psychos. It’s also the reunion of Washington with his “Man on Fire” co-star Dakota Fanning , some 20 years later. Fanning plays a CIA agent, Collins, whom he tips off about “jihad drugs” being trafficked through the winery. She shows up in town to chase down the terrorists, but she’s really there to banter coolly with Robert. Fanning’s storyline could be excised from the film completely without losing anything except the extratextual significance of seeing these actors together again.

In “The Equalizer 3,” Fuqua goes for operatic style and pulp poetics, strung together with a strangely paced and structured plot that’s about as floppy as a spaghetti noodle (the script is once again by franchise veteran Richard Wenk). It’s not unenjoyable on a purely impressionistic level, as Fuqua and Washington bring the audience along on their Euro trip and ask us simply to enjoy the ride that is Robert McCall inflicting terror and mayhem on very bad people. Sometimes that’s as good as it gets.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'The Equalizer 3'

Rating: R, for strong bloody violence and some language Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes Playing: In wide release

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‘The Equalizer 3’ Reminds You Why Denzel Washington Is a National Treasure

By David Fear

Nobody can threaten someone quietly better than Denzel Washington .

Oh, our man can pump up the volume when he needs to, in terms of letting people know he’s bringing the pain — our ears are still ringing from his “King Kong ain’t got shit on me!” taunt from Training Day. But when he lowers his voice to a basso profundo rumble and he fixes that dead-eyed stare on someone, the one that suggests the unflappable, untouchable Teflon Denzel has officially entered the building, and issues some sort of oh-you’ve-stepped-in-it-now promise of bodily harm? It’s enough to make you laugh out loud and send chills down your spine.

Then he clicks the timer on his watch and tells this boss, in that near-whisper of his, that he has nine seconds to decide his fate. Before the timer goes off, McCall has disarmed one man, shot several others, and stuck the gun barrel in another’s eye socket. The gangster, it goes without saying, makes the wrong choice and soon, there’s one more body on the floor.

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We await the justice that’s inevitably about to be served, which The Equalizer 3 soon dutifully serves up in gory, bloody, supersized amounts even before the big-boss battle between McCall and Marco’s Mafia -chieftain brother, Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio). Fuqua has never been shy about making this franchise’s action sequences a figurative and, more often than not, literal cut above the usual bang-bang stab-stab set pieces in matters of brutality (see: that climactic showdown in a jury-rigged hardware store from the first film ). In a post- John Wick world, it’s now a given that fight scenes and stand-offs have to be bigger, faster, bloodier, more. Washington can more than handle himself when it comes to, say, convincingly making somebody shank themselves rapid-fire with their own blade. But the move in E3 seems to be upping the kills to slasher-flick levels, complete with Denzel stepping out of the shadows and sticking fireplace pokers through throats. Were McCall the screaming type, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear him bellow, “Freddy Krueger ain’t got shit on me!”

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‘The Equalizer 3’ review: Denzel returns for even more carnage

Movie review.

The blood flows like wine in “The Equalizer 3,” as dark as Chianti, seeping into cobblestone streets, splattering onto stained glass and statuary. Yes, star Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua have used the third installment of this trilogy as the opportunity for an Italian vacay, with vigilante hero Robert McCall (Washington) leaving Boston behind to follow a spate of movie sequels, TV productions and Instagram influencers to the old country for a taste of “la dolce vita.” But Robert has to take care of business before he can truly enjoy retirement on the Amalfi Coast, which means ridding this charming village of pesky Mafiosi.

It’s clear Fuqua has been watching his Italian mafia movies, and he revels in the visual drama offered by the setting and subgenre. His compositions are stuffed with religious iconography, baroque embellishments, claustrophobic medieval alleys, and lots and lots of pasta. But he and cinematographer Robert Richardson put their own stamp on the imagery, draining and desaturating the color palette of the picturesque seaside town of Positano.

Speaking of Positano, the iconic town poses here as a village called Altomonte, which is a real place situated between Sicily and Naples, though it is much farther inland. It’s unclear why Fuqua renamed such a recognizable slice of the Italian coast for another town, but it’s sort of par for the course when it comes to the plot of “The Equalizer 3,” which is the most ephemeral yet in the series.

We don’t come to “The Equalizer” movies (based on the 1980s TV series) for plot, and this third installment privileges performance and visceral, dramatic imagery over everything else. We start in media res: Robert has already laid waste to a group of anonymous men at a Sicilian winery, butcher knives buried in brains. He will soon punch a pistol into another guy’s head and get shot himself in the process while fleeing.

