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‘The Equalizer 3’ Review: Brood, Kill, Sip a Cup of Tea, Repeat

Do we know why Denzel Washington’s vigilante is in Italy? No. This third franchise installment just assumes you’re here for the entertaining violence.

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By Manohla Dargis

As one does in Italy, Robert McCall likes to sit in a little cafe, watching the world pass by. McCall — an enigmatic avenger played by Denzel Washington — likes tea, but he’s fine with the coffee that a beautiful server brings him with a smile. People often smile at McCall, perhaps drawn to his looks, his quiet mien and the restrained intensity of his physicality, as if he were holding back a great and terrifying force. Or maybe, like the rest of us, they are trying to silently encourage McCall to just get on with it and start painting the town red.

This is the third and apparently last “Equalizer” movie that Washington will make. Maybe he’s grown tired of the franchise’s same-old ultraviolence or perhaps he’s bored with the predictable predictability of it all, even if this installment is as reliably watchable if ethically challenged as the previous ones. Whatever the case, little has changed since the first “ Equalizer ” (2014). McCall is still the enigma all in black who, when brutal push comes inevitably to more-brutal shove, demonstrates extraordinary combat skills, near-superhuman strength and a genius for predicting the trajectory of bodies flying and falling in space.

Washington is unsurprisingly the primary reason to watch “Equalizer 3,” which is basically a showcase for him to smolder, swagger and light up the screen as he wanders a tiny, wildly beautiful town on the Amalfi coast. Tucked beneath a mountain and facing the sea, the town is miraculously free of swarming tourists, which is one of the story’s more outlandish conceits. McCall lands there soon after the opener, a big, splashy number in Sicily that sets the darkly brooding mood and underscores that villains should never be too cavalier about leaving their corkscrews lying around. Our guy isn’t going to use it to uncork a bottle of Nero d’Avola.

The corkscrew ends up in the same vulnerable spot where you’d expect it to go, especially if you have seen the first “Equalizer.” In that movie, the skewered baddie was a minion in the Russian mob; the human cork here is in the Italian mafia (specifically the Camorra ). The repeat of the corkscrew bit adds to the movie’s retrospective quality, as if Washington and his principal collaborators in the series — the screenwriter Richard Wenk and the director Antoine Fuqua — were bidding a nostalgic farewell to McCall and the grim, dark (morally, literally) fallen world that he has been trying to set right all these years.

A reliably energetic, often restless director, Fuqua has tamped down his customary visual flamboyance, and for the most part he simply oscillates between many, many sweeping aerial shots and closer ones of the actors (the cast includes Dakota Fanning and Remo Girone) doing their thing. Some of these eagle-eye points of view may be a function of the town’s tight coordinates, though Fuqua may just like playing with drones. He also tosses in a few cineaste nods — McCall’s head is shaved again, so cue “Apocalypse Now” — as he offers up a vision of modern Italy (old men with fishing nets) as canned as anything shot on an old Hollywood lot.

Although the locations and supporting actors are generally new, nothing else is, familiarity being part of the appeal of this kind of genre standard. Once again, a broodily charismatic, patriarchal American loner serves as jury, judge and executioner, meting out punishment to the wicked and avenging the wronged. To that end, it is instructive that you don’t learn why McCall is in Italy until very late. You may briefly wonder what he’s doing in the country — is he retired, on a mission or vacation? — but this information is as irrelevant as the names of those he dispatches. All that matters is watching McCall kill, for justice and entertainment.

The Equalizer 3 Rated R for extreme gun, knife and corkscrew violence. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic of The Times, which she joined in 2004. She has an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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‘The Equalizer 3’ Review: Denzel Washington Leans on His Star Charisma Once Again in Brutal Vigilante Sequel

Reteaming for the fifth time, director Antoine Fuqua and his ‘Training Day’ star leverage the familiarity they’ve established for the audience’s benefit.

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As McCall recuperates, he makes connections with the locals: a flirty cafe owner, a fish seller who won’t let him pay, even a priest. Before long, he begins to relax and think of this place and people as his community. However, his trained spy eyes notice what’s lurking beneath this friendly surface — namely, that the mafia has a hold on these lovely people, controlling them with threats and extortion. The vigilante in him wakes up, and he proceeds to protect his new friends.

Washington holds the screen like the popular star he is. It’s hard not to root for his characters. Even at the all-media screening, there was cheering when he taunted one of his enemies, and when the bad guys got what they deserve. Beyond the righteous action and visceral violence, it’s Washington’s swagger and charisma that compels. His face and voice, his distinctive walk, his trademark gestures — the smirk and pursed lips before he takes action — are so recognizable and familiar that this journey through Italy feels like a visit with a benevolent but ruthless friend.

This time, he even gets to speak Italian and show a different side of McCall. True to formula, the movie gives him a chance to mentor a younger person. This time it’s Fanning’s spy. Their scenes together have a familial undertone, even if they are supposed to be strangers. The actors have worked together before (in 2004’s “Man on Fire”), and Fanning brings out Washington’s humorous side, as their time together becomes a short respite from the fury elsewhere.

Like its two predecessors, “The Equalizer 3” demands a strong stomach. There’s violence aplenty, loud bullets, body impalement and maiming. Some of it is cruel but draped in a veil of good intentions so earnest, its purpose is never questioned. There’s even a well-staged “Spartacus” moment in the town square where everybody comes together to support McCall, making it easy to accept, even applaud, when the bad guys are sadistically dispatched.

Fuqua orchestrates the action with propulsive style. Some of the visual motifs might be obvious — blood running into red wine — but it works. Collaborating with DP Robert Richardson, he takes advantage of the Italian setting to give the film a spacious feel. The creative team knows their ace in Washington, showing him off in dark and shadowy compositions, as if he were an avenging angel from the heavens. Zarvos’ music has two modes: threateningly ominous or loudly throbbing. It’s all very effective, like so much of the film, delivering exactly what’s expected. No more and no less.

Washington tends to alternate between action movies and prestige Oscar projects. While this film and others like it might not win him awards or critical raves, they remain watchable and entertaining, aided in no small part by the directors in charge. Both Fuqua and the late Tony Scott (with whom Washington also made five films) are able to deliver well-made adrenaline jolts. And Washington never phones it in. He’s always immensely present, knowing what his audience wants and giving it to them in true movie star fashion.

Reviewed at Regal Union Square, New York, Aug. 28, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 108 MIN.

• Production: A Columbia Pictures release, in association with Eagle Pictures, of an Escape Artists, Zhiv production. Producers: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Denzel Washington, Antoine Fuqua, Steve Tisch, Clayton Townsend, Alex Siskin, Tony Eldridge, Michael Sloan. Executive producers: David Bloomfield, Tarak Ben Ammar, Andy Mitchell. Co-producer: Richard Wenk.
• Crew: Director: Antoine Fuqua. Screenplay: Richard Wenk, based on the television series created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. Camera: Robert Richardson. Editor: Conrad Buff. Music: Marcelo Zarvos.
• With: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, David Denman, Eugenio Mastrandrea.

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Movie Reviews

'the equalizer' pits mallet against man and man against corkscrew.

Chris Klimek

Denzel Washington stars as a retired intelligence officer in The Equalizer . Scott Garfield/Sony Pictures hide caption

Denzel Washington stars as a retired intelligence officer in The Equalizer .

