I have no idea what idiots write reviews for outlets like Rotten Tomatoes, & other sources who trashed this sequel, but clearly they do not know what they are talking about because I read their review then walked into this movie to judge for myself. This was a highly entertaining movie, and just as good as the first one. In this movie we find out a little more about this character's background, which we really knew nothing about other than he is a bad ass fighting machine in a war path to set up traps, and eliminate the scum of the Earth.

We start the film where Denzel's character is a retired military hero turned street avenger, who hides his secret life of heroic vigilantism by posing as an Uber driver. His former boss is brutally attacked, & Denzel is called into action. Along the way he befriends a teenager who is on the verge of hanging around and being negatively influenced by the wrong crowd. Then finally we have an ultimate duel to the death between him and other dudes like him.

A phenomonal sequel & I believe equal, no pun intended, with the original series and first movie. Denzel Washington again proves over and over that he is America's best actor, if not one of the best in the world. As with the first movie, which was a remake so to speak from the original 80's tv series, I had felt with this character seeing Denzel Washington play the role, from his point of view, of a Charles Bronson, Client Eastwood, and even the Batman films of the past in this role. If you really liked the original "Death Wish", "Batman", and "Dirty Harry" franchises as much as I did as a young kid, you would probably love this movie franchise too.

What might not work for some? The pace of the film moves slow in some areas, but that is on purpose because we see how this character problem solves and investigates crimes. We do see an aweful lot of the character's friendly good guy interactions with different people in the city, they picked my home town of Boston, MA, but this movie's plot could have been any city USA and work the same. Either way, the film makers show him saving a lot of strangers and really tries to drive the point home of him being the guardian of regular nice folks, maybe it had been a bit over done but it still worked fine for me. The film also features a lot of screen time showing the teenager and Denzel act out a series of dramas, trying to teach the youth right from wrong and maybe some might see that drawn out too much.

What I got was a ton of fantastic action, excellent martial arts fight scenes, some good gun and knife stunt footage, great trap set ups, and Denzel Washington's endless amount of sharp high class mixed with cool style we usually get with his performances. So I have to give this movie thumbs up, with a grade of A, hope to see more of this franchise, & ask the public at large do not let the critics or so called experts do the deciding for you just check this movie out, because some of our so called experts actually are big morons espousing hot air.

Theater review. Possible spoilers. If you haven’t figured it out by now 60 is the new 40 when it comes to kick-ass action heroes. Here, the star power is Denzel Washington who joins Liam Neeson and others who don’t take a back seat to all those young 30-somethings. Washington reprises his role as Robert McCall a former decorated Marine and CIA agent believed by everyone to be dead. Everyone except his good friend and fellow agent Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo).

McCall isn’t back at his Home Depot type store, but is now a Lyft driver. An early scene has McCall rescuing a young girl from his kidnappers in Turkey! He still has a do-gooder aura about him and things shift again with McCall picking up a young woman at a fancy high rise. She’s obviously distraught, roughed up and most likely raped so he takes her to a hospital. He then returns to the place where she was picked up to have a chat with the handful of over-grown young men who seem to have made the jump from frat-boy hazing to sexual assault. As the guys size up the old man, McCall does his stopwatch routine where he calculates his moves as well as those of his opponents. Needless to say McCall leaves a pile of bleeding, broken bodies on his way out the door. This is a common theme throughout the film, he’s virtually untouchable.

McCall ups the ante however when one of his best friends is killed. Now he’s really pissed telling one of the bad guys that he’s going to kill them all. His only regret is that he can only do it once. There really isn’t much to this movie other than McCall cracking a lot of skulls and worse. There are some gruesome killings and it is all done with a business like way, with Washington’s charm making it all seem just fine.

Joining the cast is Ashton Sanders as Miles, a neighbor. You might remember Sanders from the Oscar winning “Moonlight” from 2016. McCall takes a liking to the young man and tries to pull him away from the gangs and get him in school. While this movie is more of the same in terms of stylized vigilantism, Washington makes it entertaining and satisfying escapism.

Part 2 does not disappoint great action , great story line in context of character. I love how he cares for different people regardless of race . It how we need to be in society . Injustice is injustice regardless of race and I could only wish in real life we had someone to fight for that. So the point of going to movie from beginning of movies is to escape for a moment from our own world when we go to movie. When we do it nice finding a character that has a bit of super hero in him. So glad he did this sequel and wouldn't mind one more .Denzel makes a great action hero and right now having a black role model in the movies is great. Totally enjoyed the movie. Thanks Denzel for bringing the character to life.

