Streaming Spotlight by Cindy Summers
Equalizer 3 – Netflix
Breeze rating from 1 to 4 palm trees, 4 being best.
“Equalizer 3” is the final installment of The Equalizer trilogy where vigilante action hero Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) travels to a secluded winery in Sicily to recover a stolen pension and finds other criminal activities happening, ultimately ending up shot in the back. Robert fled but was weak and ended up being found by an off duty policeman named Gio Bonucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea) on the side of the road outside a small town in southern Italy. Gio took him to the town doctor Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone) who fixed Robert’s gunshot wound and encouraged him to stay to recover, telling him they would just tell others he fell.
As Robert gained his strength, he ventured out into the town where he began to befriend shop owners and cafe workers. Robert decided to call a secure CIA number to report the questionable criminal activities he discovered at the winery and suggested they check out what was happening at the scene. Due to the fact that Robert was able to provide key code words on the call, the analyst, Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) sent a team to investigate that found large amount of money and bags of fenethylline tablets hidden in wine bottles.
Robert liked the small town he had landed in and was becoming fond of the people who liked him as well and began to treat him like one of their own. He also witnessed a gang of thugs led by Marco Quaranta (Andrea Dodero) who appeared to be harassing a number of business owners in the small coastal community, but tried his best to not get involved and continued to just view from afar. Marco’s brother Vincent Quaranta (Andrea Scarduzio) was part of the Camorra (one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy) and Vincent was working to oust local business owners from the coastal town by any means to convert it to high priced resorts and casinos.
Aminah (Faia Scodellaro), who worked at the cafe, took Robert under her wing and encouraged him to get out and enjoy the many local activities. While having coffee he saw Emma Collins at a neighboring table and they had a conversation regarding what was discovered at the winery, which included multiple dead bodies. When questioning Robert if he killed them, he laughed it off and though Emma thought she would be controlling things, Robert was unphased.
Marco gladly did Vincent’s dirty work, setting shops on fire and beating Gio the police officer that dared to investigate, threatening to kill his wife and daughter if he got involved. When Marco decided to harass Gio in a cafe in front of Robert, Robert could not look away, catching Marco’s attention. Marco came over to threaten him, but Robert remained calm explaining to Marco that he liked the town and it’s people and politely asked Marco to do his business elsewhere. Marco smirked, so in the blink of an eye, Robert had Marco in an extremely painful hold telling him to tell his partners to leave and give up his gun, then pointed to the door for Marco to leave.
Robert knew that would enrage Marco, who was set out to murder him, so Robert decided to protect himself and kill Marco and his men. Gio found the same drugs in the back of the van that were at the winery and shared that with Robert, who tried to warn Emma when a car bomb exploded throwing her across the courtyard and ending up in the hospital.Vincent wanted revenge for Marco’s death and headed to the town square threating to kill Gio and shooting him in the ear. Robert gave himself up asking to be taken away but Vincent refused, then Enzo showed up with a gun and the town filmed Vincent for all to see. Vicent left vowing to kill Robert, but Robert again had no intention of waiting for them to come after him tipping the scales in true Equalizer fashion.
Runtime: 1h 49m