The bullet in Robert’s back will be extracted by a kindly doctor in Altomonte, and while recovering in the village, he will fall in love with the warm hospitality of the people, and the peaceful way of life. He just has to dispatch the bloodthirsty Camorra gang, who seek to intimidate the residents out of their homes so that they can develop resorts and casinos.

The appeal of this film is just watching Washington do what he does best, and he’s having a hell of a lot of fun here, quietly threatening bad guys, flashing toothy grins, pontificating about good and evil and the necessity to do evil in order to be good, putting the hurt on swaggering psychos. It’s also the reunion of Washington with his “Man on Fire” co-star Dakota Fanning, some 20 years later. Fanning plays a CIA agent, Collins, whom he tips off about “jihad drugs” being trafficked through the winery. She shows up in town to chase down the terrorists, but she’s really there to banter coolly with Robert. Fanning’s storyline could be excised from the film completely without losing anything except the extra-filmic significance of seeing these actors together again.

In “The Equalizer 3,” Fuqua goes for operatic style and pulp poetics, strung together with a strangely paced and structured plot that’s about as floppy as a spaghetti noodle (the script is once again by Richard Wenk). But the film is not unenjoyable on a purely impressionistic level, as Fuqua and Washington bring the audience along on their Euro trip and ask us simply to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride that is Robert McCall inflicting terror and mayhem on very bad people. Sometimes that’s as good as it gets.

With Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, from a screenplay by Richard Wenk based on the television series created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. 109 minutes. Rated R for strong bloody violence and some language. Opens Aug. 31 at multiple theaters.

The Equalizer 3 review: a meditative, ultraviolent sequel

Denzel Washington twists a gangster's wrist in The Equalizer 3.

“Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington's The Equalizer 3 is a predictably gruesome, surprisingly contemplative sequel.”

Denzel Washington's reliably commanding lead performance
A striking visual texture and aesthetic
A surprisingly patient, meditative pace
A by-the-numbers vigilante plot
An ensemble of one-note supporting characters

The Equalizer 3 opens in the wake of a massacre. Its prologue follows the owner of an Italian vineyard as he discovers, much to his horror, that the violence that has recently struck his property is far from over. However, while the new, Antoine Fuqua-directed thriller finds a way to pack in another Denzel Washington-manned, stopwatch-timed bout of carnage in its first few minutes, it’s the film’s eerie, quiet opening that proves to be truly emblematic of what is to follow. As shockingly brutal as its many set pieces are, the film is more interested in lingering in the aftermath of its protagonist’s violence than it is in the blood-soaked action itself.

That’s the most surprising and rewarding thing about The Equalizer 3 . Of the now-three films that Washington and Fuqua have made together about Robert McCall, the former’s fictional, quasi-retired U.S. intelligence agent, it is easily the most contemplative and thoughtful. That doesn’t mean The Equalizer 3 is all that surprising of a movie, nor does it mean that it’s a particularly noteworthy effort from either Fuqua or Washington. At its core, the film is still a B-level action movie that is committed to sticking to its franchise’s formula.

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Anyone who wasn’t charmed by the first two Equalizer films likely won’t, in other words, be won over by Fuqua’s latest sequel. Those who have enjoyed the franchise up to this point, however, may very well find themselves not only invested in The Equalizer 3 ’s plot, but also surprised by its meditative pace and, at times, affected by its exploration of its hero’s fractured, lonely mind. As shallow as its depths may be, the film also isn’t as superficial as it initially appears.

Set five years after the franchise’s second installment, The Equalizer 3 picks back up with Washington’s Robert McCall in the moments immediately after he’s single-handedly killed nearly every guard present at the Sicilian home of an internationally wanted criminal. The reason for McCall’s presence at said Italian villa isn’t immediately clear, but it also doesn’t need to be. What matters more is the coldness with which the character dispatches his enemies, as well as the wound he suffers at the hands of a surprising culprit, which sends him into the care of Enzo (Remo Girone), the local doctor in a nearby, mountainside village.

Injured and forced to exist at a slower pace than he’s used to, Robert finds himself increasingly charmed by the residents of Enzo’s tiny Italian town. Despite how haunted he feels by his past actions, Washington’s former marine begins to embrace the idea of settling down and starting over in the tight-knit community he’s accidentally fallen into. That dream is challenged, however, by the Italian mobsters who have made a habit out of threatening and scamming the very people Robert now sees as his friends.