The Equalizer 2... I loved the first Equalizer movie, it's one of the movies my wife and I have watched many, many times. We were really looking forward to this installment which, as it turns out is a disappointment. She's much easier on movies than I am, so if I say "it wasn't that great" you can safely assume the right or possibly even average person would really like it, if she says "it's really not that great" then it probably really is lacking something that people with less eccentric tastes for entertainment would normally be perfectly content with.

Without dropping major spoilers everywhere, this sequel sees a now slightly older and more comfortable in his vigilantism, Robert McCall still doling out justice to the needy. He's moved from working in retail hardware stores to driving for Lyft, however. I guess Home Depot didn't want to pony up to be in a movie where their products are used to murder people by a deranged employee, Lyft as we all know, will hire anyone. So, our protagonist toils around the city, righting wrongs with reckless abandon and violence, all while living in the hood and still finding the time to sling wisdom to his local youths. It's all very bland and boring until the forgettable lady from the first movie is killed.

You've seen that much in the previews, I'm just verifying there really isn't much worth talking about to this point. There are two "fight scenes" on the way here, they're not on par with anything from the first movie; more on that in a minute. In The Equalizer, violence was largely contained to locations and situations that allowed you to suspend a certain amount of your common sense and think "I can see that, why would a bunch of Russian mobsters go to the police?" and “Well, maybe no one in a noisy restaurant would hear those guys being abrasively dismantled through those thick wooden walls?” In this one, he lays an obscene amount (obscene, not unwarranted) of cartoon violence on some super-wealthy frat-boy types at one point, before a very public series of murders on a train, in a foreign country, in front of a service worker, over a very public custody dispute, then another in his work vehicle that also includes a significant amount of very public property damage... But that's okay, in the world of The Equalizer 2, apparently setting your car on fire erases all traces of your identity. We play by Grand Theft Auto rules around here, beat it, nerd.

While you can say "He sure did make a public mess at the end of the first one!" It's different, he saved everyone's life, they would definitely be inclined to support him and keep his secrets. In this one, you're talking a lot of very public acts on or in front of average (even if some are bad) citizens. It's all much harder to take in as simple entertainment because it's so over the top and out there. You can buy Stallone in COBRA because he's a "tough as nails cop who doesn't play by the rules" and he beats up a bunch of bad guys; in this one a “Denzel, trying to stay off the radar” anatomically obliterates 5 wealthy stock brokers in a multimillion dollar apartment, while simply walking in and out by the doorman.

Yeah, they deserved it, no you're still going to jail after the SWAT team hunts you down. Nutjob.

All that aside, the general gist of The Equalizer 2 however, is that this time McCall is going up against people equally as skilled as him; in fact, people he has worked with. The final battle is incredibly lackluster in spite of that thrilling suggestion. These other "operators" have all the tactical acumen of a pack of retarded puppies, and McCall effortlessly annihilates the entire squad in less than 15 minutes. None of it being very entertaining or remotely passable even if you’re trying to accept it. By contrast, when "Teddy," the psychopathic ex-KGB agent brings in his paramilitary henchmen in the final act of TE1, you're kind of treated with a pretty stereotypical "Seasoned Warriors V Ninja Assassin" kind of scenario. It is totally unbelievable if you think about it too hard, but it's also well-crafted enough you can accept it in the form of entertainment. In this one, McCall and the new bad guys fight it out in an abandoned town as a monsoon is coming in, despite all the chaos and their training as international hitmen, he doesn't even struggle to murder the entire lot of them. He took fire in the first movie, he got cut, he had bumps and bruises that made a certain amount of sense. Here, I don’t think he even loses balance fighting in a hurricane.

So think about it this way, The Equalizer is a terrific modern day vigilante tale, a man so dangerous Achilles would have bro-hugged him had they met, takes to righting wrongs under the ostensibly correct assumption that targeting crooked cops and members of an organized crime syndicate wouldn't bring much heat on him. After all, these are people who don't want everyone to know what they're doing, right? Totally works. In The Equalizer 2, our Protagonist is a combination of MacGuyver, Deadpool, and Matthew McConaughey's character from Frailty, as he's and untouchable and perfect killing machine that specializes in improvised weaponry, who also has a higher power protecting his identity while he does the work of the divine. They are not the same type of movie, and that is where the disappointment comes in.

