Half love letter to 80s action flick, half militant bibliophile’s playbook, Equalizer 2 sees Denzel Washington reprise his role as Robert McCall – former CIA operative (presumed dead), and now a Lyft driver. And just when you think he retired…
His day job as a driver-for-hire gives him ample opportunity to indulge his real passion – brutalising wrong-doers on behalf of their otherwise helpless victims. In one scene, McCall exacts revenge on a gaggle of yuppie bankers after they callously decided to ditch an unconscious drugged party girl off in his car. Under the pretext of their credit card being rejected, he then enters their apartment, and nearly commits a quadruple homicide, ingeniously using said rejected credit card to slit the prime offender’s throat. Totally classic ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ type of action you’d expect from the likes of other agent-type characters like John Wick.
The arrival of Susan Plummer, McCall’s only friend from his CIA days, really drives the plot into a more serious realm. Since she’s the only person who knows he’s still alive, it brings in a lot of complications and when a crime in Brussels leads to her death, McCall brings it upon himself to investigate the cause. It’s from this point onward that you get to see him in his element as a ruthless killer/agent, easily dispatching assassins that keep coming at him.
He is reunited with his former CIA partner David, and things go a little strange after a little twist in the story – which we shall not explain. All we can say is that there is no cheesier (or satisfying) action than watching a middle-aged man still kicking butt – especially against trained agents. It’s got all the ingredients for a popcorn-munching session: Action set amidst bad typhoon weather. Check. Everything takes place in an abandoned town. Check. Gruesome ways to die. Check.
We also learn that baker’s flour is more than just for baking (who knew it could double as a weapon?). Overall, the action is satisfying, even though there were moments of slow pacing in the beginning.
There’s also a classic coming-of-age-in-the-hood scenario, as McCall plays the role of a Yoda in trying to steer his teenage neighbour Miles away from gangsta life. Poor Miles actually gets inadvertently sucked into the whole shebang – surprise! – but all ends well.
After all, MCall’s the Equalizer, and he’s right up there in terms of invincibility with all those other righteous free agents. Together with movies like Taken and John Wick, one has to wonder why they all tend to be middle-aged men…
