Film: The Equalizer 2
Cast: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Rating: * * *
Intense and riveting, Antoine Fuqua’s sequel about an intelligence officer turned vigilante has your reviewer wanting the third instalment at the earliest. Washington reprises his role as Robert McCall from the 2014 thriller, only this time around he is working as a cabbie who loves to read and help passengers in distress and belaboured neighbours like a wannabe artist or a Muslim housewife ( Sakina Jaffrey) with green fingers.
When Fatima’s garden patch is vandalised and the art school hopeful Miles ( Ashton Sanders) falls in bad company, McCall can be relied upon to be a Good Samaritan. Soon enough, he must turn into an avenging angel when his best and only friend from his past life, Susan Plummer ( Melissa Leo) is brutally murdered while investigating the inexplicable “suicide” of a CIA asset and his wife in Brussels.
Returning screenwriter Richard Wenk deftly weaves various plot strands into the main plot which sees McCall asking Plummer’s co-investigator and his ex-partner Dave York (Pedro Pascal) for help to take on the suspected killers. And how!
Time for terrific set action pieces in which McCall shows off his prowess. About Washington’s acting chops, there can be no misgivings. The story moves to a most exciting showdown in McCall’s storm-battered hometown where he used to live most happily with his late wife.
McCall dispenses violent retribution in keeping with the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” credo. For the faint of heart, the ferocious fights might be a bit too much. I would have been happier if the evil conspirators had been locked up for life.