If you were a fan of The Equalizer's ability to make nonsense seem plausible while you're regaled with the tales of a very likable and sympathetic hero who suffers from secondary psychopathy yet has a strict code of morals which demands he take it to the bad guys at his own risk and detriment… You won't be equally entertained by The Equalizer 2's tendency towards superhero antics and utterly unbelievable tomfoolery. If 2 were a stand-alone action movie without such a solid predecessor to live up to, it would be a 3 star film. Totally average. Which is what I'm calling it for the sake of objectivity. However, it's not unburdened by a previous film's performance, and it fails to deliver on the same level of, well, everything, as that first movie. It doesn’t even feel like a continuation of the same franchise in all honesty.

I've rambled enough though, final verdict, as a stand-alone action film, it's a solid 3. The first Equalizer is a solid 4.5 for the film's type and genre, comparatively 2 suffers from sequel syndrome and I'd rate a 1.5 by comparison. I watched it twice just to make sure I felt the same on a second viewing, I did.

However, as I say often, don't simply take my word for it, watch it for yourself. If you disagree, try not to be vitriolic about it.

I am also a great fan of director Antoine Fuqua and I love his style of direction. The movie continues from the previous one, Robert McCall(Washington) now lives in a diverse apartment complex in urban Massachusetts. He is working as a Lyft driver and assists the less fortunate with the help of his friend, Susan Plummer. One day, Susan and DIA operative Dave York, McCall's former teammate, are called to investigate an apparent murder-suicide of an agent and his wife in Brussels. When the two separate after reaching their hotel, Susan is murdered in an apparent robbery. When he receives the news, McCall begins to investigate both her death and the case she was investigating.

The action sequences in the film, background sound-effects and cinematography are extremely well executed. Antoine is a director with great vision and you can see that in all his movies. Denzel gives another excellent performance and his acting is very convincing. I give the film a rating of 8/10 because the film is a solid entertainer and held my attention the whole time.

Two movies, the same yet different. Maybe they were alike in ways; I didn't really think about it--or even care--during or after the film. I could watch both all day and like the last one best. If Mr. Washington decides to do it again, I'm in. Paid Amazon $20 for this one--never done that before--and enjoyed it equally three times in two days. Melissa Leo was exceptional.

I love Denzel as an action star, tough guy, etc. He is a man's man. The Equalizer was fantastic. But this second outing is a bit too tame for me. It feels like an unfinished second book in a series. Is it a good movie? Yeah. Is it fantastic? Nope. I'll re-watch it and change my review, if I feel enlightened, but upon first watch The Equalizer 2 is lacking.

Not enough action. And it's all over too quickly. The story was a bit dry. I never felt enough suspense.

This movie rides on the back of its main character. His long-suffering, wise demeanor. His explosive, matter-of-fact talent for violence. But, as we saw with the Die Hard franchise, that can only go on for so long.

Still, I'd love more movies centered around this character's vigilante heroism. I'll probably buy them. Just, please--before you make a movie about his son or daughter--end the series.

Give us some more Equalizer with brutal, nail-biting, action and suspense. Trials through which our main man has to suffer.

Equalizer 3: Cartel Killer.
Equalizer 3: Bye Bye, Deep State.
Equalizer 3: Peace in the Middle East--Or else!
Equalizer 3: Equalizer vs. Predator

If you suspend your beliefs to get over the premise of this movie than you can enjoy Equalizer 2. The origins of the main character Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is that he is a former covert intelligence officer who decides after retirement that he is a people person and should become their avenging angel. Sometimes he just randomly finds people to help such as when he’s a Lyft driver. Other times he helps his friends. That’s the basis for Equalizer 2 when his old intelligence friend Susan is murdered overseas. McCall takes it upon himself to find what happened to her and take out her killers.

In the first Equalizer movie McCall was trying to have a quite retirement but people with troubles kept on finding him. In this movie he turned it into a lifestyle as he starts off in Turkey retrieving a girl who was taken by her father away from her mother. I guess the thinking was that since this was the sequel they had to make everything bigger and better.

They also wanted to give McCall more purpose. They couldn’t just rely upon him meeting people in need, this time they had him working a case involving his friend.

The beauty of Equalizer 2 is to see Denzel kick ass. For instance, he likes setting a stop watch to see how long it takes for him to beat people up. That shows that he is a bad man and makes up for the premise.
C