With Liam Neeson’s latest movie, RETRIBUTION, receiving a very lukewarm reception, and INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY underperforming at the box office, it would seem that the gloss has come off two of the geriaction film genre’s biggest stars. Fortunately, there’s 68-year-old Denzel Washington (THE LITTLE THINGS) who still has a few good years left in him to kick some serious cinematic butt. Denzel is back with the third and allegedly final installment, if you can believe the posters, of THE EQUALIZER franchise and although his character, Robert McCall, is ready to put away his stopwatch and live a quiet life, that transition to retirement doesn’t come so easily.

In E3, as the film is colloquially known, Robert, or should I say Roberto because when in Rome, er, Sicily… anyhow, Robert is at a winery in Sicily making short shrift of one of the island’s mafia families. Why? Because they have something that belongs to someone else. That’s all we know for now but if you’ve seen either E1 or E2, you know there’s more to this story. As he’s leaving the carnage behind, he gets shot and it looks like it’s over for the defender of the little guy. Fortunately, a carabiniere (Eugenio Mastrandrea, TV’s FROM SCRATCH) finds him and takes him to a friendly doctor (Remo Girone, FORD V FERRARI) in the picturesque seaside town of Altamonte who patches him up. As Robert gains his strength back, he begins to take a shine to the town and to its residents as they do to him. Ready to get back to work, he places an anonymous phone call to young CIA agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD) back in Washington to tip her off about the winery’s role in an illegal drug trade. Emma heads to Sicily and tracks Robert down but she doesn’t know who he is or why he wants to help her. Nevertheless, his information is good and she breaks the case wide open. Meanwhile, back in Altamonte, trouble is afoot. Another Camorra is shaking the townsfolk down because the bad guys want to turn Altamonte into a luxury resort town with hotels and casinos. Robert, of course, won’t have any that.

It’s a rare case where the sequels keep getting better than the previous films in the series. THE GODFATHER PART II is better than both the original and its sequel. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is better than both the original STAR WARS and its sequel, RETURN OF THE JEDI. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS is better than both its predecessor, THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, and its sequel, THE RETURN OF THE KING. With THE EQUALIZER, each film is better than the one before it. Screenwriter Richard Wenk and director Antoine Fuqua (EMANCIPATION; BULLET TRAIN) seem to have found their groove with this character and his exploits, and E3 offers a strong story that rewards audiences with exactly what they came for — plenty of action with a sprinkling of humour. Sure, the bad guys are still stock characters but the way Robert deals with them never gets dull or repetitive. Denzel, for his part, is always a class actor to watch whether he’s applying his thumb to someone’s median nerve or being a warm and friendly neighbour.

Although the film is being marketed as the “final chapter”, we all know that means nothing in Hollywood. It’s taken Fuqua and Washington nine years to do three films. At their current rate of production, Denzel will be 72 by the time another sequel, if there will be one, would come out. Fuqua has said that he’s game to do another film with Denzel and he may be considering doing a prequel starring a digitally de-aged Denzel. Alternatively, he has suggested recasting the role with Michael B. Jordan or even Denzel’s son, John David Washington, in the role. I have no doubt there will be another film in some shape at some point because Hollywood loves recycled IP. For now, though, check out THE EQUALIZER 3. It does not disappoint.

THE EQUALIZER 3 is playing now in Hong Kong and elsewhere around the world. Even if you haven’t seen the other two films in the series, you can still follow the story without any problem. (There is one reference to the previous films but you can read about it online after you’ve seen the film.)

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