"A feud is this way," Mark Twain wrote in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . "A man has a quarrel with another man and kills him; then that other man's brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in — and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't no more feud. But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time."

That's a different Twain quote from the one that appears onscreen at the top of The Equalizer , the Zen vigilante flick reuniting Training Day director and star Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington. But it's a better fit for the surprisingly patient, unsurprisingly violent movie they've made. Like their prior collaboration, it scrapes together two gripping, closely observed acts before lobotomizing itself for an over-the-top final third that tips the needle from "Pleasure" to "Pleasure, Guilty, Shame on You!" I liked the lengthy first act where Washington walks the Earth – well, part of Boston – dispensing inspiration and literary analysis of great novels he's read and dietary advice even better than the (longer) part where he's dispensing justice. Your mileage may vary.

From its Edward Woodward-starring '80s CBS primetime forebear, The Equalizer has inherited a title and vague premise ­– retired covert-ops badass uses Murderous Jedi Skills to help the meek – but not, unfortunately, Police drummer Stewart Copeland's New Wave theme music . The picture's soundtrack runs more to Eminem and – since we're already talking about dirty little crime pictures buffed and polished and inflated to portentous scale ­-- the same Moby song Michael Mann used to introduce Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's historic tete-a-tete in Heat 19 years ago. The film around it remains a hummable, easy-to-digest entry in a long line of monastic plainclothes superhero flicks about penitent and unknowable widowers. (Sidebar: When did the celibacy thing become pervasive in action movies? Is it because of PG-13 creep, or because the median age of our action leads has shot up by 20 years?)

Liam Neeson has played minor variations on this Sad Jedi role even more times than Washington. But Washington is even better at it, and of course he has not one but two Oscar statuettes he can reach for when he needs a makeshift weapon. Is he overqualified for The Equalizer ? Are you saying that just because this movie would've starred Steven Seagal back when Washington was playing Malcolm X for Spike Lee, but would otherwise have differed little from the version we're watching in 2014? (Washington's character, McCall, even brings his own teabags to the all-night diner where he hangs out reading leatherbound classics when he can't sleep, furtively tossing them in his cup the instant before the waiter pours his hot water. Cool, odd little detail. Never remarked upon. Feels Seagalian. He's also apparently OCD, continually rearranging the utensils on the table.)

Deservedly or not, the movie is elevated several echelons by Washington's Father Knows Best (How to Kill Slimeballs) performance. Gravitas he's got. Also, grave-itas. The details of his former life as a spook are wisely left vague: All we know – and we get this from behavior, not exposition – is that he's a meticulous, solitary soul who goes out of his way to be kind and helpful. The kids at the big-box hardware store where he works call him "Pops" and use YouTube to fact-check his claim that he sang backup for Gladys Knight. When he catches the colleague he's helping to lose weight sneaking some chips, he speaks not a critical word; he just gives a reproachful look and says he's looking for "Progress, not perfection." You'd want this guy in your corner...

... even if you didn't already know from the trailer that he can stroll into a den of armed thugs, read their neck tattoos like a barcode scanner, and predict within a few seconds how long it's going to take him to slay them all, no two in the same way.

Don't feel bad for them; they're Russian sex traffickers who beat Elena — the sad-eyed teenage prostitute (Chloe Grace Moretz) who sometimes talks to McCall at the diner — near to death. If anybody has a bullet (corkscrew, shot glass, ashtray) karmically coming their way, it's these jerkazoids. Because he has renounced violence, McCall actually tries to buy Elena's freedom first. But the slavers refuse, so it's back to the Corkscrew/Shot Glass/Ashtray Plan.

This confrontation is a great, tense scene, one the movie builds to for 35 minutes. But like Travis Bickle before him, once McCall uncorks his inner bully-of-bullies, he can't stop him. Soon he's even taking on crooked cops, beating them up and blackmailing them into returning the protection money they've extorted from a restaurant – along with an apology. This is a decency-enforcing, Dockers-wearing superhero we can all get behind.

The movie comes to revel in its shorthand: When a stickup guy at the hardware store demands a cashier's wedding ring along with the money, a shot of Denzel replacing a slightly used mallet on the shelf tells the entire story of how she gets it back. Better still is when a henchman gets up from a restaurant table and then McCall appears a moment later take his place, tossing the man's bloodied, broken sunglasses on the table in front of him. Sic semper those guys who wear sunglasses indoors!

The Equalizer is a lot of fun for as long as it sticks to its modern-western guns and tells an intimate story. But like almost every action film, it inflates to prepostrous dimensions, and our investment in it declines accordingly. (This visually unspectacular crime movie, all night shots and close-ups, is getting a pointless IMAX release.) The pimps McCall kills can't just be pimps, naturally; they're the bottom rungs of a vast international criminal conspiracy.

Occupying a slighty higher rung is Márton Csókás, playing the heavy sent from Russia to deliver McCall's head. He's a guy from New Zealand born to Hungarian and Australian parents playing a Russian, which may explain why he sounds like he's channeling Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds . His foreplay with Washington is superb. When the pair is face-to-face for the first time, Washington pretends to be a meek shut-in and Csókás pretends to be a cop. Neither man buys the other's story, but there's a tacit agreement among these professional killers briefly to sustain the fiction. The scene crackles with energy; it's great fun.

Savoring the weirdness of these relatively quiet moments is the key to enjoying The Equalizer . It runs out of clever moves before it runs out of movie, but at least it doesn't go dull when it goes dumb, setting its final showdown in McCall's hardware store. The Book of Isiah tells us to beat our swords into ploughshares. Which is presumably why McCall dispatches the last four or five wicked men who come for him using various gardening and home improvement implements, even though there's an entire franchise-in-the-making's worth of firearms just lying there on the floor.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Equalizer 3

Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become ... Read all Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends' protector by taking on the mafia. Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends' protector by taking on the mafia.

• Antoine Fuqua
• Richard Wenk
• Michael Sloan
• Richard Lindheim
• Denzel Washington
• Dakota Fanning
• Eugenio Mastrandrea
• 562 User reviews
• 171 Critic reviews
• 58 Metascore
• 5 nominations

• Robert McCall

• Emma Collins

• Giorgio Bonucci

• Frank Conroy

• Dr. Enzo Arisio

• Vincent Quaranta
• Marco Quaranta

• Gabriella Bonucci

• Chiara Bonucci
• (as Sonia Ben Ammar)
• Marco's Thug
• Chief Barella

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The international posters and US IMAX poster have various variations of the phrase 'The Final Chapter' as the tagline. However Antoine Fuqua in an interview while promoting the film has said a prequel and a sequel could happen if Denzel was still interested.
• Goofs Emma Collins, a trained CIA agent, takes a photograph of McCall with the camera flash sound effect enabled.

Robert McCall : Is that a Timex?

Marco Quaranta : No, it's a B...

Robert McCall : [grabs Marco's arm] That's the median nerve that I'm compressing. On a scale one to ten, that's two. That's three. You don't want me to go to four. I go to four, you shit yourself. You don't want that. I don't want that! They don't want that! Tell your compadres that they can leave. Tell them to beat it!