Headed by brothers Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio) and Marco (Andrea Dodero), The Equalizer 3 ’s blunt-force crime outfit gives the film’s protagonist the chance to use his dangerous skills to rid his neighbors of their biggest harassers. The film, consequently, reframes Robert’s inevitable, murderous acts as well-intentioned efforts to help the good people around him in much the same way that the previous Equalizer films have. While it inevitably indulges in its hero’s violent impulses, though, the movie also spends more time contemplating the impact of Robert’s actions than either of its predecessors.

The Equalizer 3 ’s more patient approach makes the fight sequences of its second half land with considerable force. That’s particularly true of one late-night confrontation between Washington’s Robert and Dodero’s Marco, which initially makes spectacular use of the former’s clear-eyed, magnetic stillness before allowing him to unleash the full might of his still-unrivaled on-screen physicality. The sequence in question leads to several unsurprising, gratuitously bloody moments, but this time around, Fuqua and Washington make the deaths Robert causes seem less like self-indulgent exercises in brutality and more like the natural outcome of his mere presence.

In The Equalizer 3 , Fuqua reframes the character as not just a sharpened vessel for violence, but as an angel of death. During his daily walks through the film’s central Italian village, Fuqua frequently positions Washington within view of various religious symbols and crosses. These compositional decisions not only play into the sequel’s heightened sense of spirituality, but also emphasize the increasingly mythic quality of its protagonist. In its third act, Fuqua takes the film’s visual metaphors too far by relying too much on cutaways to certain stained glass religious images, but these missteps don’t take away from the cumulative power that The Equalizer 3 grants Washington’s McCall.

Thematically, the film has more in common with several of its star’s previous, non- Equalizer action movies, including 2004’s Man on Fire . The film even, notably, reunites the stars of its underrated, Tony Scott-directed predecessor by pairing up Washington in several scenes with Dakota Fanning. The actress has a small, but noteworthy role in The Equalizer 3 as Emma Collins, an up-and-coming CIA agent whom Robert unofficially takes under his wing. For the most part, Emma’s inclusion feels unnecessary to the film’s overall plot, but there’s enough electricity present in her and Washington’s scenes together to forgive the superfluous nature of Fanning’s character.

Narratively, The Equalizer 3 doesn’t reach the same depths as Man on Fire , nor does it ever achieve the same level of visual splendor. Fuqua and cinematographer Robert Richardson do, however, bring a strikingly desaturated, black-and-white-esque aesthetic to the film that helps elevate its themes of morality, violence, and history. Washington’s all-black costumes often stand in stark contrast to the chipped and peeling white walls of the movie’s centuries-old Italian village, which gives it a richer visual texture than either of the first two Equalizer films.

What do all of these touches amount to? A movie that is, in many ways, a satisfying extension of its series’ previous installments. The Equalizer 3 is, by no means, a spectacular or particularly dense action film. It may be coming out nearly 10 years after the first Equalizer , but its pleasures remain just as obvious and reliable as those offered by that 2014 blockbuster. Ultimately, the best thing that can be said about The Equalizer 3 is that it is both content to deliver the same things as its predecessors and also interested in reaching farther than either. The result is a thriller that is just as straightforward as its subject matter demands, but also more interesting than it ever needed to be — if only slightly.

The Equalizer 3 opens in theaters on Friday, September 1.

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Tubi, one of the most popular FAST services, offers more than 50,000 movies and TV shows in over 35 genres. For this article we're zeroing in on the action genre and selecting three movies you must watch in December. One of our picks is John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the third film in one of the best action franchises.

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The equalizer 3, common sense media reviewers.

Vaguely dissatisfying and very violent action sequel.

The Equalizer 3 Movie Poster: Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) sits in a chair in front of a huge picture window; below him, reflected in the polished floor, is the statue of "Justice"

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Lots of consequence-free violence, but themes also

McCall tries to see the good in people and help ot

Main character McCall (Denzel Washington) is Black

Many dead bodies, lots of blood. Guns and shooting

Several uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "motherf----r

Illegal drug dealing is part of the plot. Syntheti

Positive Messages

Lots of consequence-free violence, but themes also include idea of ending up where you're "supposed" to be and exploring the idea of whether a place might have the power to heal a person. Another theme is the question of whether someone is a "good" or "bad" person.

