WEAKQUEL..........THE ONLY WAY TO DESCRIBE "THE EQUALIZER 2".......

The Equalizer 2 (2018)   Before I start any ranting over this bloated, disappointing sequel.......a word of remembrance for Edward Woodward, the original Equalizer on TV........

                How I loved this guy in that show........he raged against villains and injustice as if still doing Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.......

                 Yet I somehow still embraced the movie re-invention of his McCall character.....remade as a cooler-than-cool, Zen Master Of Mayhem played by Denzel Washington.......

                 Who didn't love Washington's methodical, blood-soaked crusade, scything through a hateful army of Russian thugs.........all on behalf of avenging the brutal beating of an achingly vulnerable sex-trafficked whore played by Chloe Grace Moretz? 

                   Ah well.......along comes the inevitable sequel........and.....sigh......it's nothing but a gimme-the-cash, take-the-money-and-run stinker.......

                    It's a wonder Washington and the filmmakers could even stay awake while making this.......it's such a one-two-three-kick collection of all the tropes they thought juiced up audiences in the first film........

                    So they kick it off with Washington randomly decimating two separate groups of guys just begging to have their limbs snapped and faces punched in.........a bunch of Turkish sleazebags and an even more deserving bunch, a entitled nest of privileged yuppies who look left over from playing Christian Bale's buddies in "American Psycho"......

                      Then we move on to the plot's Main MotherEffers.......a group of McCall's former CIA operatives, who've turned into a rogue assassination unit.  For some reason I missed (either from dozing off or the film's not explaining it all that well) these guys are on an international murder spree.....which includes offing McCall's most beloved CIA pal from the first film, played by Melissa Leo.

                    Uh oh.......that means two things.......no "Equalizer 3" for Melissa......and a lengthy hunt-and-stalk tour for McCall until all the douchebags get duly equalized........

                    No fun, no excitement...........nothing but worst kind of connect-the-dots, by-the-numbers corporate moviemaking.

                    The only real assassins working here........the studio accountants.......gunning for box-office cash.

                       Okay, no more wasting time on this.......1 star (*) for a washed-out Xerox copy of the original film. BQ says ignore it.