THE EQUALIZER 2 -Denzel's First Sequel - July 20 - Trailer

[AndyDursin]

[Paul MacLean]

I really enjoyed the first film, Washington's performance (and his ability to play a character both ruthless and compassionate) being a major reason why. I did think the climax was rather drawn-out (and went overboard with all the shooting) but overall I found it an effective thriller / actioner. Looking forward to the second installment.

[Monterey Jack]

Is Rob Reiner gonna see this and pitch a fit when someone's cell phone goes off?



Anyways, I found the original to be stylish, well-acted, but grindingly sadistic for no real purpose. That tends to be an Antoine Fuqua thing, though...his Magnificent Seven remake was arguably THE most violent PG-13 I've ever seen.

Anyways, I'll give this a shot.

[AndyDursin]

I liked the first movie a lot better on second viewing, the violence as MJ said was so extreme it bothered me a great deal initially -- but I admit I was de-sensitized to it on a repeat watch. Looks like this has as much to do with the original TV series as its predecessor (meaning, basically nothing at all), but the action looks strong and the Boston locales should give it some atmosphere again.

I noticed Richard Wenk is once again doing the script -- I remember his name from an Indiana Jones "Choose Your Own Adventure" book back in the '80s I read in grade school!

[Monterey Jack]

I noticed Richard Wenk is once again doing the script -- I remember his name from an Indiana Jones "Choose Your Own Adventure" book back in the '80s I read in grade school!

OMG...!

I remember those. I don't know if that's the one I read or not, or if I read more than one, but I vividly remember having a TON of those CYOA books growing up. What we had to go through for some "interactive" entertainment back in the day...

There were also a series of very good Indy novels by Rob MacGregor (who also penned the Last Crusade novelization) in the early 90's, which covered his life from his college graduation circa 1920 through the end of the decade. There were some other Indy books by other authors after that (I think Martin Caiden did a few), but the one I sampled after the MacGregor books wasn't very good, so I didn't buy any more. The MacGregor novels were far superior to The Young Indiana Jones Chronices, which I found to be pandering "edju-tainment" even back then. Kind of blew my mind, though, to learn years later that one episode had both a young Daniel Craig and a pre-Zorro Catherine Zeta-Jones!

[Eric Paddon]

I remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. The first one I read was a spy adventure "Your Code Name Is Jonah". I eventually read a few more and found one book that had a blunder where it was possible to end up in a "loop" where you could end up back at the beginning of the same plotline!

I have to admit books like that were easier to devour in the age before VCRs and the ability to watch so much video at one's leisure. It's a bit of a comment on how our ability to use our imaginations in certain ways has been stunted by the fact we have so much easier access to video itself. I never read those Indy books but they were designed to appeal to an audience that having seen the movie and not being able to see it again for years, would have something else to keep it fresh in their minds (this is also I think the kind of purpose the toys served then and why they can't serve the same purpose any longer for kids of today).

[Monterey Jack]

I remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. The first one I read was a spy adventure "Your Code Name Is Jonah". I eventually read a few more and found one book that had a blunder where it was possible to end up in a "loop" where you could end up back at the beginning of the same plotline!

A lot of those CYOA books had that gimmick...it was intentional.

[Monterey Jack]

I have to admit books like that were easier to devour in the age before VCRs and the ability to watch so much video at one's leisure. It's a bit of a comment on how our ability to use our imaginations in certain ways has been stunted by the fact we have so much easier access to video itself. I never read those Indy books but they were designed to appeal to an audience that having seen the movie and not being able to see it again for years, would have something else to keep it fresh in their minds (this is also I think the kind of purpose the toys served then and why they can't serve the same purpose any longer for kids of today).

This is also why movie and comic book novelizations, while they still exist, no longer hold the same sway they did in the 80's and early 90's....when you can own the movie on a pristine, HD Blu-Ray with 5.1 DTS sound as little as three months after it opens (for $20 or under), why bother with re-visiting the movie with an often clumsily-written and/or illustrated adaptation? Reminds me of perusing old newspapers from the early-mid 80's, and seeing a movie like Raiders Of The Lost Ark being advertised for sale on VHS...two years after it opened in theaters, and for "only" $39.95.

Hell, I still own a number of those old novelizations, mainly because they were often the only way to get an idea of deleted scenes from a movie. I still remember the Gremlins novelization not only going into great detail about where the hell Mogwais come from (they were bred by an alien inventor, as I recall), but there was a spread of "full-color photos from the movie!" in the center, one of which was the deleted scene with Judge Reinhold barricaded in the bank vault which we didn't get to actually see until the DVD was released in the early 2000s.

[KevinEK]

This is also why Fotonovels were a lot of fun back in the day - I still have a couple of Star Trek episodes in that format, as well as the larger, more interesting Alien Fotonovel and even the Outland Fotonovel.
But you guys are right - these options, including novelizations and comic adaptations, were great during the time that you really didn't have any other way of seeing the movie other than in the theater.
I do remember James Kahn writing excellent novelizations of both Return of the Jedi and of Indy & The Temple of Doom, that provided a lot more depth to each of those movies.

I also note that John Byrne, who at one time was highly in demand as a comic book artist/writer for his turns on X-Men, Fantastic Four and Superman, has turned to generating new Fotonovels of Star Trek - using the existing images from the episodes to generate completely new stories. They read in a very similar way to the old Fotonovels, and can make for a fun throwback if you have 20 minutes to spare.