Positive Role Models

McCall tries to see the good in people and help others when he can, but he's also merciless with those he judges to be lacking. He's highly skilled and experienced.

Diverse Representations

Main character McCall (Denzel Washington) is Black (as is director Antoine Fuqua); his CIA contact, Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning), is White. She's smart and has agency. A kindly server at a caf é is played by Italian-born mixed-race actor Gaia Scodellaro. Most other characters are Italians; about half are shown to be caring, kind people, but the other half feel like one-dimensional movie mafiosos who harm others for personal gain with no moral qualms.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Many dead bodies, lots of blood. Guns and shooting; people shot and killed. Characters are also sliced and stabbed; blood spatters, pools of blood. Gun barrel shoved through person's eye, gun firing through his skull. Corpse with butcher knife embedded in face. Ultra-gory surgery scene with spurting blood. Character shot in eye. Character beaten up, face slammed on kitchen sink, body slammed against wall, kicked multiple times. Person in wheelchair thrown out window and hung by the neck; the wheelchair smashes to the ground below. Child in peril, gun pointed at her head. Person stabbed in hand with pen; hand sliced off. Character beheaded. Person bashed on back of head, punched, kicked; person shown with head wound and swollen face. Strangling. Building on fire. After being injured, the main character points a gun to his own head and pulls trigger (gun clicks, indicating no more bullets). Main character presses on someone's nerve, causing great pain. Car crash; character hit, pinned against wall, killed. Another character hit by car. Huge explosion; character injured by blast.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "motherf----r," "bulls--t," "piss," and "stupid," both spoken and seen in subtitles.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Illegal drug dealing is part of the plot. Synthetic methamphetamine-based narcotics are smuggled into Italy. A character is killed with an overdose of that drug (he foams at the mouth and crawls in agony). Occasional cigarette smoking. A scene takes place at a winery, with bottle of wine on view.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Equalizer 3 is the third (and possibly final) installment in Denzel Washington 's action series. It follows his character, Robert McCall, as he tries to settle down in Italy but has a run-in with the mafia. Violence is very strong and gory, with multiple killings, lots of blood, shootings, stabbings, slicing, strangling, a gun barrel being shoved through an eye socket, bloody surgery, a character getting hung by the neck, a child in peril, characters beaten up, a severed hand and head, characters hit by cars, fire, explosions, and more. Language includes uses of "f--k," "s--t," "motherf----r," "bulls--t," and "piss." Illegal drug dealing and synthetic methamphetamine-based narcotics are part of the plot. A character is killed with a forced overdose of said drug (he foams at the mouth and crawls in agony). There's also occasional cigarette smoking. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (5)
Kids say (2)

Based on 5 parent reviews

I don’t understand the negative criticism for this film.

What's the story.

In THE EQUALIZER 3, Robert McCall ( Denzel Washington ) has traveled to Sicily and uncovered a cell of criminals importing illegal drugs from Syria. He easily dispatches them but winds up getting shot. He wakes up in a small, picturesque coastal village under the care of the local doctor, Enzo ( Remo Girone ). While recovering, McCall contacts CIA agent Emma Collins ( Dakota Fanning ) to tip her off about the Sicily situation. Then he begins exploring and getting to know his new surroundings. He starts to feel at peace for the first time, but that peace is disrupted by a crime family showing up, demanding protection money and causing general chaos. While Collins investigates the drug operation, McCall decides to go to work on the crime family, slowly working toward figuring out a connection.

Is It Any Good?

With lots of gorgeous scenery and Washington's ultra-cool performance, there's a lot to like about this sequel, but it's hard to deny that its energy flags. The Equalizer 3 starts out well, with its clever, brutal Sicily sequence, which viewers see after it's already happened. McCall getting caught off guard and his subsequent reaction lends some weight to the character, and his recovery in the beautiful village is a delight. (There's a special moment when, maneuvering a staircase with his cane, he encounters a sweet old lady, also with a cane, who cautions him to "go slowly.")

