THE EQUALIZER 3

In THE EQUALIZER 3, Denzel Washington’s character Robert McCall protects a small Italian coastal town from Mafia gangsters who are threatening the town while buying and selling drugs they bought from an Islamic terrorist group. THE EQUALIZER 3 is a highly enjoyable, satisfying thriller where the villains get their just desserts, the hero is a kind of avenging angel, and the town he saves is full of Roman Catholic and Christian faith and goodness, but some of the violence is extreme and graphic, there are several strong obscenities, and the movie perhaps could use a quicker pace at times as well as more character development and an action scene where the hero isn’t just killing people.

The movie opens with an older man and a young teenage boy arriving at the man’s Sicilian villa. The old man gets out of the vehicle. At the door, there’s a man with a shotgun who says, “He told me to wait out here.” The old man goes inside and finds that all his gunmen are lying dead, some in pools of blood and one with gunshot wounds against a wall. He eventually comes to a room where Robert McCall holding a gun and sitting in a chair with two or three gunmen surrounding him. McCall tells the man to return what he stole in nine seconds or else. The old man doesn’t look like he’s going to comply. So, McCall starts shooting and knocking away one or two of the henchmen’s guns.

McCall leaves the villa with a duffel bag, but before he can get to his car, the teenage boy shoots him in the back with his .22 rifle. McCall speeds away.

Cut to a road along the Italian coast. An Italian policeman finds McCall slumped over the steering wheel of his car. The policeman takes McCall to the local doctor, who says McCall wouldn’t make it if they took him to a hospital. The doctor attends to McCall’s wounded back, and McCall sleeps for two days.

McCall starts to walk and visits the town’s public square. As he notices and interacts with the people there, he establishes positive relationships with them. McCall also notices, however, that the town is plagued by some young thugs with motorcycles.

One day, McCall places an anonymous phone call to one of the CIA’s investigative divisions. He talks to Emma Collins, a young blonde agent played by Dakota Fanning. He tells her that at the villa from the first scene he found lots of illegal drugs and lots of money. This starts a CIA investigation of the villa and its now dead owner.

It turns out that the leader of the young thugs, Marco, happens to be the younger brother of the head of one of the major Mafia families headquartered in Italy. McCall overhears Marco the younger brother beat up and threaten the owner of the local fish market for being behind in his protection payments. Two or so days later, the market goes up in flames. The policeman catches a van on videotape as the culprit. He starts running the van’s plates through the system, then comes home the next day to find Marco and his thugs threatening his wife and daughter. Marco beats up the policeman and says he will kill his wife and daughter if he continues looking into the arson.

Meanwhile, the CIA links the drugs found at the villa to a terrorist bombing. Marco’s brother, Vincent, is buying the drugs from an Islamic terrorist group to fund his plan to buy up all the hotels along the coast of Italy. The villa was a waystation for distributing the drugs. Also, Emma tracks down McCall and makes him aware she knows who he is, a retired intelligence officer.

While eating at a small restaurant in town, McCall watches Marco and his thugs threaten the policeman and his family. Marco notices McCall and also tries to threaten him, but McCall grabs Marco’s arm in a painful pincer move and gets him and his men to leave.

It becomes clear that McCall will have to stop Marco and his brother.

THE EQUALIZER 3 is a highly enjoyable, satisfying thriller where the villains get their just desserts, and the hero is a kind of avenging angel. Also, the town he saves is full of Roman Catholic and Christian faith and goodness. For example, there are many Christian and Catholic images and references in the town, and the two local priests are part of the community.

That said, the movie takes its time to build the confrontation between McCall and the Mafia villains. Part of that time, however, is spent showing McCall becoming friendly with the townspeople. This helps viewers to take his side when he decides to help the townspeople and rid them of the Mafia thugs.

Dakota Fanning’s CIA agent is also a likeable character. However, she gets wounded by a car bomb and doesn’t get involved in the movie’s third act. So, the movie doesn’t give her the kind of character arc that her character deserves.

Sadly, THE EQUALIZER 3 has some extremely graphic violence. For example, McCall uses his gun to pierce the eye of one bad guy and shoot another bad guy standing behind the first bad guy. He also stabs some bad guys in the throat with knives or sharp objects. Also, the Mafia thugs say four or five “f” words in Italian, and the words are given English subtitles. Finally, there are nude Roman statues in the head Mafia villain’s mansion. The Mafia villains are identified with this pagan Roman iconography, in contrast to the townspeople’s Roman Catholic, Christian faith.

The extreme violence in THE EQUALIZER 3 is too graphic. So, MOVIEGUIDE® thinks the movie is unacceptable for many people of faith and values. The movie could use an action scene where the hero isn’t just killing bad guys in gruesome ways.