• Connections Featured in eTalk Daily: Episode dated 28 August 2023 (2023)
• Soundtracks Love, Disorderly (The Equalizer 3 Remix) Written by Thomas Azier and Obi Blanche Produced and Performed by Thomas Azier Thomas Azier appears courtesy of Hylas Records

User reviews 562

• luca-settembre
• Jan 11, 2024
• How long is The Equalizer 3? Powered by Alexa
• Is there any correlation between Robert McCall and Robert Jordan (For Whom The Bell Tolls) both using "Roberto"? Both are Americans fighting in a foreign land.
• September 1, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• Aksiyon Filmleri
• Film Sözlük
• Thiện Ác Đối Đầu 3
• Minori, Campania, Italy
• Columbia Pictures
• Eagle Pictures
• Escape Artists
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $70,000,000 (estimated)
• $92,373,751
• $34,604,229
• Sep 3, 2023
• $191,067,560

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• IMAX 6-Track
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

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The equalizer, common sense media reviewers.

Denzel's TV-based action thriller is violent but stylish.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

It's important to help those in need. You're in ch

Main character Robert lives a simple (if lonely) l

Director Antoine Fuqua is Black. Centers on a Blac

The main character kills many people, using all di

Two young women are sex workers who are being coer

"F--k" is used fairly frequently, as well as "moth

Main character wears New Balance shoes. Visible br

Characters drink liquor and pour wine for dinner.

Parents need to know that The Equalizer is a Denzel Washington action thriller that's (loosely) based on the same-named 1980s TV series. Though Washington plays a hero who's very helpful to those around him, violence and vigilantism are glorified as he kills gangsters in brutal and bloody ways (using guns,…

Positive Messages

It's important to help those in need. You're in charge of your own destiny. But the methods to achieve the above are extremely dubious: Murder and vigilantism are highly glorified.

Positive Role Models

Main character Robert lives a simple (if lonely) life and selflessly devotes his time to helping others. But his methods include vigilantism and mass murder against people he considers guilty. Nova is resilient and optimistic, but she has no agency and needs to be rescued by Robert. Ralphie works hard and dreams of becoming a security guard (but also needs help from Robert to achieve his goal).

Diverse Representations

Director Antoine Fuqua is Black. Centers on a Black male action hero. Russian villains fall into strong stereotypes, drinking vodka and trafficking young women. The main Russian baddie, Teddy, is inauthentically played by a New Zealand actor (Marton Csokas). Women are victimized, extorted, or killed to serve male storylines. In an action genre clich é, it's revealed early on that Robert's wife is dead. On the plus side, there's a positive Mexican and fat character, but he hears damaging messages, like getting a guilt trip by Robert when he's "caught" adding potato chips to his sandwich.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

The main character kills many people, using all different kinds of weapons, in a glorified manner. He uses guns, knives, a corkscrew (which protrudes from the victim's jaw up into his mouth), a shot glass, barbed wire, a power drill, etc. He locks a character into a car with the exhaust pumped into the cab to interrogate him and self-cauterizes a wound. Gory crime scene photos. Lots of blood spurts, drips, and pools on the floor. Villains abuse sex workers, who are catcalled, slapped, and murdered on screen. Sexual violence and beatings are implied (characters have bruises after working, land in the ICU).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two young women are sex workers who are being coerced by the Russian mob (for more details, see Violence & Scariness section). They get into cars, presumably those of their clients, but are never shown with them. Main character briefly talks about his dead wife. A man showers -- he's visible from the front, head to toe, but sensitive areas are blocked from view.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k" is used fairly frequently, as well as "motherf----r," "s--t," and "bulls--t." Characters also use "p---y," "bitch," and "ass."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Main character wears New Balance shoes. Visible brands include Budweiser, Pringles, Coca-Cola, Sony, Clover honey, etc. A villain smokes Marlboros.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink liquor and pour wine for dinner. A villain smokes a cigarette.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Equalizer is a Denzel Washington action thriller that's (loosely) based on the same-named 1980s TV series. Though Washington plays a hero who's very helpful to those around him, violence and vigilantism are glorified as he kills gangsters in brutal and bloody ways (using guns, knives, a corkscrew, a shot glass, barbed wire, a power drill, etc.). Language includes many uses of "f--k," as well as "s--t" and "ass." Sex workers are beaten and killed on screen. The main character mentions his dead wife, and there's a shower scene with a man visible from the front (but nothing sensitive is shown). Characters drink liquor, pour wine, and smoke. As for diverse representations, the movie has a Black male lead and is directed by Black director Antoine Fuqua . There's also a positive Mexican and fat character who works hard and achieves his dream. But Russians are stereotyped, and women are victimized and powerless, needing to be saved by Washington's character. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (11)
• Kids say (26)

Based on 11 parent reviews

Movie is like John Wick.

Violence is quite graphic but can be handled by mature people, what's the story.

Based on the 1980s TV series that starred Edward Woodward, THE EQUALIZER centers on Robert McCall ( Denzel Washington ), a retired secret agent who's trying to live a normal life in Boston, working at the Home Depot-like Home Mart. When he meets young Nova ( Chloë Grace Moretz ), who's being coerced into sex work by Russian gangsters, Robert decides to take action. Effortlessly killing five men, he creates trouble for a much larger criminal network, and a dangerous fixer called Teddy ( Marton Csokas ) is called in. Meanwhile, Robert helps out some of his co-workers with other problems as the gangsters realize that they can use his friends to get to him. Everything builds to a showdown at the store. Can Robert save the day?

Is It Any Good?

This film may not be particularly deep or profound, but it's a well-made (if violent) action thriller. The Equalizer re-teams director Antoine Fuqua and star Washington; their previous collaboration, Training Day , won Washington a Best Actor Oscar. They seem to bring out the best in each other. Fuqua spends luxurious sequences listening to his characters talk to one another, getting to know what makes them tick. Csokas' character has a history and is shown to be smart, rather than just evil, while Nova's resilience and dreams of becoming a professional musician are heartwarming.

But Fuqua does best when he focuses on Robert, who's tough and nearly invincible, like a superhero, while still having doubts and personal demons that are endlessly fascinating. It's too bad that the film's biggest strength -- Washington, that is -- overpowers the rest of the movie. Supporting characters like Nova and Robert's lovable co-worker Ralphie (Johnny Skourtis) never learn to stand on their own. At every turn, Robert is there to save the day. He's a compelling hero, but it's to the detriment of everyone else's character arc.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Equalizer 's violence . If the main character is supposed to be a hero, why are his killings so bloody? How would the movie have been different with less violence? Would it have the same impact?

How did the movie handle the issue of Chloë Grace Moretz, who was younger than 18 at the time of filming, playing a sex worker? What's shown and not shown? What's discussed and not discussed?

Is Robert a role model ? How did you feel about his brutal killings? Were they justified? How would you feel about someone like this in real life?

How are women portrayed in The Equalizer ? Are they empowered, or victimized? If you could change the script, what might you do similarly -- or differently -- with the film's female characters?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 26, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : December 30, 2014
• Cast : Denzel Washington , Chloe Grace Moretz , Marton Csokas
• Director : Antoine Fuqua
• Inclusion Information : Black directors, Black actors, Female actors
• Studios : Sony Pictures Releasing , Columbia Pictures
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 131 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong bloody violence and language throughout, including some sexual references
• Last updated : March 26, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the equalizer 2.

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Despite working in feature films for nearly 40 years, Denzel Washington has never until now appeared in a sequel to one of his films. Oh sure, he has done a number of films where one suspects that future installments might have been contemplated at some point but none have ever come to fruition. Now he has finally taken the sequel bait with “The Equalizer 2” and the only thing more baffling than the question of why none of his other movies got follow-ups is the question of why he would bring an end to that streak with something so completely useless.