This peace is interrupted by villains -- and this time around, they are, very simply, flat and dull. These are evil mafia goons who are bent on hurting people for financial gain, with no gray areas to be found. It's not interesting, and as the movie ramps up for its big showdown, it becomes harder to care. Moreover, whereas the first two Equalizer movies had brilliantly staged final showdowns with clever uses of space, The Equalizer 3 simply takes place in the villain's house, with nothing special happening; it looks like any other sequence. Oscar-winner Robert Richardson showcases beautiful cinematography from time to time, especially in the glittering nighttime shots, but ultimately this third entry leaves off on a vaguely dissatisfying note, as if the series went one sequel too far.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Equalizer 3 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is McCall a hero? A role model ? How does he decide who's nice/worth helping and who isn't nice (and worth killing)? He does many good deeds, but he can also be very brutal. How would you feel about someone like him in real life?

How are women portrayed here? Are they empowered, or victimized? If you could change the script, what might you do similarly -- or differently -- with the film's female characters?

Do you believe that it's possible to be where you're "supposed" to be? Is it possible for a place to change a person's perspective on life? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 1, 2023
On DVD or streaming : November 14, 2023
Cast : Denzel Washington , Dakota Fanning , Eugenio Mastrandrea
Director : Antoine Fuqua
Inclusion Information : Black directors, Black actors, Female actors
Studio : Columbia Pictures
Genre : Action/Adventure
Run time : 109 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : strong bloody violence and some language
Last updated : April 27, 2024

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The Equalizer 3 Review: A Disappointing Finale

By Jonathan Sim

Denzel Washington is back as Robert McCall in The Equalizer 3 . Director Antoine Fuqua caps his trilogy of action thrillers centered around a vigilante with a mysterious past. The new movie sees McCall finding a home in Southern Italy, but trouble soon finds him as he finds himself face-to-face with the Mafia. The first Equalizer movie was a surprise hit, and the second one wasn’t as good, but it had its moments. Unfortunately, the third Equalizer movie is the weakest in the series. The Equalizer 3 is yet another example of diminishing returns.

What has been the best part of every Equalizer movie? The answer is easy: Denzel Washington. He is an incredible actor. He’s one of those rare actors who can say anything, and you believe every word from his mouth. When playing a character as intimidating as McCall, Washington has always had an interesting approach. He does not need to raise his voice to be intimidating. His quiet, assured confidence is what makes him the most terrifying person in the room. An invulnerable character like this can sometimes be boring to watch because we know he will win every fight. However, Washington’s grounded performance makes him captivating to watch.

The opening sequence of The Equalizer 3 kicks off what seems like a hard-R action movie dripping with blood. There have always been a few gnarly kills in this series, and the opening scene gives a few excellent ones. However, after that, the movie slows down quite a bit. Every Equalizer movie has had issues with its plotting and pacing. The first two movies are great when the action is happening, but a few of the moments in between take far too long, particularly with the abundance of subplots. This movie continues that trend, starting out with an action sequence that gets McCall to his setting for the rest of the film. Afterward, the film stalls as he settles down and enjoys his life in this town.

Meanwhile, bad guys are popping up everywhere, disturbing McCall’s peace. During the scenes where the villains are doing their thing, The Equalizer 3 can be investing. It spends a good amount of time making the audience hate them so that you can cheer for their downfall. However, the rest does not work as well. McCall is a passive protagonist for much of the film. His most significant action in the movie’s first half is calling a woman named Emma, played by Dakota Fanning. This is Washington’s and Fanning’s first on-screen reunion since 2004’s Man on Fire.

However, Fanning’s character is boring and one-note. She does not have a lot to do in this movie. It feels as if The Equalizer 3 is grasping at straws in an attempt to give her and Frank (David Denman) anything to do. Their characters mainly exist for expository purposes. By the time the movie ends, you’ll wonder if it would have been any different if the characters were removed entirely. The characters are baggage in an uninteresting story. The plot beats are pedestrian, with some scenes taking a long time while others are rushed. The relationship between McCall and a waitress named Aminah (Gaia Scodellaro) is something that starts but never gets fully resolved by the end.

Speaking of the end, let’s think about what makes an Equalizer movie fun. The best parts of these movies are when McCall has had enough of the despicable people committing crimes. The final acts of the first two Equalizers feature McCall demolishing bad guys one by one with brutal traps. It’s a lot of fun to see the bad guys get what they deserve for the entire movie. However, the final act of The Equalizer 3 is bafflingly disappointing. McCall is mainly seen as a figure in the shadows hunting them down. The movie doesn’t have the novelty of the home department store battle from the first film or the stormy setting of the second film. This movie’s final action set piece is underwhelming, forgettable, and brief.

