The Equalizer 3-Movie Collection - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Equalizer 3-Movie Collection



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


WARNING: THE SCORES ABOVE ARE A COMBINED SCORE FROM ALL 3 FILMS, THE INDIVIDUAL SCORES ARE CONTAINED BELOW IN THE INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE REVIEW

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Movie
The Equalizer:
Antoine Fuqua has done his fair share of action movies over the years, and he’s done his fair share of gritty crime thrillers in his day as well, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I went and saw The Equalizer in theaters. Color me shocked when I saw one of the best revenge action movies I’d seen in years. Antoine took his experience doing 90’s action flicks and transposed that onto a modern veneer with nice shiny filming. Guns, knives, brutal kills and promises made by the hero that every bad guy in the movie is going to suffer. Basically what made the 90s action movies so much fun in the first place. Based off of the 1980’s TV series with the same name, Fuqua remakes and prequels the rise of Robert McCall to the epic “Equalizer” for the disenfranchised and innocent victims.

Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is just your average everyday middle aged man. He works at Home Mart (basically Home Depot renamed) and goes to a late night diner for a something to eat and to read his books. One of the regulars at that time of night happens to be a hooker by the name of Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) who wants to get out of the life and be somebody. Every night he comes in for his dinner and socializes with her, encourages her and she opens up from his kindness. This all changes one night when Teri ends up in the hospital, beaten to a bloody pulp by her pimp. Mild mannered Mr. McCall doesn’t take this very well and ends up taking some revenge on the men who killed her. In a stunning display of skill we find out that our normal everyday man happens to be an ex CIA agent who happens to have a set of skills that make him extremely dangerous to people like Teri’s pimp (wink wink).

These actions set off a chain reaction as he finds out that he didn’t just knock over a couple of pimps, but the entire East Coast leg of the Russian mob. Now the mob is ticked off and sends in Teddy (Marton Csokas), a specialist designed to take out the trash. Now it’s a game of cat and mouse as Teddy tries to track down Robert and Robert tries to unravel him from the inside out. Soon it’s all-out war as the two very dangerous wage war upon each other with McCall reinvigorating his past life once more.

I love revenge flicks like these, I really do. There’s something almost “superheroish” about them. One man, up against all odds with just his insane ability to inflict damage and a swarm of bad guys that he has to mow through to get to the boss. “The Equalizer” has to be the second best revenge flick of 2014 (only second next to John Wick) and one of the best action movies I’ve seen in a long time. Fuqua blended the style and flare of The Replacement Killers with the hard hitting feel of Man on Fire. Denzel plays Robert McCall with ease, giving him a very kind heart and the desire to help people that really shows on his face, but when the going gets rough that kind heart can ice over and you see a man who has ice water flowing through his veins. The action sequences are hard core, with kills that make you wince and cheer at the same time. The end sequence in the Home Mart between Robert and Teddy’s mercenaries is a fight to behold. His improvised weapons were truly brutal and had me even wincing a few times.

Bathed in cool and dripping with style, The Equalizer brings us back to the days when good guys work black and walked in slow motion while “good guy” music plays in the background. The fights had a little bit of the quick cut style of film making but nowhere near as prevalent as it has been lately. Fuqua knows what he’s doing behind the camera and it shows as he creates a movie even more polished and more fun than “The Replacement Killers” and just as brutal as Man on Fire. As they say, “Old action heroes never die, they just switch directors”.

I had a few issues with the last 5 minutes of the movie, as I felt Teri’s fate should have been left out, as it was already pretty obvious what happened to her. Ending with the Teddy vs. Robert fight and the scene in the Diner would have been a bit more impactful, but really, that is nothing but a nitpick as the movie flows along at such a smooth pace that you can’t help but enjoy it. Easily my one of my favorite action movies of the year.

The Equalizer 2:
Based off of the 1980s TV show of the same name, 2014’s The Equalizer was a breathe of fresh air in the action community. Antoine Fuqua is no stranger to action movies (Training Day, The Replacement Killers, Shooter, Tears of the Sun), and he put a nice old fashioned action twist to a modern day setting. With directors still addicted to use the Paul Greengrass shaky camera technique for action movies, Fuqua was dedicated to make the action more intense, the cuts less obvious, and a powerful character that just wipes the floors with his enemies. Basically, a nice throw back to the 80s and 90s action super starts of yesteryear (and starring one of them to be even more accurate). It wasn’t a perfect representation of the old TV show, but The Equalizer was a jaw dropping action movie that had some really nice character moments in it, making it and John Wick my favorite action movies of the year.

