The Equalizer 2
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: July 20, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
28
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJul 19, 2018
What elevates this sequel are stakes. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 20, 2018
The Equalizer 2 represents a solid follow-up to "The Equalizer" and an effectively understated entry into the 2018 summer movie sweepstakes. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 18, 2018
In The Equalizer 2 the great Denzel Washington hits a variety of notes reprising his role as McCall, in a brilliant performance that often rises above the pulpy, blood-soaked material. Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyJul 18, 2018
Fuqua is a lyrical director who directed Washington to an Oscar in “Training Day.” He’s not afraid to spend time in the still darkness with McCall and likes to focus on small moody elements, like rain hitting the gutters. But he can also deliver red meat: A sequence in which McCall fights off a passenger in the back seat of his car is a mini-masterpiece of taut, sinewy direction. Read full review
71
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJul 18, 2018
The Equalizer 2 makes more-or-less the same impact as “The Equalizer.” It’s a reasonably satisfying mid-budget action thriller, with slick style and an intriguing hero, who only uses violence when necessary, and as a means of redemption for himself and his community. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 19, 2018
Not everything in Equalizer 2 is successful, including a subplot about a Yiddish-speaking Holocaust survivor played by Orson Bean that misses the mark. But the film is effective where it needs to be, and if there is an "Equalizer 3," in line to see it is where you'll find me. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 19, 2018
Mr. Washington is especially strong when he trusts his director, as he did with Tony Scott and does with Mr. Fuqua. Like all great actors, Mr. Washington commits to the performance, but every so often he also breathes fire, imbuing a scene with such shocking ferocity and bone-deep moral certitude that everything else falls blissfully away. Read full review
65
IGNWitney SeiboldJul 18, 2018
The Equalizer 2's conventional storytelling is certainly weak, and the violence is particularly brutal, but Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua have created a unique Punisher-with-heart vigilante character that is a pleasant thrill to watch and a modest delight to revisit. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 19, 2018
Charisma and old-fashioned talent, what we glibly file under the label “chemistry” when actors click with every single co-star they share a movie with, carry him through in The Equalizer 2, a dawdling thriller that sacrifices thrills, surprises and at times coherence for the sake of character. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerJul 19, 2018
I’m not sure audiences are getting what they deserve with this plodding, so-so action-thriller, but they’ll get what they’ll pay for: Washington as a relentless old-man on a moral-code mission of setting things right (and sometimes setting things on fire). Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJul 18, 2018
[Washington] portrays McCall as a penitent, a fellow making up for past sins by helping the powerless, the abused (the movies could stand to be less invested in the grisly spectacle of this abuse). He’s advocating in others the kind of personal reform he seeks in himself. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJul 18, 2018
There’s the old cliché that says, “so-and-so is such a great actor he could read the phone book (whatever that is; as I said, it’s an old cliché) and make it interesting.” That’s pretty much what Washington pulls off in EQ2. Read full review
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