Denzel & Co.
I caught up to The Equalizer 2 last night, courtesy of Netflix. Denzel Washington returns as the retired agent, army of one, who does penance through good deeds, in this case recovering a kidnapped little girl, helping a Holocaust survivor, protecting a female gardener, and mentoring an at risk teenage with a talent for art. Those are subplots. The gist of the story involves the protagonist’s taking revenge for the murder of a friend. It does not rise above routine until the climactic showdown at a storm swept New England resort area. The pace drags in spots during the two-hour running time. It’s middle of the pack, geared strictly to fans of Washington and action flicks. Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman, Orson Bean, and a trio of actors with whom I was unfamiliar despite extensive credits - Pedro Pascal, Jonathan Scarfe and Kazy Tauginas - lend solid support. 89,000+ users at IMDb have rated E2, forging to a consensus of 6.7 on a scale of ten, a bit high perhaps. It was a success at the box office, which means there will probably be a 3. Made on a budget of $62 million, it returned $124+. It was directed by Antoine Fuqua, who began as a director of videos and has become a major force in action flicks. Here are Washington and Ashton Sanders in character:
Orson Bean, still going strong in his 90’s, played the Holocaust survivor in E2. I remember him largely as a panelist on To Tell the Truth and for his frequent appearances on The Tonight Show, where he was quite the raconteur. He has had an interesting political history. He was blacklisted in the ‘50’s, then supported President Nixon. In his bio, there are two fascinating quotes attributed to him. Although the first is garbled, I think what he’s saying is clear : “…a group of communists or actors who they could persuade to become communists in their movies and there was a lot of bitterness on the part of right-wing actors that they were blacked out of a lot of these movies, and this preceded the left-wing blacklist that happened because there were these communist directors who were blacklisting not just right-wingers, but non-communists, and out of this came rage on the part of the right, and they began to call anyone who didn’t agree with them a communist.” I’d never heard that before. Here’s the second: “All these kids that are getting brainwashed in college are going to become the CEOs and the mayors of cities and governors and, ultimately, Presidents. They are what they are because of all of these Marxist professors. The deplorables in flyover country are not going to run for office or become heads of companies, so they’re having an immediate effect by voting, but I don’t see how in the long range how we’re going to change this. All of our leaders of industry and politics are of a left-wing bent.” The evolution of individuals is frequently surprising. Here’s Bean getting a rise out of Johnny Carson:
What a glorious day, the nicest so far of 2019. My thanks to the woman who did a four-for-three swap of books in Russian, and to the kind folks who bought a total of six novels in that language; and to the young woman who purchased a large book on healing; and to the elderly woman who selected two more paperback romances by Sheryl Woods.
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