The Equalizer 2

Rated 2.0

Ex-government operative and part-time vigilante Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) sets out to avenge the murder of his former CIA boss (Melissa Leo). Washington and director Antoine Fuqua return for the sequel, and it’s a good thing: Washington’s implacable charisma and Fuqua’s robust command of pace and style are desperately needed because writer Robert Wenk is back too, and he’s flat out of ideas. What started out as a modern-day Have Gun, Will Travel becomes a mere revenge fantasy with a villain who’s obvious from the start and not a moment of real suspense. The hero solves two murders in Brussels from his apartment in Boston, then he tells the bad guys he’s going to kill them, and then he does. Along the way he rescues a child abducted to Turkey by her father and maims a gang of rapists. What a guy.