The Equalizer 3
Antoine Fuqua
Cert: 15 | ★★★✩ ✩

Denzel Washington takes on the Sicilian Mafia in this rather predictable, but surprisingly sober action thriller. Reprising his Robert McCall role, Washington is reunited with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua in this third, and largely expected to be last, instalment in the hugely popular Equalizer film series about an ex assassin turned vigilante. The film also features outstanding performances from former child star Dakota Fanning.

Fuqua is a dab hand at a genre he has perfected over the last two decades. Although very simplistic in its storytelling, there is something slightly more profound about this latest instalment of the franchise.

This in turn had me thinking about the 2017 American superhero film Logan, about an ageing superhero grappling with the idea of death and transition to mortality. Both films feature an almost Shakespeare narrative arc which follows a once unassailable hero who can no longer ignore the ever expanding chink in his armour.

Fuqua sets this closing chapter in a small village in Italy where McCall is pitted against a group of violent Mafiosi and their sadistic leader (played by Andrea Scarduzio).

Having survived an almost fatal attack a few weeks earlier, McCall is nursed back to health by the local doctor and welcomed by locals as one of their own.

Dakota Fanning in the New Equaliser 3

Dakota Fanning in The Equalizer 3 (Photo: Sony Pictures)

Unable to sit by the sidelines while the villagers are targeted by the local Gomorrah - a violent criminal underworld - McCall decides to take on their leader and his minions. Meanwhile, in a small Sicilian vineyard, a grim discovery awaits young CIA agent Emma Collins (Fanning) thanks to a tip from McCall.

Equalizer 3 does exactly what’s expected from it, but this time with added gravitas. Still, Fuqua and his writing team can’t resist the usual facile clichés of needlessly othered locals - his Italian characters are about as authentic as the Supermario Brothers - but let's just say that this could have easily been a lot worse.

Washington’s perfect depiction of a man who knows all too well the power of quitting while you’re ahead, is what drives the film from start to finish and I bought it hook, like and sinker.

The Equalizer 3 is in cinemas from 1 September