Fast forward and the inevitable sequel has come home to roost, but when compared directly to the sequel, feels a bit lackluster. Don’t get me wrong, The Equalizer 2 is a competent action movie, and Fuqua’s direction is still very stable, but it feels like it has lost some of the focus and meaning that the first one reveled in. Instead, the film plays out with a much more generic revenge method, and the results are a little less spectacular than the first. Not a bad movie by any means, but a pretty sharp quality change between the 1st and the 2nd film.

Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has moved on from his life of working hardware stores, and has taken up a job as a Lyft driver. In his new position he gets to see the best and worst of people on display. A soldier heading off to deployment, a proud college acceptant, a mother, a father. But he also sees the underbelly of society in his back seat as well, and on occasion, steps in to take retribution on those who abuse their power over others. It’s in his DNA, and his code to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Like the first movie, Robert has himself a “project” of sorts. This time not a hooker, but a young urban youth living in his apartment complex named Miles (Ashton Sanders) who is hovering on the verge of falling into the typical ghetto trap of drugs and gangs.

However, this simple life changes once more when the only person that Robert truly cares about from his past life, one Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo), is murdered when investigating a murder-suicide. Digging dipper only unveils a conspiracy and betrayal that will set Robert back on the path for violence once more, reverting him back to that primal state of being a CIA ghost with only one mission on his mind. Retribution.

The Equalizer 2 is not so much a remake of the first movie, but rather a continuation of his story. It picks up after he had to come out of “retirement” the first time, and thus he’s actually sure of himself and not feeling rusty. His life has become a mixture of the old and the new, with McCall stepping in and tearing apart bad guys who prey on the innocent, and then sliding back into the simple role of mentor and loner. But just like the first, he’s called back into full action when his own mentor and friend is killed, and the people he thought had his back were in on it the whole time.

The big reveal at the halfway point of the movie is seen a mile away, and the emotional resonance we felt in the previous film is missing from this one. Even the end battle feels very clinical and cold, unlike the vicious seething battle of the titans that was Denzel and Martin Csokas. I felt strangely distant in this one, like we were SUPPOSED to feel emotionally attached, but it really felt more like an episode of a TV show, without a whole lot of stakes, rather than tense and nail biting. The music was great, Antoine’s attention to action details is fantastic, but The Equalizer 2 is probably his most generic action film since Tears of the Sun.

The Equalizer 3:
Antoine Fuqua is back along with Denzel, and that means that we’re getting the 3rd of his (so far), Equalizer Trilogy. I was a HUUUUGE fan of 2014’s The Equalizer. It was one of those “perfect action movies” that came out along the same time period of John Wick, basically breathing life into a dying genre that was being supplanted by constant superhero movies (ohhh, how I wish we could go back to those days when we though 2014 was “glutted” with Super hero films. Poor naive us) and put Denzel back on the map again as Robert McCall, the ex CIA agent freelancing in order to help those who need it. The second movie was a bit of a drop, with McCall having retired AGAIN, this time just living life as a Lyft driver until he’s drawn back into his old job of delivering retribution to kick some bad guy butt.

I thought that The Equalizer films were dead back in 2018 as the sequel to Antoine Fuqua’s gold strike was not nearly as good, and not nearly as successful at the box office. But, here we are some 5 years later with a 3rd sequel that keeps some of the same elements of the first couple of movies, but makes it much more intimate and contained than the action extravaganzas that came before it.

McCall (Denzel Washington) is back in a much different tale than his previous two films. In the past he was a retired CIA agent who came out of retirement to help the downtrodden and basically star as a one man action hero. Here, McCall is tired, worn down, and ready to let it all go. On a mission in Sicily, he gets shot in the back and crippled partially, having to walk with a cane and stumble everywhere he goes. Setting up camp in Southern Italy, he starts to see the simple life as something he really wants to be a part of. However, the local Italian Mafia are terrorizing the locals with the typical schemes of extortion, bribery and general mayhem.

Not wanting to get involved, McCall stands outside the lines, watching until the people around him TRULY start suffering. Unable to stay out of the picture and live his life in peace, McCall pulls out all the stops and targets the local mafia drug lord and makes sure that he will NEVER bother the locals again.

The Equalizer 3 acts as a late stage Death Wish movie rather than the explosive action of the previous two films. In fact, there’s almost no action for the first 50-55 minutes of runtime as Robert McCall gets used to the quiet life, only to watch it not be so quiet when the innocent villagers around him are getting bullied. Also, it’s less full bore action, and a much more brutal and violent revenge thriller as well. Gone are the slow motion action shots of him shooting a nail gun in a warehouse, and instead we watch an older, wiser, and much more off McCall systematically hunt and torture the people who are destroying the lives of the innocent.

