What exactly does Washington get out of these films? It’s a relationship that often recalls the run Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart experienced in their eight pictures together (though, to be sure, Fuqua-Washington has mined far poorer thematic treasures) when Stewart left his prestige perch, his good-guy image, and aw-shucks mannerisms to explore darker stories in Mann’s freeing Westerns. But their successive films have only gotten harsher and dumber since that triumph. Sure, their first teaming, “ Training Day,” netted Washington his lone Best Actor win. Their partnership, on its face, is puzzling. While the ham-fisted McGuffin doesn’t serve the rest of the film, this opening scene-from its stomach-churning violence to the reliance on impractical effects-indicates where this once enjoyable nuts-and-bolts action franchise has gone wrong.Īntoine Fuqua’s “The Equalizer 3” is not just what many assume will be the last film in the franchise it’s the fifth overall collaboration between the director and Washington.
You won’t guess what mundane package McCall has just murdered an army of killers to get.