About More Equalizing

Post 1426:

There’s three Equalizer movies. I thought the first one was entertaining but flawed in weird ways. The second, I can’t really remember much. Now I’ve just watched the latest. It was interesting.

I thought it looked fantastic, completely different from the others, which I found to be visually bland. This is set in Italy and they make me want to retire there. Great lighting, shadows, scenery. Nice.

There’s a few big things wrong with the movie. Really, all three movies. Denzel, who is always the man, is too much the man. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but he’s so great at equalizing, you never believe he’s not going to equalize. It saps the tension when you can’t feel the stakes. One could argue that the point is to simply watch him do his thing. I get that. It’s fun. But here he’s hardly ever equalizing if you look at the run time.

I think they want this to be a deeper character study than it is. Denzel does his best to give the guy some depth, but it never does much for me. He hates injustice and is really good at murdering dudes in interesting and unique ways. That’s it.

Okay, I liked watching him get to become a part of this little Italian community, but I didn’t understand why it was happening. He just shows up shot and they take care of him and ask no questions. He makes friends and lives with the kindly doctor and it’s like he’s found his place in the world.

Call me cynical, but you don’t usually fit in with a bunch of people after rolling into town bleeding from a bullet. People get curious. They get suspicious. Generally, outsiders are looked upon with judgment or at least skepticism.

I don’t know. There’s something off about these movies. They’re serious and violent but a bit camp and cheesy. It’s a tone thing. I guess. It’s hard for me to put my finger on.

That’s about as negative as I get with these things. And after all that bluster, I still wouldn’t say it was terrible. Parts were good. I liked getting to know the townspeople. The fact that we get to see how crappy Boston is compared to Southern Italy is nice. Denzel gets to retire, though he’s murdered lots of dudes and apparently that’s okay. They are bad dudes. And he did warn them. This is how things work. Just equalize to your heart’s desire. No questions asked.

Denzel is still the man. Italy is beautiful. Drugs are bad. There are no consequences. Cheers and see you after.