Yes, the 2014 film, based on the mid-Eighties television show of the same name, was a box-office hit, but it was one of those hits that faded so quickly from the mind after it departed theaters that even those who professed to like it would be hard-pressed to actually remember anything about it. Luckily for them, that shouldn’t be a problem this time around because even the most easily satisfied fans of Washington will be unlikely to find much of anything in this sadistic, stupid and sloppy sequel.

The first film featured Washington as Robert McCall, a seemingly unassuming worker at a big box store who just happened to be an ex-CIA agent with a particular set of skills that he would deploy on anyone who crossed paths with himself or any of his vague acquaintances. At one point, I recall, the store was robbed and one of the thieves took a co-worker's cherished wedding ring. Luckily, thanks to his unique skill set (which I believe consisted of getting the license plate number of the getaway car), he figures out where the thief lives, visits him in the middle of the night with a hammer borrowed from the store stock and beats the guy with it before getting the ring back and returning it. His only true friends were Susan Plummer ( Melissa Leo ), a former agency colleague who is the only person who knows he is still alive, and her husband Brian ( Bill Pullman ). 

This time around, it seems that, like most people, McCall has been forced out of the retail industry and is now a Lyft driver. Happily, this still allows him to come across unsavory characters and brutally dispatch them as payment for their misdeeds. He even gets the occasional off-the-books freelance assignment from Susan—the opening sequence has him destroying a group of kidnappers on a train bound for Istanbul. For the most part, however, he seems to be in a bit of a lull as his current projects—trying to help an elderly Lyft customer ( Orson Bean ) recover a painting stolen from his family by the Nazis and mentoring a neighbor kid, Miles ( Ashton Sanders ) by encouraging him to paint a mural instead of dealing drugs—do not require much stabbing, shooting or neck-breaking. That all changes when Susan goes off to Belgium to look into the mysterious murder-suicide of a high-level agency contact and meets an ugly end. This makes things—Spoiler Alert!—personal, and McCall is soon on the case utilizing his extraordinary intuition and impeccable killing skills to track down Susan’s killers and wipe them out.

If the plot of “The Equalizer 2” sounds dull and perfunctory in the retelling, you cannot imagine how much more of a drag it is to watch it play out before your eyes. The screenplay by Richard Wenk is a joke, a lame collection of bland characters, nonsensical plotting and revenge-movie clichés that occasionally interrupt the carnage for the uninspired subplot involving McCall and the kid that appears to have been shoehorned into the proceedings in order to convince Washington that he was making something that wasn’t just another “Death Wish” clone. Neither Washington nor director Antoine Fuqua —whose previous collaborations have included the original “ The Equalizer ,” “ Training Day ” and the remake of “ The Magnificent Seven ”—seem willing to do much of anything more than simply go through the motions in exchange for their paychecks, it is the furthest thing from personal for them.

The only memorable aspect on hand in “The Equalizer 2” is also its least appetizing attribute—the relentless amount of sadistic violence on display. Yes, I am aware that a film along these lines pretty much requires a heaping helping of brutality throughout, but this one, like its predecessor, is so far beyond the pale that it comes closer to being nauseating than exciting. This is even more off-putting because if I remember the original TV show correctly, the character tended to get the best on criminals by using his intellect and would only switch to violence as a last resort. I can definitely see Washington playing a character like that successfully, but that aspect has been almost entirely dropped in order to squeeze in a few more neck-stabbings and face-spearings. The scene in which Melissa Leo’s character meets her demise is especially ugly, all the more so when you recall that in her previous film with Fuqua, “ Olympus Has Fallen ” (2013), she went through another extended scene in which she underwent a particularly brutal beating in what I sincerely hope is just a coincidence. Even if it is, Leo might want to consider not picking up the phone the next time he calls her.

“The Equalizer 2” is slickly made and largely appalling garbage but there is a good chance that it will do fairly well at the box office, thanks almost entirely to the enormous amount of goodwill that Washington has generated with moviegoers over the years. It is just too bad to see it squandered on something as nasty as this. There is no doubt, of course, that he can and will do better in the future with projects that make far better use of his talents. Of course, moviegoers can also do better in the future as well, especially if they avoid this one at all costs.

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around  bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

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Film credits.

The Equalizer 2 (2018)

Denzel Washington as Robert McCall

Bill Pullman as Brian Plummer

Melissa Leo as Susan Plummer

Jonathan Scarfe as Resnick

Tamara Hickey as Grace

Pedro Pascal as Dave York

• Antoine Fuqua

Writer (based on the television series created by)

• Richard Lindheim
• Michael Sloan
• Richard Wenk

Cinematographer

• Oliver Wood
• Conrad Buff
• Harry Gregson-Williams

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• DVD & Streaming

The Equalizer

• Action/Adventure , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• September 26, 2014
• Denzel Washington as Robert McCall; Marton Csokas as Teddy; Chloë Grace Moretz as Teri; David Harbour as Masters; Haley Bennett as Mandy; Bill Pullman as Brian Plummer; Melissa Leo as Susan Plummer; David Meunier as Slavi; Johnny Skourtis as Ralphie

Home Release Date

• December 30, 2014
• Antoine Fuqua

Distributor

• Sony Pictures

Movie Review

It’s a good thing Robert McCall takes the bus. This is one guy you wouldn’t want to accidentally cut off on the freeway.

Oh, he’s pleasant enough when you haven’t crossed him. In fact, he seems like a really good guy. He works at a Boston Home Mart, cutting plywood and helping customers. He’s been training Ralphie, a fellow Home Mart employee, to lose a little weight so the guy can apply for a security guard position. When he can’t sleep (which is every night), he heads on down to the local diner and reads, exchanging a friendly word or two with the other night owls. The only time Robert gets pushy is when the subject turns to diet.

“Thought you were giving up on that refined sugar,” he chides Teri as she picks at a piece of pie.

“I am,” she says, “… one of these days.”

Teri’s a call girl, probably underage. She asks him about the book he’s reading; he questions her eating habits. She’d like to be a singer, and sugar can be murder on the vocal chords. They barely know each other.

Then one dark evening, sporting a fresh bruise on her cheek, Teri sits down beside Robert at his normal table and hands him a CD—a collection of songs she’s recorded. Alina’s her real name, she tells him. And in the space of a minute or two, without saying much of anything, she somehow spills out her hopelessness, her sorrow over what her life has been, what her life will always be.

“You know what I really am,” she says, embarrassed.

“You can be anything you want to be,” Robert tells her. And they walk out of the diner together, just talking.

A block or two away, an SUV pulls in front of them. A man gets out, grabs Teri and hits her, forcing her into the vehicle. He looks at Robert and, mistaking him for a John, says Teri’s “no good.” He has one of his henchmen give Robert a card—advertising Russian prostitutes—and tells him to give the number a jingle to get someone better.

Next time Robert sees Teri, she’s in the hospital, her face looking like it’s been grated.

He doesn’t say hello. She’s half unconscious anyway. But in that moment, Robert decides to pay a visit to Slavi, her violent pimp. He hopes the meeting will be just a simple business transaction. But if things turn ugly, Robert knows he can be particularly persuasive when he wants to.