I’m not sure that I like it nearly as much as The Equalizer, but The Equalizer 3 is a decent step up over the generic feeling Equalizer 2. It’s not as action oriented, but it features some NASTY kills from McCall, and works as a slow burn thriller until the final 25 minutes of runtime. Yeah, Robert McCall is basically a super hero by now, but I really don’t mind. It’s fun to see Denzel lay waste. My only real problem with the film (and this is an irritating one) is that Denzel doesn’t really seem to be putting his heart and soul into the project. He’s aged a lot in the last 5 years, and doesn’t really look the part anymore (He’s gotten into that Steven Segal stage where he’s wearing baggy shirts to hide the weight gain) and he over acts quite a bit here. It’s like he’s trying to remember his character at times, and other times he just slips effortlessly into the roll. At the end of the day it’s not the end of the world, but it makes the 3rd film feel a little cheap and “what could have been”. But on the flip side it features a more brutal and violent plot that deviates from just your standard action movie, giving it a boost over the mediocre second film.




Rating:

Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, including some sexual references (The Equalizer) / Rated R for brutal violence throughout, language, and some drug content (The Equalizer 2) / Rated R for strong bloody violence and some language (The Equalizer 3)




Video:

The Equalizer :
2014’s The Equalizer was near reference in my opinion, and still is to this day. Outside of a few weird oddities like graying black levels in the end of film battle, this was NEAR perfect. Originally struck with a 2K master (the 4K disc was an upscale, albeit an excellent one) the film looks really nice, with deep blacks and a nice blue/green overtone to the image. The urban settings really task the display’s black levels, giving us scene after scene of night time shots with minimal lighting to it. Fine details are resplendent throughout, and outside of those graying black levels in a few minor shots near the end, this is a near impeccable looking Blu-ray transfer.

The Equalizer 2:
The Equalizer 2 is quite the stunner on Blu-ray and the digitally shot film really showcases all of the uber shiny nuances that high quality digital photography can produce. Details are simply stunning for the film, with sharp lines around faces, intimate facial details such as pores and creases being readily noticeable, and backdrops looking incredibly revealing. There’s a few soft focus shots, and some smudged corners here and there, but this appears to be source related for the most part, as I noticed it on the Blu-ray AND the DVD in the exact same spots. Colors are a bit dim and diffused like the first movie, with lots of cool blues and earth tones combined with a very black heavy mist over the entire thing. Primaries do pop off the screen though, with red blood spray looking clean and cherry colored, and little clothing details really shining through. Overall this is a picture perfect disc without any visual encoding errors that I can notice.

The Equalizer 3:
I actually watched the Blu-ray before sitting down with the 4K UHD, and I was roundly impressed by the 1080p disc for what it is. The film is heavily desaturated and color graded towards browns and stone grays, along with the contrast levels. The results is a film that very aesthetically dingy and grimy, yet immaculately detailed image. Usually you see Italian shot films blasted out with ambers and yellows, but the film is literally one of the most desaturated and brown looking flicks I’ve ever seen. Black levels remain deep and inky for the most part, though I noticed some crush when McCall makes his final assault on the villain’s pitch black mansion. One thing I noticed when comparing to the 4K disc was just how much BRIGHTER the Blu-ray is. Almost to the point where I thought “huh, I like the brighter image a lot more than I thought I would”, though when comparing to the 2160p 4K UHD disc, it’s obvious that the Blu-ray just doesn’t hold a candle. All of that brightness may make the backgrounds more appealing, but it turns the faces pasty white and everything gets blown out with the aggressive highlights. Again, this is a subtle (yet kinda obvious) but the 1080p Blu-ray still looks amazing.








Audio:

The Equalizer :
While the 4K UHD might have and upgrade Atmos track, the “old” 7.1 DTS-HD MA track is nearly imperceptible in real world scenarios (there’s some overhead use missing, and a few directional cues are different, but overall the 7.1 mix is VERY similar to the Atmos track). Gunshots rip through your speakers like a cannon and the weight behind the hand to hand combat scenes is exhilarating as you can almost feel the impacts from the sonic hits. I had no problem with the dialogue as it is well balanced and shows some great directionality and use of panning effects. Gunshots will literally start out in one corner and whistle over your ear to the rears in a split instant and the surrounds never were short of material. Footsteps crunch in the dark, a piece of gravel falls against the right rear area and the humming and whirring of the city streets subtly shift from direction to the next without making it obvious. As I mentioned with the gunshots, the LFE is deep and low, adding weight to the tense action based score and spinning you around in your seats during the frenetic action sequences. All in all, this is an amazing 7.1 mix that is pretty much reference as you can get.