Ultimately, The Equalizer 3 is the worst movie in the trilogy. This film mainly features McCall standing around as bad guys threaten civilians. The moments where McCall confronts the villains are fantastic but few and far between. It’s a movie that peaks at its opening sequence, never getting better than that. There are a few well-written moments of tension throughout the film, but it’s not enough to save it. While it’s not always a boring movie, it’s one that you’ll find yourself checking your watch more often than you would like. Like the other Equalizer movies, you won’t be in a rush to watch this one again after seeing it. Washington’s performance elevates the material, but not even he can keep a sinking ship afloat.

SCORE : 4/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 4 equates to “Poor.” The negatives outweigh the positive aspects making it a struggle to get through.

Jonathan Sim is a film critic and filmmaker born and raised in New York City. He has met/interviewed some of the leading figures in Hollywood, including Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Liam Neeson, and Denis Villeneueve. He also works as a screenwriter, director, and producer on independent short films.

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Your guide to summer movies 2023: From Spider-Verse to Mission: Impossible

All the summer movie release dates in one handy calendar.

This summer's hottest club (*in Saturday Night Live Stefon voice*) is... the movie theater! It's got everything: multiple multiverses, Tom Cruise destroying a train, a de-aged Harrison Ford (!?!?), an atomic bomb, Ryan Gosling Ken-ergy, air conditioning, and Megs. What are Megs? They're like Godzilla-sized sharks except Jason Statham randomly drop-kicks them in the face.

Summer movies in 2023 are bringing the hottest hyphenated titles — from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One — to the big screen over the next couple months, alongside the latest from Christopher Nolan , Pixar , and DC .

EW has your handy guide to the summer movie schedule — and some exclusive new looks.

May 2023 (Memorial Day Weekend)

The Little Mermaid (in theaters) You Hurt My Feelings (in theaters) About My Father (in theaters) The Machine (in theaters) Kandahar (in theaters)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (in theaters) The Boogeyman (in theaters) Shooting Stars (Peacock) Past Lives (in select theaters)

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (in theaters) Flamin' Hot (Hulu and Disney+) The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (in theaters, On Demand, and digital) Daliland (in theaters and On Demand) Mending the Line (in theaters) Persian Lessons (in theaters)

Elemental (in theaters) Asteroid City (in theaters) The Blackening (in theaters) The Flash (in theaters) Maggie Moore(s) (in theaters) Extraction 2 (Netflix)

No Hard Feelings (in theaters) World's Best (Disney+)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (in theaters) Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (in theaters) Every Body (in theaters)

Nimona (on Netflix)

Joy Ride (in theaters) Insidious: The Red Door (in theaters) The Out-Laws (Netflix) Earth Mama (select theaters)

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (in theaters)

Bird Box Barcelona (Netflix) Theater Camp (in theaters)

Oppenheimer (in theaters) Barbie (in theaters) They Cloned Tyrone (Netflix) The Beanie Bubble (in select theaters) Stephen Curry: Underrated (in select theaters and on Apple TV+)

Haunted Mansion (in theaters) Talk to Me (in theaters) The Beanie Bubble (Apple TV+)

The Meg 2: The Trench (in theaters) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (in theaters) Shortcomings (in theaters)

Red, White & Royal Blue (Prime Video) Gran Turismo (in theaters) The Last Voyage of the Demeter (in theaters) Heart of Stone (Netflix)

Blue Beetle (in theaters) Strays (in theaters) White Bird (select theaters) The Monkey King (Netflix)

White Bird (wide release in theaters) Bottoms (in select theaters) Vacation Friends 2 (Hulu) They Listen (in theaters)

September 2023 (Labor Day Weekend)

The Equalizer 3 (in theaters)

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Drake leads the 2024 BET Awards nominations with 7, followed closely by Nicki Minaj

FILE - Drake, an executive producer of the HBO drama series “Euphoria,” poses at the premiere in Los Angeles on June 4, 2019. Drake is the leading nominee for next month’s BET Awards. The Canadian rapper received seven nominations Thursday, including an album of the year nod for “For All the Dogs.” (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Nicki Minaj accepts the video vanguard award at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 28, 2022, in Newark, N.J. Drake is the leading nominee for next month’s BET Awards, followed closely by Nicki Minaj. Minaj received six nominations, including for album of the year for her highly anticipated “Pink Friday 2” release. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

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Drake is the leading nominee for next month’s BET Awards , followed closely by Nicki Minaj.