Before Home Mart, Robert killed for a living. He could make it quick or excruciating, using a gun or a knife or a hose or a blowtorch. He can transform into a bear just woken, a wildfire just sparked. And he’s about to make Slavi an offer that the man really, really shouldn’t refuse.

Positive Elements

Robert becomes the Equalizer again reluctantly, it would seem. When we first meet him, he’s just fine being a regular ol’ guy, a friend, an employee, a diner patron. He later says that he laid down his weapons and brutal methods out of respect for his dead wife, and he never planned to pick them up again.

But when he sees such a grave injustice, and when he knows he can do something about it, he begins to feel like he has to act. And while we’ll take issue with Robert’s way of intervening, his motives are always admirable. He’s sort of like Batman, you might say, only with a penchant for death and power tools.

He very much wants to rescue Teri (a victim of human trafficking), and he even tries to do so at first without violence, plopping nearly $10,000 in front of Slavi as payment for her freedom. When he discovers that policemen are shaking down businesses for “protection” money, he gives the cops an opportunity to do the right thing too. He’s enraged that these dirty officers are “disrespecting the badge,” and he’ll do what he can to encourage them to return to the straight and narrow—before laying down the hurt. Indeed, almost every time Robert’s about to start maiming and killing folks, he gives them a chance to escape their fearsome fate.

But Robert’s much more admirable when he’s not the dealer of death. He’s a mentor, it seems, for nearly everyone he comes across—encouraging Ralphie to lay off the potato chips and helping the guy and his mother repair their restaurant when it suffers a mysterious electrical fire. When a thug robs the Home Mart, Robert makes the right decision and gives the guy what he wants, protecting innocent lives. (He does get the stolen merchandise back later. Forcibly.) And when Teri gets out of the hospital, Robert gives her a gift, in secret, that will make a huge difference in the girl’s life.

His kindness is repaid, particularly by Ralphie, who risks his life to save his friend in a time of need.

Spiritual Elements

Ralphie’s restaurant-running mother clasps her hands in prayer when her “protection” money is returned. A Russian icon of Madonna and Child hangs in Slavi’s lair. (It’s sprayed with blood during a battle.) When we first see Teri, she wears huge cross earrings. Her friend Mandy—also a prostitute—wears a necklace with a sideways cross on it. Teddy, The Equalizer’ s main villain, is covered in satanic tattoos. Robert says his wife was a big reader; when she died he decided to take up the hobby so that “one day we’ll have something to talk about” (suggesting a belief in heaven). Slavi snidely asks a henchman if he (Slavi) looks like Jesus Christ.

Sexual Content

Teri wears revealing getups, including super-short shorts, cleavage-baring tops and tight dresses. A website for her prostitution service is covered with pictures of women in lingerie. Characters make crude and lewd remarks about prostitution, masturbation and bits of the human anatomy. We see a guy’s torso and quite a lot of his midsection, too, while he showers.

Violent Content

Robert would have us believe that he is a reluctant killer—but once he gets started he’s an unstoppable machine, and the results are very, very bloody. Among other things, he jams a corkscrew through a man’s chin (and the camera shot is so explicit we see the metal inside his mouth), he hangs a henchman with barbed wire (staring into the eyes of the gasping, struggling man as he chokes and bleeds out), he skewers somebody with a tree trimmer, he repeatedly shoots a guy with a nail gun (pausing after each pull of the trigger to accentuate the agony), he stabs a man to death with shards of glass, he dispatches another dude with a drill (burrowing into the back of the man’s neck).

That’s one long sentence. But it’s not really even long enough, because the carnage just continues and continues. Robert kills 20 or more villains in increasingly “creative” ways. Most deaths involve some sort of blade (we see pictures of the corpses, some sporting grotesque injuries), but he’s not above using guns or microwaved oxygen tanks or household electricity or his own neck-snapping hands. Sometimes he aims to hurt, not kill—pummeling a pair of dirty cops into submission until they promise to right their wrongs. Another he threatens (and begins) to kill with carbon monoxide poisoning. When a thug steals a ring, Robert “borrows” a hammer from Home Mart: The ring mysteriously comes back, and we see Robert wiping blood off the hammer before putting it back on display.

He gets shot at least twice, and he painfully patches himself up, once using boiling honey to seal the wound, another time cauterizing it with a heated doorknob. He gets cut and pounded on. One of his friends gets shot. Everyone seems to leave trails of blood behind them as they move about.

Ships and trucks explode. A man is nearly beaten to death—before we watch his assailant picks things (bone fragments?) out of the scrapes on his own knuckles. A woman is strangled. Two crooked cops are found dead, and we’re told their testicles were cut off and stuffed in their mouths. (We see pictures of their bloody bodies.) We hear a story that suggests Teddy killed his adoptive mother and father. Someone says a prostitute had her face scarred with battery acid.

Crude or Profane Language

“Why do you curse so much?” Robert gently chastises some of his Home Mart colleagues. We could ask the same question of this movie’s scriptwriter. While Robert doesn’t do much swearing here, everyone around him seems compelled to make up for his reticence. We hear close to 100 f-words and about a dozen s-words. Also “a–,” “b–ch,” “h—” and “p—,” along with “p—y” and “c–k.” Teri flips off a pair of flirty construction workers. God’s name is abused a few times, twice with “d–n.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

A baddie bites down on a cigarette. Robert buys some over-the-counter medication as a ruse. There’s talk of drug dealing.

The Equalizer is based on a television show that aired—when else?!—in the 1980s. And while the original show wasn’t exactly opposed to showing some violence, this R-rated film version takes things to a new, disturbing level.

While Robert may want to keep his adversaries alive and simply chastened, the movie seems to relish the high degree of pain he inflicts. And the gore he creates. There are heavy doses of sadism administered here that rub against our protagonist’s loftier ethos—a desire to see these villains not just eradicated, but made to suffer in extreme ways as they die.

If Robert was in charge of the country’s death row inmates, he might initiate a program for penance and reform in hopes that not all would die. If director Antoine Fuqua was making a movie about that same thing, he might simply swap lethal injections for a hungry pack of dogs. Or for a hedge trimmer. Or for an iron maiden filled with wooden skewers.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Washington’s Bob McCall is a guy who lives his life like clockwork, whether sitting alone in his Boston apartment or in his favorite diner at 2 a.m. Bob is a watchful guy. Even when he’s reading one of the 100 classic novels his late wife inspired him to tackle, or working his shift at a Home Depot-like hardware mart, Bob’s attuned to everything.

He gently mentors Ralphie (Johnny Skourtis), who wants to go from clerk to security guard at the hardware mart, and encourages a teenage Russian prostitute, Elena (Chloe Grace Moretz), also a 2 a.m. diner patron, who dreams of being a singer.

When Elena winds up in the hospital after her pimp beats her, Bob methodically tracks down the pimp and his four henchmen, offering $9,000 for Elena’s freedom. When that offer is sneered at, Bob sets his stopwatch, quietly takes the measure of the room, and kills the slimeballs in 29 seconds.

That brings in the pimp’s overseer, Teddy (an enjoyably scenery-chewing Marton Csokas), in from Russia. The Russian mob controls Bob’s corner of Boston, keeping dirty cops on the payroll. They get a smackdown from Bob, too, putting Teddy and Bob on a collision course for each other.

“The Equalizer,” directed by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”), is based on the 1985-89 TV show. But the movie really could have been titled anything, seeing as Bob’s just a mysterious guy who helps straighten things out for people in trouble. But the name “The Straighten-Things-Outer” hasn’t got the same snap.

