The Equalizer 3

Last night I finally got around to seeing The Equalizer 3 (I had a very chill Labor Day weekend) and, as a fan of this franchise, I liked the conclusion to the trilogy.  Tormented former operative Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) finds himself at a winery in Sicily, for reasons, and executes members of a cell who have been smuggling amphetamines purchased from a terrorist organization.  He is inadvertently shot but makes it to the Amalfi Coast where he is rescued by the local carabiniere Gio Bunucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea) and taken to a doctor named Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone) who cares for him in the small town of Altamonte.  He makes a slow recovery but calls in a tip about the smuggling operation to CIA agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) who begins an investigation.  McCall feels peace for the first time in years and comes to love the village and its people, especially a waitress he sees every day named Aminah (Gaia Scodellaro), but notices that the Camorra crime family, led by Vincent and Marco Quaranto (Andrea Scarduzio and Andrea Dodero, respectively), is harassing villagers to coerce them to leave to make way for their business ventures.  When Collins discovers that the Camorra family is also responsible for the drug smuggling operation, McCall must get vengeance in order to get back to the quiet life he longs for.  The story is formulaic, the script is a bit messy (the subplot with Fanning's character is really shoehorned in and doesn't really add anything), and there are definitely some pacing issues (McCall sits around drinking tea a lot) but the action sequences are tense and visceral and Washington is captivating as he silently dispatches some thoroughly bad guys in some intriguing, and incredibly brutal, ways.  I really liked the use of light and shadow in the cinematography as well as the many shots of rain drenched cobblestones as a portent of the violence to come.  I also liked the atmospheric score because it really adds to the tension.  In my opinion, this is a satisfying resolution for the character and fans of the franchise will enjoy it.