The Equalizer 3

It feels like a horror film; like you're watching Jason or Michael Myers, except Denzel is the boogeyman in this case... and that smile that he has at the very beginning, that's his mask.

Denzel seems to be sleepwalking through every scene that doesn’t involve gouging and/or stabbing.

The Equalizer 3 marks a fitting and warm end to the franchise. It offers all the audacious violence and familiar set-pieces of the previous films, paired with a wistful goodbye to its central vigilante.

Clearly Fuqua, the producers and production team are hoping viewers like their attention to aesthetics. Their dream may come true.

Finally, on the series’ supposedly last outing, one of its films lives up to the ever-deepening talent of its leading man.

At its best – and The Equalizer 3 is about as good as the first film -- it neatly counterbalances Fuqua’s baroque, blood-and-guts action with Washington’s ability to command attention while sitting perfectly still.

Despite the film’s virtues, the formula it follows is simple, and simplistic: Bad guys do really bad things to good people&#59; hero does really bad things to bad guys. The end.

Based on a long-running television series, “The Equalizer” franchise doesn’t expand much, either. Unlike “Mission: Impossible,” it settles for a blue-chip star and a well-worn premise.

Washington and Fuqua give audiences what they want and need with some action sequences that will ring in your brain for days. Denzel is back baby!

The saving grace is Fuqua's portrait of Italy, which glows with an ethereal warmth. You can tell he has a real fondness for these people, their culture, their joy and the cobblestone streets which they call home.