The movie is tense and coiled for its first hour, then becomes routine in its second half, when Bob has sit-downs with Teddy’s boss Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich) and checks in with two former chiefs (Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman) of the agency he worked for. Most disappointingly, Fuqua stages a final, overwrought fight in Bob’s hardware store. As always, if you see a staple gun in the first act, someone will be stapled in the third act.

Still, Fuqua knows how to bring out the menace in Washington, whom he directed to a Best Actor Oscar in “Training Day.” As in his underpraised performances in “American Gangster” and “Flight,” Washington, now 60, continues to push himself to new areas and fine-tune his charisma. He remains one of Hollywood’s most effortless and engaging actors. He’s the reason to see “The Equalizer,” even though it winds up equaling nothing more than a basic revenge thriller.

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The Equalizer Reviews

The Equalizer is about as subtle as a pneumatic stapler shot to the temple. But who wants subtlety when one can bask in the glory of Denzel obliterating remorseless degenerates left and right?

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 25, 2023

Washington shines, playing McCall as a clean and orderly man, whose OCD doesn't prevent him from getting his hands dirty with the blood and grime of Boston's most rotten. He is a killing machine that almost never fails. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 17, 2023

Denzel’s immense gravitas and quiet power elevate this beyond a run-of-the-mill violent action thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2023

The film would collapse under its own preposterousness, not to mention its absurdly bloated running time (b-movies should not be 130 minutes long, under any circumstance) had it not had, at its centre, one of the best leading men in the business.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 31, 2023

The film is worth seeing to watch Denzel deliver his trademark slow burn gaze.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 14, 2022

The subtle shades and suggestions are handsomely successful at preserving the lead character's mystique and the film's higher plane of purpose.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 14, 2022

The Equalizer has the unique displeasure of being a total bore and yet completely over-the-top.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 25, 2022

The laughs might be tongue in cheek but you get the feeling that's not what the filmmakers were trying to achieve.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 26, 2021

It's a good movie and Denzel is, as always, charismatic and interesting, but if "the old man gotta be the old man," then The Equalizer gotta be more of an action movie to be completely satisfying.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 1, 2021

Washington is interesting enough to sustain the 130-minute runtime, even though the finale is far too lengthy and enormously over-the-top.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 4, 2020

A lazy and overly padded bore.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Sep 28, 2020

The Equalizer is dark and brutally violent...Fuqua adds his stylistic flair to the proceedings, but it has a more restrained feel than some of his other action outings.

Full Review | Jul 17, 2020

While there's nothing particularly interesting on a surface level, a subtext of strangeness runs below the action, and there's such an insane, action genre one-upsmanship going on that it's difficult not to be engage and even harder to look away.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 7, 2020

As a guy who grew up in the '80s, I am in the target audience for this film. I only wish, like my theoretical Hollywood execs, I had the means to stop it from happening.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2020

It is pure studio fodder, suffering from some miscasting, a bloated running time, and a flat lined screenplay.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 5, 2019

Fuqua's style seems consistent, although he uses more video and editing resources, the strength of the narrative raises the impact of the action scenes. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 15, 2019

With greater care taken over the haphazard pacing and poor script, The Equalizer might have been a fun night out. Instead it begs the question of when Washington will be given a movie worth his talents.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 25, 2019

The Equalizer is good enough popcorn entertainment, made classier by the presence of Washington.

Full Review | Mar 2, 2019

It's a film that starts in a nasty place and gets progressively worse throughout its 137-minute running time. This project is way below the talents of people like Washington and Fuqua.

Full Review | Jan 25, 2019

The Equalizer suffers from a bloated and banal script that does little to elevate the simple premise of its source material to something worthy of the big screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 1, 2018

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The Equalizer review – ugly, crass film smothers Denzel Washington’s charm

T here is something deeply ugly and crass in director Antoine Fuqua’s fatuous drama-thriller, based on the 80s TV show with Edward Woodward. It has none of the style or wit that marked Fuqua’s 2001 breakthrough, Training Day , and Washington’s usual irrepressible charm and intelligence are smothered. He plays Robert McCall, a quiet guy working at a DIY superstore, perhaps retired from some more exciting job. McCall strikes up a platonic, fatherly friendship with a beautiful young woman, Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), whom he discovers is being forced to work as a prostitute by Russian gangsters, and is being beaten and abused. Robert quickly unveils an almost supernatural talent for combat – a kind of macho-gallant superpower – to hit back at these bullies on her behalf and put right other wrongs elsewhere in the city. The movie serves up the dodgiest have-your-cake-and-eat-it menu: you get to see the women brutalised and assaulted,and also the men, the second spectacle presumably justified by the first. And all quite without any insight or perspective. Women are entirely unimportant, and simpering Moretz turns out to be a minor character, to say the very least. As for Washington, he has no samurai charisma here, just a tiresome pudding-faced reluctance to smile.

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Netflix top 10 movies — here’s the 3 worth watching right now

These are the must-watch movies in the Netflix top 10

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Want something new to watch on Netflix? The streamer's list of the top 10 most-watched movies on the platform is a great place to start, as this ever-changing ranking gives you an insight into what flicks are drawing the interest of subscribers.

However, the Netflix top 10 isn’t always a well-curated list of movies worth adding to your watchlist. Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of low-quality films make their way into the streamer’s most-watched list. Case in point, the truly terrible Adam Sandler comedy "Blended" is currently ranked No. 9, and it's certainly one to skip.  

That's why I’m picking out the standout options in the Netflix top 10 that deserve your viewing time right now. This list includes one of the best Robert Downey Jr. dramas you've (probably) not seen as well as a classic animated comedy, and a slick action movie that proves Denzel Washington is the coolest man in Hollywood.

These picks are based on the Netflix top 10 as of 7:35 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 8. And for even more top films that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home, be sure to check out our list of the top 5 new movies to stream this week. 

Best movies in the Netflix top 10

‘the judge’ (2014).

“The Judge” is an example of a movie where critics and viewers don’t quite see eye-to-eye. While its 49% score on Rotten Tomatoes is enough to earn the Robert Downey Jr. fronted drama a “rotten” rating, its audience score is much more positive at a fairly strong 72%. For reference, I lean more towards the viewer score on this one, while the legal drama is a little long in the tooth, it’s well-constructed and features a host of strong performances not just from Downey Jr. but also Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Jeremy Strong and Vincent D’Onofrio. 

The predominantly courtroom-set movie focuses on Hank Palmer (Downey Jr.) a successful defense attorney in Chicago, who returns to his hometown in Indiana following the death of his mother. Reuniting with his father, Judge Joseph Palmer (Duvall), the pair’s fractured relationship is put to the ultimate test when Hank must defend his father in court after he’s accused of murder. As the case proceeds family secrets and struggles come to light. 

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‘Shrek’ (2001)

“Shrek” is one of the most beloved (and memed) animated movies ever made. It’s a family-friendly classic that needs no introduction, but if you’ve somehow yet to make acquaintance with the big green guy, this comedy follows the titular Shrek (Mike Myers), a swamp-dwelling ogre, on a perilous quest to save Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a dragon-guarded tower on the orders of Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow). Along for the ride is a wisecracking talking mule, called Donkey (Eddie Murphy). 

