The Equalizer 3
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) | Release Date: September 1, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Film ThreatBenjamin FranzSep 3, 2023
This is a great hour and 49 minutes of action film. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 30, 2023
It’s a great excuse to watch Washington be a Movie Star in the most natural and unfiltered way. If this is the last of this duo’s brand-name vigilante thrillers, at least it’s going out on a properly pulpy high note. Read full review
80
IGNSimon ThompsonAug 29, 2023
The Equalizer 3 ends the trilogy strong with a style, energy, and cohesiveness that most sequels aren’t capable of. Fuqua and Washington’s circle feels complete and delivers a showstopping dessert at the end of a solid three-course meal they’ve been preparing for almost a decade. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 1, 2023
Fuqua and screenwriter Richard Wenk veer close to “Godfather” territory with an extended sequence that cuts between a somber religious ceremony and extreme carnage, but this is not Important Cinema — it’s well-filmed, well-acted, high-class B-movie pulp, and we get a neat little twist to wrap it all up at the end. Read full review
75
ColliderNate RichardAug 31, 2023
The pacing is brisk without once overstaying its welcome, it has an ultra-charismatic lead, plus boasts all the violence, chaos, and melodrama one could want out of this particular movie. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleAug 30, 2023
Antoine Fuqua’s Equalizer 3, a taut and textured sequel to Washington’s vigilante series, isn’t one of the actor’s best films. It wouldn’t crack his top 10. But it vividly encapsulates Washington’s formidable on-screen potency. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiAug 29, 2023
Finally, on the series’ supposedly last outing, one of its films lives up to the ever-deepening talent of its leading man. Equalizer 3 adds nothing new to the thriller genre, true, but it wisely acknowledges what’s worked well before. Read full review
75
The Film VerdictWilliam BibbianiAug 29, 2023
The Equalizer 3 is a remarkably stylish entry in the series, elevating a barebones story with Washington’s gravitas and Richardson’s uncanny cinematography. All things being equal(ized), it’s a relatively satisfying thriller. Read full review
75
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerAug 29, 2023
Like a bullet fired by the Equalizer himself, this third film is efficient, effective, and entertaining, with a narrative that eschews twists on top of twists in favor of drawing the viewer into this small town where Robert’s found refuge. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreSep 1, 2023
It delivers the goods, thanks to Washington’s performance and Fuqua’s zest for going graphic. Read full review
70
ABC NewsPeter TraversSep 1, 2023
Ignore the many problems in this violent revenge thriller and focus on the power and charisma of Denzel Washington who ends the third and final chapter in his Equalizer trilogy on a euphoric high. He’s a star, baby, and him you don’t want to miss. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowrySep 1, 2023
The Equalizer 3 might not be totally convincing as a “final” anything; still, the latest outing does have the benefit of feeling like it reaches a nice point at which to close the books for now on Robert McCall, all things, you know, being equal. Read full review
70
TheWrapFran HoepfnerAug 29, 2023
With everything a little bigger and the film significantly more beautiful — the wonderful Robert Richardson (‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood,’ ‘Casino’) behind the camera — the stakes feel worthy of their larger-than-life star. Read full review
70
VarietyMurtada ElfadlAug 29, 2023
Beyond the righteous action and visceral violence, it’s Washington’s swagger and charisma that compels. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleAlejandra MartinezSep 5, 2023
Ultimately, 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. It’s not reinventing the genre, but it doesn’t have to. Like its protagonist, this movie knows it has a simple job to do and accomplishes it in the most satisfying way possible. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTimothy CogshellAug 29, 2023
There is nothing new here narratively, save the setting (shot with picturesque beauty by Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson), the names of the characters, and the details of the offense for which the evil doers will have to pay. Read full review
67
IndieWireKate ErblandAug 29, 2023
If this is the end of The Equalizer, it’s a good one, a high note that overcomes confusion, complications, and convolutions to give everyone — Robert, Emma, kind-hearted Italians, the audience — a lavish adventure to remember. Read full review
65
SlashfilmWitney SeiboldAug 29, 2023
The canon of "The Equalizer" has never taken the world by storm, usually percolating in the background of popular culture as a piece of intense ephemera. Robert McCall is a former Marine and DIA officer, but that is entirely ignored in part 3. He's a superhero played by Denzel Washington, and the filmmakers assume that is enough. For many audience members, it will be. Read full review
65
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 29, 2023