The Canadian rapper received seven nominations Thursday, including an album of the year nod for his eighth studio album , “For All the Dogs.” One of the awards he’s up for is the music video for “First Person Shooter,” his collaboration with J. Cole that may have been the catalyst for his recent beef with rapper Kendrick Lamar .

Minaj received six nominations, including for album of the year for her highly anticipated “Pink Friday 2” release . Two of her nominations were for her song with Ice Spice, “Barbie World,” part of the blockbuster “Barbie” soundtrack .

Victoria Monét, one of several artists to receive five nominations, is scheduled to perform at the show, which will be held June 30 in Los Angeles.

Beyoncé, received four nominations, including for best female R&B/pop artist as well as recognition for two “Cowboy Carter” tracks, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.”

Her collaboration with Lamar, “America Has a Problem (Remix),” is competing against songs by Minaj, Usher, Cardi B and Drake.

Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy,” which features SZA and Sexyy Red, is competing for the best collaboration and two other awards.

Billie Eilish arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

The BET Awards extend beyond music with honors for film, acting and sports figures.

“Renaissance,” the Beyoncé tour film that was released in theaters late last year, is also nominated for best movie.

Super Bowl headliner Usher is among the artists vying for four awards, along with 21 Savage, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat and Tyla, who won the inaugural best African music performance honor at the Grammy Awards.

Joining Monét, the best new artist Grammy winner , with five nominations apiece are J. Cole, Sexyy Red and SZA.

Sexyy Red will also perform during the show, as will Muni Long, Latto, Glorilla and Shaboozey.

The film nominees this year are: “American Fiction”; “Bob Marley: One Love”; “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé"; “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”; “The Book of Clarence”; “The Color Purple”; “The Equalizer 3” and “The Little Mermaid.”

Simone Biles, Naomi Asaka, Steph Curry, Lebron James and Patrick Mahomes are among the sports stars competing for awards.