Set in a fantasy land, “Shrek” is a clever satire of fairy tales and riffs on several well-told stories like The Three Blind Mice and Little Red Riding Hood, and also takes a few playful swipes at Disney movies. It’s a real crowd-pleaser crammed full of loveable characters, and a soundtrack that has become iconic (it’s the reason that “All Star” by Smash Mouth remains a house party staple). While the animation is now a bit dated, “Shrek” remains a firm favorite to this day, and is as fun in 2024 as it’s ever been. 

‘The Equalizer’ (2014)

“The Equalizer” is the perfect vehicle for Denzel Washington to showcase his action credentials. The legendary actor is practically perfect in the lead role of Robert McCall, a former special service commando, now living a quiet life in Boston. But this peaceful retirement doesn’t last when the experienced soldier is forced to go to war with the Russian mafia to protect a vulnerable young girl. What follows is a very bloody conflict.  

Tapping into the same power fantasy as the “John Wick” movies (the first of which was released just a few weeks later), “The Equalizer” has spawned a franchise with two sequels and a TV show spin-off, but as is often the case, the original remains the best. While the hook of a retired soldier delivering no-hold-barred justice isn’t exactly original, the real selling point of “The Equalizer” is the magnetic screen presence of Denzel Washington. 

Netflix top 10 movies right now

• "Unfrosted" (2024)
• "Shrek" (2001)
• "The Judge" (2014)
• "One More Shot" (2024)
• "The Great Wall" (2016) 
• "Shrek Forever After" (2010)
• "The Equalizer" (2014)
• "Anyone But You" (2023)
• "Blended" (2014) 
• "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa"

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Rory is an Entertainment Editor at Tom’s Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics but with a particular focus on gaming and streaming. When he’s not reviewing the latest games, searching for hidden gems on Netflix, or writing hot takes on new gaming hardware, TV shows and movies, he can be found attending music festivals and getting far too emotionally invested in his favorite football team. 

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THE EQUALIZER Renewed for Season 5

By Movieguide® Contributor

CBS has renewed its popular crime drama THE EQUALIZER for a fifth season.

“THE EQUALIZER, led by the incomparable Queen Latifah, has all the best elements of a powerful drama,” said Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment. “The series is stacked with suspense, heroism, high stakes and formidable characters our audience roots for. We look forward to another dynamic season.”

The show currently ranks as the No. 8 most-watched non-sport program, averaging 7.89 million linear viewers, per Deadline . It is also the most popular show among African American viewers. Season 5 is expected to run for 18 episodes.

A rehash of the ’80s classic, THE EQUALIZER follows Robyn McCall, a former CIA operative who uses her extensive skills to help those who have nowhere else to turn. Along with Latifah, the show stars Tory Kittles, Adam Goldberg, Liza Lapira, Laya DeLeon Hayes and Lorraine Toussaint. A portion of Movieguide®’s review of the pilot reads :

The EQUALIZER pilot is an intense, engaging episode. The program is well paced, and Queen Latifah is believable as the tough, but appealing, mysterious former spy and military commando. The pilot episode has a strong moral worldview with positive Christian, redemptive elements. That said, the EQUALIZER pilot has some foul language, violence and brief politically correct elements mentioning global warming and featuring an anti-capitalist subtext. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.

With the renewal of THE EQUALIZER, NCIS: HAWAI’I is the final CBS show whose fate has yet to be determined. Though the show ranks highly among audiences—No. 12 for non-sports programming—tricky business conversations have left its future in limbo. Season 4 of the show may end up being its last, with the potential for only a partial season coming.

Other notable programming moves by CBS during this renewal season include picking up all three FBI shows for another season and renewing ELSBETH. The network also canceled its popular daytime show, THE TALK, expecting to replace it with a new soap opera.

Movieguide® previously reported :

CBS has decided to cancel the popular daytime show THE TALK, killing it at the end of this year after a short Season 15 that will end in December. “THE TALK broke new ground when it launched 14 years ago by returning daytime talk to CBS with a refreshing and award-winning format,” CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf  said  in a joint statement. “Throughout the years, it has been a key program on CBS’ top-rated daytime lineup as it brought timely, important and entertaining topics and discussions into living rooms around the globe.” “It goes without saying that hosting and producing a year-round talk show is no easy task, and we express our sincere gratitude to our amazing hosts Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry O’Connell, and Sheryl Underwood, our Executive Producer/Showrunner Rob Crabbe and the hardworking producing team and crew,” the statement continued.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Equalizer CBS (@theequalizercbs)

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What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

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Are the Streaming Wars Over? Disney+ and Hulu Team With Max For New Bundled Service

The trio of streaming services will be offered together this summer in the U.S.

The Big Picture

• Disney announces a new streaming bundle with Disney+, Hulu, and Max, offering ad-supported & ad-free tiers this summer.
• Warner Bros. Discovery's involvement with Disney in the bundle shakes up the streaming industry.
• Netflix may face competition with the appeal of having Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery content in one place.

The "Streaming Wars" are getting more interesting, as Disney Entertainment has announced a streaming bundle that will include Disney+ , Hulu , and Max for subscribers. The bundle will arrive this summer and offer both an ad-supported and ad-free tier. With the libraries of all three services extremely rich in both original and library content, this unprecedented move is without a doubt a game changer for the world of streaming.

Disney made the announcement in a press release, stressing the unprecedented nature of the new streaming bundle. The goal of the new plan is to put subscribers first, offering them more access to the shows and movies they wouldn't be able to see having only one of these services. While Disney has owned Hulu for about three and half years, the involvement of Max, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is the most surprising element of this news. Considering Warner Bros. Discover had contemplated a merger with Paramount , their decision to go with the Mouse House comes as a shock.

Here's what Joe Earley , President, Direct to Consumer, Disney Entertainment said of this new bundle:

"On the heels of the very successful launch of Hulu on Disney+, this new bundle with Max will offer subscribers even more choice and value. This incredible new partnership puts subscribers first, giving them access to blockbuster films, originals, and three massive libraries featuring the very best brands and entertainment in streaming today."

JB Perrette , the CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games, Warner Bros. Discovery, echoed Earley's sentiments, while also foreshadowing what may be ahead for the streaming industry:

"This new offering delivers for consumers the greatest collection of entertainment for the best value in streaming, and will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger reaction. Offering this unprecedented entertainment value for fans across all the complimentary genres these three services offer, presents a powerful new roadmap for the future of the industry."

So, with a move like this, who's on the outside looking in? Perhaps the biggest question rests with Netflix , who may face some stiff competition down the line with a decision like this. Due to cracking down on things such as password sharing, the perennial streamer is not necessarily everyone's favorite at this moment. Of course, eventually, all services will pull that move, but with a library this vast, containing assets from Disney as well as Warner Bros. Discovery (including networks like HGTV , Food Network , and CNN), subscribers are likely to see the appeal of having all of their favorite shows in one place.

What Does This Bundle Mean for Services Like Peacock?

There's also the question of much smaller services, such as Peacock and Paramount+ . Time will tell what kind of precedent this merger will bring forth for these kinds of services. While both have the benefit of bringing forth new films once they leave theaters, with movies like Migration and Bob Marley: One Love , they're still a bit green in terms of putting out new, original content. Prime Video is also another streamer to consider, though its dynamic is a bit more established alongside the likes of Netflix.