As self-contained as any episode of the television show upon which it’s based. It’s also as efficient and straightforward as that predecessor, if not quite as disposable, thanks to its peerless star. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJustin ClarkSep 5, 2023
The overarching plot of the film is pretty boilerplate, but the fine details count for a lot. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 1, 2023
The Equalizer 3 is the messiest of the three movies and the most narratively fractured, but it should still satisfy those who consider themselves to be fans. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 31, 2023
Screenwriter Wenk hits the religious redemption allegory a tad too hard, and the picture doesn’t so much finish as peter out, with an anti-climax or two. But Fuqua and “Kill Bill,” “Aviator” and “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” cinematographer Robert Richardson give us one gorgeously-composed shot after another. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshAug 31, 2023
Fuqua goes for operatic style and pulp poetics, strung together with a strangely paced and structured plot that’s about as floppy as a spaghetti noodle (the script is once again by Richard Wenk). But the film is not unenjoyable on a purely impressionistic level, as Fuqua and Washington bring the audience along on their Euro trip and ask us simply to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride that is Robert McCall inflicting terror and mayhem on very bad people. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 3, 2023
While there are no surprises here, there are visceral kicks to be found in the businesslike efficiency of McCall’s retribution, and the devilish glint in Washington’s eye as he delivers it. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithAug 31, 2023
For those who can tolerate—or better yet, relish—extreme violence, The Equalizer 3 is diverting enough. If the script is so-so, the beautiful Italian locations, Mr. Washington’s still-world-class charm and an eerie, frightening musical score by Marcelo Zarvos lift it (slightly) above average for the action-thriller genre. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyAug 31, 2023
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. Read full review
60
EmpireAmon WarmannAug 29, 2023
A solid conclusion to an unlikely trilogy and a fitting end to Robert McCall’s character arc — with Washington still entertaining as a deliverer of slick justice. Read full review
60
Total FilmEmily GarbuttAug 29, 2023
Denzel Washington is compelling in Robert McCall's swan song, but the story often falls flat. Read full review
59
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 31, 2023
The film’s central problem is that it takes Fuqua forever to make the inevitable happen, and when he gets around to it, the entire set-piece arrives with all the refined taste of an overcooked noodle swimming in a bowl of ketchup. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredCharlotte SimmonsSep 1, 2023
Despite Fuqua firing on all cylinders and Washington making the most of what will probably be his final outing as McCall, the narrative foundation of The Equalizer 3 is sadly far too rocky for even the best in the business to breathe the proper life into it, only managing gasps of what could have been if the script (and, again, the possibly-guilty final cut discussions) hadn’t been so gutless. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 31, 2023
Washington is unsurprisingly the primary reason to watch “Equalizer 3,” which is basically a showcase for him to smolder, swagger and light up the screen as he wanders a tiny, wildly beautiful town on the Amalfi coast. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussAug 29, 2023
Good looks and brutal action can’t hide the fact that the film traffics in Italian stereotypes with the same impunity as simplistic notions of good and evil. Read full review
42
Original-CinChris KnightSep 1, 2023
The Italian characters in The Equalizer 3 tend to speak more slowly than usual, almost as though waiting for the subtitles to catch up. If you can handle that pacing, interspersed with short bursts of intense violence, then The Equalizer may yet hold your attention. But at the tail end of a summer that delivered exciting new chapters in the Indiana Jones and Mission: Impossible franchises, that may be asking a lot. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 31, 2023
Washington – Man on Simmer – keeps himself awake with a few fun, staccato line deliveries. But the flurries of pointlessly sadistic violence are jaggedly dispensed, botching the build-up. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckAug 29, 2023
For those not motivated purely by a desire for cinematic bloodlust accompanied by an abrasive musical score that sounds like electronic fingernails on a blackboard, there’s some fun to be had. Read full review
40
The GuardianCharles BramescoAug 29, 2023
Like McCall, [Washington] knows his tools, an arsenal not of guns and blades but of withering stares and crumpled smiles. It’s almost enough to outshine everything else. Read full review
38
ObserverOliver JonesAug 31, 2023
Like many third iterations, this one shows signs of the creative team growing bored with what made the story worth telling in the first place. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsSep 1, 2023
Make no mistake, The Equalizer 3 is hot garbage. Read full review
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