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COMMENTS

The Equalizer 3
Rated 4/5 Stars • 01/14/24. The Equalizer 3. The Equalizer 3 One Piece. In Theaters At Home TV Shows. Since giving up his life as a government assassin, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has ...
The Equalizer 3 movie review & film summary (2023)
The Equalizer 3. In Sicily, an Italian drug lord and his child pull up in a jeep to a secluded villa. Strewn across the rustic courtyard, which, on better days, would be an ideal vacation spot, are the bloodied, dismembered bodies of a goon army. The man exits the jeep with a pistol, leaving the kid in the vehicle.
'The Equalizer 3' Review: Denzel Washington on Brood, Kill, Repeat
The Equalizer 3. Directed by Antoine Fuqua. Action, Crime, Thriller. R. 1h 49m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate ...
The Equalizer 3 (2023)
The Equalizer 3: Directed by Antoine Fuqua. With Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Eugenio Mastrandrea, David Denman. Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends' protector by taking on the mafia.
'The Equalizer 3' Review: Denzel Washington in Antoine Fuqua Flick
Cast: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, David Denman, Eugenio Mastrandrea, Gaia Scodellaro, Remo Girone, Andrea Scarduzio, Andrea Dodero. Director: Antoine Fuqua. Screenwriter: Richard Wenk ...
The Equalizer 3 (2023)
FeastMode 2 September 2023. The Equalizer 3 is a solid concluding chapter to this entertaining trilogy. Even with an entirely new setting and cast, it does a great job of setting everything up and making you care about his new relationships. The movie overall is entertaining and mostly satisfying. As usual, Denzel is a beast.
'The Equalizer 3' Review: Denzel Washington Returns in Brutal Sequel
'The Equalizer 3' Review: Denzel Washington Leans on His Star Charisma Once Again in Brutal Vigilante Sequel Reviewed at Regal Union Square, New York, Aug. 28, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running ...
The Equalizer 3 review
T he mysterious vigilante Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) returns to exact yet more extravagantly bloody vengeance on an assortment of deserving bad guys. This time, for tenuous reasons that are ...
The Equalizer 3 Review
Verdict. The Equalizer 3 ends the trilogy strong with a style, energy, and cohesiveness that most sequels aren't capable of. Fuqua and Washington's circle feels complete and delivers a ...
'The Equalizer 3' Review
Movie Reviews; The Equalizer 3 (2023) Denzel Washington; Antoine Fuqua; About The Author. Nate Richard Nate Richard is a Resource Editor for Collider, a film and television critic, and a part-time ...
'The Equalizer 3' review: Finally, one of these things is good
Finally, on the series' supposedly last outing, one of its films lives up to the ever-deepening talent of its leading man. "Equalizer 3" adds nothing new to the thriller genre, true, but it ...
'The Equalizer 3' reloads Denzel Washington as the McCall to ...
Although the comparison doesn't set the bar terribly high, "The Equalizer 3" might be the best in this Denzel Washington film series, not by honoring its TV roots but rather embracing an old ...
The Equalizer 3 Review
29 Aug 2023. Original Title: The Equalizer 3. There's something about Denzel Washington as a righteous avenger of wrongs that just feels pleasingly natural. It's an archetype that he's ...
'The Equalizer 3' review: Mayhem and plenty of red sauce
Review: Headed for the Amalfi coast, 'The Equalizer 3' packs attitude and plenty of red sauce. Denzel Washington in the movie "The Equalizer 3.". (Stefano Montesi / Columbia Pictures) By ...
'Equalizer 3' Review: Denzel Washington vs. the Mafia, Guess Who Wins?
Hence, The Equalizer 3 doesn't wait long to drop a good one on folks. We enter the movie en massacre res, following a gangster as he winds his way past a dozen scattered corpses in a Sicilian ...
'The Equalizer 3' review: Denzel returns for even more carnage
Movie review. The blood flows like wine in "The Equalizer 3," as dark as Chianti, seeping into cobblestone streets, splattering onto stained glass and statuary. Yes, star Denzel Washington and ...
The Equalizer 3 review: a meditative, ultraviolent sequel
The Equalizer 3 is a predictably violent, surprisingly contemplative sequel. The Denzel Washington-led action movie is now playing in theaters.
The Equalizer 3
The Equalizer 3 - Metacritic. Summary Since giving up his life as a government assassin, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has struggled to reconcile the horrific things he's done in the past and finds a strange solace in serving justice on behalf of the oppressed. Finding himself surprisingly at home in Southern Italy, he discovers his new ...
Movie Review: Denzel Washington's vigilante battles the Italian mafia
There's an awful lot of talk about the end of movie stars considering Denzel Washington is right over here, walking around.. Antoine Fuqua's "Equalizer 3," a taut and textured sequel to Washington's vigilante series, isn't one of the actor's best films. It wouldn't crack his top 10. But it vividly encapsulates Washington's formidable on-screen potency.
The Equalizer 3 Movie Review
Parents need to know that The Equalizer 3 is the third (and possibly final) installment in Denzel Washington's action series. It follows his character, Robert McCall, as he tries to settle down in Italy but has a run-in with the mafia. Violence is very strong and gory, with multiple killings, lots of blood, shootings, stabbings, slicing, strangling, a gun barrel being shoved through an eye ...
The Equalizer 3
The Equalizer 3 is a 2023 American vigilante action film directed by Antoine Fuqua.It is a sequel to The Equalizer 2 and the third and final installment of The Equalizer trilogy, based on the television series of the same name.The film stars Denzel Washington, reprising his role as retired U.S. Marine and DIA officer Robert McCall, with Dakota Fanning, Eugenio Mastrandrea, David Denman, Gaia ...
The Equalizer 3 Review: A Disappointing Finale
This movie's final action set piece is underwhelming, forgettable, and brief. Ultimately, The Equalizer 3 is the worst movie in the trilogy. This film mainly features McCall standing around as ...
Customer Reviews: The Equalizer 3 [Includes Digital Copy] [4K Ultra HD
Best Buy has honest and unbiased customer reviews for The Equalizer 3 [Includes Digital Copy] [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray] [2023]. Read helpful reviews from our customers. ... Good movie, but I wouldn't go as far as to say this is the best Equalizer movie yet. I'm a fan of the first two movies, but I found this one to be slower moving, and ...
Summer movies 2023: Your guide to the season's hottest films
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Drake leads the 2024 BET Awards nominations with 7, followed closely by
Drake is the leading nominee for next month's BET Awards, followed closely by Nicki Minaj.. The Canadian rapper received seven nominations Thursday, including an album of the year nod for his eighth studio album, "For All the Dogs."One of the awards he's up for is the music video for "First Person Shooter," his collaboration with J. Cole that may have been the catalyst for his ...
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