The Equalizer 2:
Once again, Sony puts the Atmos track on the 4K UHD, but the 7.1 DTS-HD MA mix on the Blu-ray is not that different than the Atmos track outside of a few overhead shots (I rented the 4K disc just to curiosity compare). The opening train sequence in Turkey is awe inspiring, with surrounds relaying whistles, rumblings and the ambient effects of a rattling train, with the front sound stage impeccably designed. Dialog throughout the film is crystal clear, and evenly mixed with the ferocious action sequences and devastating low end accompanying it. The film utilizes a lot of reverb in McCall’s “bullet time” action sequence shots, and a cacophony of ambient noises throughout the film. The track employs a hefty amount of bass, but it’s not overly hot or cooked as loud as I would have expected. Action scenes are powerful and thunderous, but it’s restrained and well tuned, not leaning towards that thick heavy feeling that so many action movies ascribe to. Again, another perfect track.

The Equalizer 3:
Sony has continued their frustrating habit of ONLY putting the Atmos track on the 4K UHD, while leaving the Blu-ray to “suffer” in 5.1 land. That being said, the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is a very good base for the Atmos track to expand upon, and will not disappoint you in the least. Vocals are clean and clear in the front of the room, while the surrounds and bass get quite a bit of activity in the latter half of the movie when the action kicks off. That sound as McCall slams the truck into one of the gangster is jaw dropping, and you can actually hear the individual voices and clanging spoons in the back speakers during the tense restaurant scene. The mix is rather front heavy for the first half as it builds the suspense up, but once we get into the second half of the film this is a killer track with TONS of great activity..









Extras:

The Equalizer
• Deleted scenes
• Blood Brothers: The collaboration of Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua
• Call to Action
• Robert McCall: A Man of the People
• Denzel and Dakota: A Reunion
• Postcards from the Amalfi Coast
• Jacob Banks' "Monster" Music Video

The Equalizer 2
• "Retribution Mode" with Denzel Washington and Director Antoine Fuqua
• 11 Deleted & Extended Scenes
• "Denzel as McCall: Round Two" Featurette
• The Equalizer 2 Pop Up Trivia Track
• Four Featurettes:
- "Seconds Till Death: Action Breakdown"
- "Through Antoine's Lens: The Cast"
- Two NBA Promos

The Equalizer 3
• Burton+Depp+Carter=Sweeney Todd
• Sweeney Todd Press Conference, November 2007
• Sweeney Todd Is Alive: The Real History of the Demon Barber
• Musical Mayhem: Sondheim's Sweeney Todd
• Sweeney's London
• The Making of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition
• Designs for a Demon Barber
• A Bloody Business
• Moviefone Unscripted with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp
• The Razor's Refrain
• Photo Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

This 3-Movie collection is just exactly what it appears to be. All 3 The Equalizer films packaged together in a 3 film set (no DVDs to make it a combo pack) so as to make a tidy collection for collectors (this is also available in 4K UHD, but Sony only sent us the Blu-ray set to review). It’s a simple, but effective set that is only a few bucks more than the price of the 3rd movie alone, so if you’ve not collected the previous films yet, this set makes it incredibly easy to do so while picking up the latest one (I would advise you to pick up the 4K set though, as the tech specs are definitely an upgrade over the Blu-ray in both audio and video). Solid set.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz, Marton Csokas, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Dakota Fanning, Eugenio Mastrandrea, David Denman,
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Written by:
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio:
The Equalizer: English DTS HD MA 7.1, French (Canada), Spanish DD 5.1
The Equalizer 2: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, French DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish, Thai DD 5.1
The Equalizer 3: English, French (Canadian), Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles:
The Equalizer: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
The Equalizer 2: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Cantonese, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Thai, Vietnamese
The Equalizer 3: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: R (all 3 films)
Runtime: 369 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November, 14th, 2023

Recommendation: Good Collection

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[NBPK402]

Thanks for the review! I would love to see a 4k collection too.

 

[Michael Scott]

Thanks for the review! I would love to see a 4k collection too.

they did a 4K collection as well. Sony simply only sent us the Blu-ray for the collection

4K Collection