[Eric Paddon]

I have to admit books like that were easier to devour in the age before VCRs and the ability to watch so much video at one's leisure. It's a bit of a comment on how our ability to use our imaginations in certain ways has been stunted by the fact we have so much easier access to video itself. I never read those Indy books but they were designed to appeal to an audience that having seen the movie and not being able to see it again for years, would have something else to keep it fresh in their minds (this is also I think the kind of purpose the toys served then and why they can't serve the same purpose any longer for kids of today).

This is also why movie and comic book novelizations, while they still exist, no longer hold the same sway they did in the 80's and early 90's....when you can own the movie on a pristine, HD Blu-Ray with 5.1 DTS sound as little as three months after it opens (for $20 or under), why bother with re-visiting the movie with an often clumsily-written and/or illustrated adaptation? Reminds me of perusing old newspapers from the early-mid 80's, and seeing a movie like Raiders Of The Lost Ark being advertised for sale on VHS...two years after it opened in theaters, and for "only" $39.95.

Hell, I still own a number of those old novelizations, mainly because they wer often the only way to get an idea of deleted scenes from a movie. I still rememebr the Gremlins novelization not only going into great detail about where the hell Mogwais come from (they were bred by an alien inventor, as I recall), but there was a spread of "full-color photos from the movie!" in the center, one of which was the deleted scene with Judge Reinhold barricaded in the bank vault which we didn't get to actually see until the DVD was released in the early 2000s.

Yes, I remember the halcyon days of comic book adaptations and paperback novelizations. I remember Marvel's "Star Wars" adaptation which took up six issues and had all the Biggs scenes. The initial Marvel adaptation of the "Battlestar Galactica" pilot was based on the earliest draft script in which Jane Seymour's character dies at the end from radiation sickness and her name is Lyra rather than Serina.

Donald Glut did the novelization of ESB and I can still remember how at the end after Lando and the Falcon leave, his closing narrative has Luke pondering that he needs to "return to Yoda to finish his training" before he can go out and help resuce Han but of course that's not how it unfolds in ROTJ. The ROTJ novelization I also recall has Ben Kenobi saying Owen Lars was *his* brother!

[Monterey Jack]

Donald Glut did the novelization of ESB and I can still remember how at the end after Lando and the Falcon leave, his closing narrative has Luke pondering that he needs to "return to Yoda to finish his training" before he can go out and help resuce Han but of course that's not how it unfolds in ROTJ.

Yeah, but Luke got distracted by "real-life" Rebel stuff which prevented him from completing the training, akin to someone claiming he'll go back and finish his college studies, but forced to keep working to pay the bills.

[AndyDursin]

There were also a series of very good Indy novels by Rob MacGregor (who also penned the Last Crusade novelization) in the early 90's, which covered his life from his college graduation circa 1920 through the end of the decade. There were some other Indy books by other authors after that (I think Martin Caiden did a few), but the one I sampled after the MacGregor books wasn't very good, so I didn't buy any more. The MacGregor novels were far superior to The Young Indiana Jones Chronices, which I found to be pandering "edju-tainment" even back then.

I read the MacGregor books too! And I remember they were entertaining, well-written and quick reads.

Was never a fan of YOUNG INDY either...my review is probably right in line with your take:

http://www.andyfilm.com/10-23-07.html

[Monterey Jack]

Was never a fan of YOUNG INDY either...my review is probably right in line with your take:

http://www.andyfilm.com/10-23-07.html

Good write-up.

I remember being STOKED for the show for months in advance, and getting that crushing, "Oh no..." feeling when what we got was a ten-year-old Indy who was a "Yipee!" away from Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace and a sixteen-year-old Indy who had none of the charisma that River Phoenix had in the prologue of Last Crusade. The show was lavishly produced for the time, but it was like one of those 80's cartoons where they'd shove moral lessons into each episode with the title character doing a PSA direct into the camera at the end. We came for action and adventure and fun, not some dry history lesson with Indy used as a carrot to lure unsuspecting viewers in.

Even that episode with Harrison Ford graciously providing a wrap-around cameo was a bust, because I remember Ford's role getting pre-empted by storm coverage of a major blizzard the day it aired!

The show had some nice scores, and it looked great, but it was tedious to sit through. I remember my history teacher seizing upon the show with delight when it started airing my last year of high school, but no seventeen-year-old wanted to watch it after sampling an episode or two. There are some full episodes on YouTube, so I might watch a couple to see how it holds up now. The one with Daniel Craig and Catherine Zeta-Jones might be a good place to start.

[AndyDursin]

The embargo (yes, there's an embargo!) on this ends Tuesday night at 10pm EST.

Really not a good sign -- especially when you would not want to "hide" a Denzel movie until the last minute.

[AndyDursin]

Even MORE violent and unpleasant? Guess they didn't learn anything from the first one.

Pass.

...this is a grisly exploitation movie at best. Early on, [Fuqua] forces us to witness a harrowing execution in a posh Brussels apartment, where three sadists stage a murder-suicide for no apparent reason. The scene was clearly designed to score Fuqua points for sheer ruthlessness, later repeated in a tough-to-watch assault on Leo’s character. Surely audiences deserve some kind of explanation for such nightmare-inducing imagery. The closest we ever get is a long conversation between McCall and his ex-partner (Pedro Pascal, a Chilean actor with the blunt-nosed profile of a young Marlon Brando) in which the pair hash out all that is wrong with the world.

https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/t ... 202876440/