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Equalizer two trial#
With his pared-down lifestyle, clear view of priorities and extreme skill at what he does, McCall remains a welcome and ingratiating character, an unusual action figure who Washington imbues with calm, grace and intelligence, a man whose downtime is actually more rewarding than when he’s once again, but inevitably, called back into battle.During your trial you will have complete digital access to FT.com with everything in both of our Standard Digital and Premium Digital packages.
Screenwriter Richard Wenk and director Antoine Fuqua obviously thought long and hard to come up with a setting for their climax that might seem fresh, but in fact it’s silly why would either of these foes choose to fight it out under these conditions? It all seems too clever even for McCall’s unusual mind and simply too stupid for the shrewd Dave, who could easily have retreated and lived to fight another day.Īnd the long, wet, windblown finale also contains at least one big continuity blunder: All the electrical power in the community has been knocked out by the fierce winds and yet at one point McCall is able to switch on two big fans to blow some sight-obscuring powder in his adversary’s direction.Įven though the evil impulses of the villains feel rote and arbitrary, The Equalizer 2 is not without its pleasures. In fact, the grand finale showcasing the ultimate mano a mano between McCall and Dave comes off as both predictable and fundamentally preposterous, no matter how unusual its location, that being a coastal Massachusetts town (actually Brant Rock, an hour south of Boston) during a hurricane-force storm. From here on, we could as easily be watching Dirty Harry, Rambo or John McClane, so generic do McCall’s actions become at this point. Having set young Miles on the right path by getting him to spruce up their apartment building rather than hanging with gangsta types, McCall from here on dedicates himself to tracking down the evident killer, none other than his old partner Dave ( Pedro Pascal, of TV’s Narcos). The fact that one set of victims includes Susan plunges McCall into action, all the more so when it becomes evident that he’s on the hit list as well.Īlong with the fact that McCall has by now moved on from Coates to reading Proust, the man’s meditative, cloistered side essentially disappears at this point, which turns him into an essentially conventional action hero. The purity of mind and pared-down simplicity of his life are what mark the man as a special character these days, anyone - from little kids to old-timers wondrously made to look younger - can be an action star, but no others come off like an urban contemporary Siddhartha.Īccording to The Equalizer 2, the place not to be theses days is Brussels, where repeated sets of multiple murders of upscale officials at their homes are being committed by some ruthless commandos of unknown origin. He also remains close to his former CIA handler, Susan Plummer ( Melissa Leo, percolating buoyantly), who knew his late wife, to whom McCall remains reverentially true.
Equalizer two driver#
He now works as a Lyft driver and seems more outwardly dedicated to those in need of a helping hand, including a Holocaust survivor (Orson Bean) and a local kid, Miles (Ashton Sanders, of Moonlight and the upcoming Native Son, in which he plays Bigger Thomas), who he sees getting sucked in by the wrong crowd. The incident feels entirely arbitrary but serves as a reminder that McCall was designed to fulfill all manner of righteous revenge fantasies and is still able to deliver.īack home in Boston, McCall has moved into a more commodious, somewhat less spartan apartment than he occupied four years ago. That the old veteran is still at the top of his game is apparent here in the Bond-like opening, in which McCall, bearded and dressed in native garb aboard a speeding train in Turkey and conspicuously shown to be reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, enters the club car and in short order dispatches three swarthy thugs.
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