From here on, we could as easily be watching Dirty Harry, Rambo or John McClane, so generic do McCall’s actions become at this point. Having set young Miles on the right path by getting him to spruce up their apartment building rather than hanging with gangsta types, McCall from here on dedicates himself to tracking down the evident killer, none other than his old partner Dave ( Pedro Pascal, of TV’s Narcos). The fact that one set of victims includes Susan plunges McCall into action, all the more so when it becomes evident that he’s on the hit list as well.Īlong with the fact that McCall has by now moved on from Coates to reading Proust, the man’s meditative, cloistered side essentially disappears at this point, which turns him into an essentially conventional action hero. The purity of mind and pared-down simplicity of his life are what mark the man as a special character these days, anyone - from little kids to old-timers wondrously made to look younger - can be an action star, but no others come off like an urban contemporary Siddhartha.Īccording to The Equalizer 2, the place not to be theses days is Brussels, where repeated sets of multiple murders of upscale officials at their homes are being committed by some ruthless commandos of unknown origin. He also remains close to his former CIA handler, Susan Plummer ( Melissa Leo, percolating buoyantly), who knew his late wife, to whom McCall remains reverentially true. He now works as a Lyft driver and seems more outwardly dedicated to those in need of a helping hand, including a Holocaust survivor (Orson Bean) and a local kid, Miles (Ashton Sanders, of Moonlight and the upcoming Native Son, in which he plays Bigger Thomas), who he sees getting sucked in by the wrong crowd. The incident feels entirely arbitrary but serves as a reminder that McCall was designed to fulfill all manner of righteous revenge fantasies and is still able to deliver.īack home in Boston, McCall has moved into a more commodious, somewhat less spartan apartment than he occupied four years ago. ![]() ![]() That the old veteran is still at the top of his game is apparent here in the Bond-like opening, in which McCall, bearded and dressed in native garb aboard a speeding train in Turkey and conspicuously shown to be reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, enters the club car and in short order dispatches three swarthy thugs. ![]() The initial entry pulled in $192 million worldwide, and this one, which looks considerably more expensive than the original, should do roughly the same. The savior quality, along with its concomitant humor, carries over into this follow-up, the first sequel Washington has ever done, but this distinctive character is gradually subsumed by familiar genre imperatives that eventually make McCall seem less special and singular than he did on first exposure in 2014. What made the original Equalizer special in the realm of revenge action thrillers was the imperturbable zen attitude of Denzel Washington‘s Robert McCall, a retired CIA agent living simply among common people, reading worthy books and roused to action only when there were serious wrongs to be righted on behalf of people unable to help themselves.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |