Ticket 2 Ride

Did we need another film in this series? I didn’t think so, then I watched the film. I’m still pondering the question.

Former DIA agent Robert McCall is still trotting the globe righting wrongs. There should be a disclaimer at the film’s open to not just suspend your logic, but to put it in a strongbox and lock it tight. I guess this film should really be in the fantasy-action-thriller genre. The premise of this series is remotely believable, but the connecting layers of improbable subplots and intersecting characters is a screenwriter’s wet dream.

McCall’s mission takes him to the most beautiful part of Italy and a village that we’d all like to live. It’s a village that seems perfect. A paradise. Soon, McCall catches sight of an extortion attempt; a local crime organization is pressing merchants and businesses to pony up a sizable amount of money, of suffer the consequences. A shop is firebombed.

“This one is more personal,” said director Antoine Fuqua said Equalizer 3. “It’s more internal and personal to him (McCall).” That’s interesting because I thought The Equalizer 2 was the personal one where his close friend was murdered.

McCall starts to fall in love with this quiet Italian village and it surprises him. McCall is a feeling man, but he’s careful about letting emotion guide him. Emotion is dangerous in his world. The idyllic village is where McCall realizes he belongs. He quickly begins caring about these people and this protectiveness is what leads to a war with those who threaten these people. McCall’s sense of morality is triggered, but this time it is different.

“A glimpse of the possibility of redemption and salvation,” says Denzel Washington in the film’s commentary. “He has to look in the mirror and at his own heart.”

Dakota Fanning portrays Emma Collins, a CIA analyst who McCall specifically contacts about a drug smuggling and national security issue he has stumbled over. He wants her to utilize this information into a career opportunity, which she does. Suddenly, she becomes a field agent. Emma is the daughter of McCall’s friends. The entire subplot of that relationship is under-written and clunky. Fanning and Washington appeared in Tony Scott’s Man on Fire (2004). See that film if you want a better example of how well these two click. The Emma subplot is distracting and not believable.

The producers could not have found a more beautiful and hypnotic locale than Atrani, on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. No wonder everyone in the story wants to be there.

How many violent, vigilante films does it take to satisfy our appetite for cinematic justice? Look, I have always enjoyed these films, good ones anyway. Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Liam Neeson, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and even John Wayne. These films became popular in the 1970s in response to rising and sensationally reported violent crime. Politicians were accused of being soft on crime, organized crime was on the rise with drugs, and cities were portrayed as being unsafe. Regardless, the vigilante became the anti-hero.

Vigilantes films fulfill our need for justice, or maybe revenge, in a dangerous world, one where gun violence is out of hand, at least in the United States, and terroristic acts are a deadly and frequent occurrence in the world. Cue up a video game and you can be the slayer, soldier, hitman or criminal. We’re desensitized to violence and cruelty in so many ways, why not the Terminator, John Wick, Dirty Harry, Rambo or Robert McCall? Search any streaming service library and there are tons of films that have a hero that kicks ass in response to victimization.

These films are popular, so I guess we need them. That’s not a judgement, I only judge quality. I will say that Equalizer 3 has more nuisances than the typical film of this type. Fuqua is a fine director and he and Washington have worked together so often that they admit there’s almost a secret language between them. Even in a brutal action film, Fuqua does pause a beat or two in order to accentuate the beauty and the warm of the people and village. The cinematography and production design are exquisite, and help to tell the story, and evoke what McCall discovers about this place.

The question I asked at the beginning of this blog, did we need another film in this series? If this is the final installment in McCall’s journey, I say, yes. Films that make money are difficult to ignore, but this would be a good stopping place. Don’t worry, characters like McCall are not in short supply. I bet there are many screenwriters at work right now on anti heroes right now.

3/5