The Equalizer 2

A disappointing sequel, The Equalizer 2 follows Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall as he becomes embroiled in a far-ranging conspiracy with a connection to his own past. Director Antoine Fuqua delivers an entertainingly episodic opening stretch that’s peppered with engrossing action sequences, with, for example, Robert’s violent encounter with a group of douchebag business executives certainly as satisfying and captivating as anything contained within 2014’s The Equalizer. There does reach a point, however, at which scripter Richard Wenk begins suffusing the narrative with weird, somewhat pointless asides, with the movie’s ongoing emphasis on Robert’s tentative friendship with a local troubled teen (Ashton Sanders’ Miles) certainly ranking high on its list of unappealing, uninteresting elements. The ensuingly erratic atmosphere, which is further compounded by tedious scenes involving an elderly neighbor (Orson Bean’s Sam), paves the way for a wheel-spinning midsection that only sporadically manages to engage (eg an admittedly spellbinding set-piece involving a fight to the death in a moving car), while the picture’s oppressively disorienting climactic stretch ensures that the whole thing ends on as anticlimactic (and frustratingly incoherent) a note as one could envision. The end result is an underwhelming and somewhat needless followup that squanders a typically strong turn by star Washington, and it ultimately does feel as though the movie was assembled with virtually no thought towards actual, real necessity (ie if ever there was a shameless cash-grab, it’s this).

** out of ****