For now, the pricing and the name of this bundle are not yet known. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest on this forthcoming bundle, as well as the latest news on Max , Disney+ , and Hulu .

Screen Rant

Jason statham's upcoming thriller movie will be his version of denzel washington's $573m franchise.

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Statham & Stallone's Next Movie Corrects A Mistake From Their 11-Year-Old Failed Franchise Starter

10 disney villains who turned out to be good, this thriller with 80% on rotten tomatoes that just hit netflix is a reminder of how good mark wahlberg can be.

• Jason Statham's Levon's Trade could be the start of a new action franchise.
• The gritty vigilante story in Levon's Trade mirrors themes from Denzel Washington's Equalizer franchise.
• With potential for sequels and strong audience interest, Levon's Trade could fill the gap left by the conclusion of the Equalizer movie series.

Jason Statham's upcoming action thriller Levon's Trade could fill in the gap left behind by the end of a certain Denzel Washington franchise. The number of Jason Statham action franchises appears to be growing year by year. He's a regular among the ensemble of The Fast and the Furious saga and fronts his own series like The Meg or The Expendables . The surprise success of David Ayer's The Beekeeper means that a potential Beekeeper 2 is also a strong possibility.

Ayer and Statham enjoyed working together so much they're reuniting for the upcoming novel adaptation Levon's Trade . This casts Statham as the titular character, a retired special forces operative hired by his concerned boss to find his missing daughter. Unlike the more tongue-in-cheek antics of The Beekeeper , Levon's Trade is a gritty vigilante story where the deeper the title character digs, the messier things get . In addition to Statham and Ayer, the movie's screenplay was also penned by none other than Sylvester Stallone.

Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham are reteaming for action movie Levon's Trade, which will avoid a fatal error their last novel adaptation made.

Jason Statham's Levon's Trade Shares DNA With The Equalizer

The equalizer fans will get a lot out of levon's trade, the equalizer.

The Equalizer is a crime-focused action-thriller franchise initially created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. The franchise began with the 1985 series that followed Robert McCall, a retired intelligence agent who uses his deadly and varied skillset to help those that society cannot save. The film franchise has stood out as the most iconic, with Denzel Washington in the role of the new Robert McCall, with a reboot television series starring Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall.

While Levon Cade might be the sort of special forces badass Statham has played many times before, in the books, Cade is also a softspoken gent. His focus is on raising his daughter and while he can handle himself in a fight, he never goes looking for them. The opening chapter of Levon's Trade sees him beat up two criminals attempting to extort one of his workers at a construction site, and after disarming them, Cade then mails their firearms to the police, just to get them out of circulation.

Sylvester Stallone also penned the screenplay for the Jason Statham movie Homefront , released in 2013.

In many ways, Levon's Trade and Denzel's Washington's The Equalizer movies share much in common. They're both fronted by well-meaning characters with dark pasts, who are trying to do the right thing in bad circumstances. The big difference between Cade and Denzel's McCall is that the former has a young daughter too , and undertakes the job to rescue his boss' daughter as he needs money for a bitter custody battle with his father-in-law.

Just like in the first Equalizer movie, Cade's mission pits him against a Russian gang, who soon begin hunting him . Just because Cade is fundamentally a good guy, that doesn't mean he can't transform into a ruthless killer when needed. He kills and tortures multiple people throughout the story, and is adept at improvising his way out of trouble. In contrast to McCall, Cade has no issue using guns when necessary either.

Levon's Trade Has Huge Franchise Potential

Jason statham can make up for non-starting franchises like parker or broker.

If Ayer and Statham can recapture the magic of their first collaboration The Beekeeper , audiences could be seeing a lot more from Levon Cade in the near future.

Levon's Trade isn't the first time Statham has attempted to build a franchise around a book series. In the past, he's fronted films like 2013's Parker - based on the novels by the late, great Donald E. Westlake - or Homefront , which adapted one of the Phil Broker books. Neither film led to a sequel, though Statham did eventually land a successful franchise based on a book series with The Meg . Levon's Trade could be his next action franchise, with author Chuck Dixon's Levon Cade series having run for 10 books and counting.

That means there is a wealth of material for a potential Levon's Trade sequel to pull from - assuming the original hits, of course. While the sort of modestly budgeted, R-rated action movies Statham made his name on waned during the 2010s, the success of The Beekeeper proves there is a willing audience for those types of movies in theaters. If Ayer and Statham can recapture the magic of their first collaboration, audiences could be seeing a lot more from Levon Cade in the near future.

Levon's Trade Can Fill The Gap Left By The Equalizer Franchise Ending

That's assuming denzel washington's mccall truly stays retired.

The Equalizer 3's ending sees McCall seemingly retire from his equalizing ways, and by all accounts, the sequel was designed to close out his story. Considering the film was another robust hit, the studio will no doubt test the waters of a possible Equalizer 4 with Washington, but another installment is far from a given . Levon's Trade could be the film to fill in the niche left behind by the end of the Equalizer series.

The big selling point of The Equalizer was seeing an actor of Washington's caliber taking on an action movie, and he brought a lot of depth and power to what could have been a generic revenge flick. The movies were never going to compete with the likes of Marvel in terms of box office, but there will always be a space for action films aimed at adults. That's why what made Washington's saga so consistently profitable, but now they've ended, genre fans will need to look elsewhere. If Levon's Trade can capture the same blend of character and action, it could prove a worthy successor.

Source: The Numbers

Levon's Trade

Based on the book series by Chuck Dixon, Levon's Trade is an action-thriller directed by David Ayer and starring Jason Statham as the titular hero. Leaving his black ops life behind him, Levon Cade settles down to care for his daughter and enjoy a civilian life - until his new boss's daughter disappears. Stepping back into his old life to find her, Levon steps into a dangerous conspiracy that threatens to consume everything he loves.

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Entertainment squad takes insurance injustices thriller ‘midas’ for u.s. theatrical release (exclusive).

The feature debut of writer/director TJ Noel-Sullivan follows a college dropout who recruits his friends to rob the health insurer that denied his mother's coverage.

By Georg Szalai

Georg Szalai

Global Business Editor

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Entertainment Squad has acquired worldwide rights to Midas and will release the film, the feature debut of writer/director TJ Noel-Sullivan described as “a fresh and socially relevant take on the classic heist genre,” in theaters in the U.S. on June 28.

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Starring Laquan Copeland ( The Dirty South ), Preet Kaur ( Finding Tony ), Federico Parra ( series The Equalizer ), Lucy Powers ( Voyeur ), and Bob Gallagher ( Bad Senator ), the movie was shot in Hartford, Conn., which is nicknamed the “insurance capital of the world.” 

The Hartford Film Company, founded by Noel-Sullivan, produced the film alongside Kristina Cuello and Erik Bloomquist.

“ Midas combines thrilling heist action with a sharp critique of health insurance injustices, making it a must-watch for those who appreciate films that entertain and challenge the status quo,” said Berenson.

Added director Noel-Sullivan: “With Midas , we set out to create a heist film for a new generation. Entertainment Squad’s commitment to bold storytelling made them the perfect partner to bring this electrifying vision to audiences.”

Entertainment Squad’s previous releases include the Tribeca audience award winner Cherry , an abortion dramedy by Sophie Galibert, Lili Taylor’s mental-health comedy/drama  Paper Spiders , and Henry Loevner and Steven Kanter’s SXSW title Peak Season , which combines romantic comedy and social commentary.

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