Robert McCall takes his polite butt-kicking to Italy in The Equalizer 3, a movie that I hope was both a solid paycheck and a nice vacation for everybody involved.

I mean, sure, horrible violence is a big part of this movie but also the Italian coast looks lovely.

This movie doesn’t mess around and jumps right in to McCall (Denzel Washington), mid-butt-kick, at a Sicilian vineyard estate owned by what we find out is some kind of criminal guy who walks onto the scene to find the grounds just littered with gorily dead henchmen. The criminal guy doesn’t fare so well either, though just as McCall is about to make a clean getaway, criminal guy’s young son shoots him in the back. McCall slowly bleeds out as he drives away from the vineyard, onto a ferry, off the ferry and toward, well, who knows, because he passes out. Local police officer Gio (Eugenio Mastrandrea), who later tells “Roberto” to call him Joe, takes Robert to local doctor Enzo (Remo Girone), who patches Robert up and lets him sleep it off in his lovely Italian apartment off a lovely central plaza.

(One might ask, is it weird that the people in this town who seem wary of other violent strangers immediately and warmly accept gun-shot stranger Robert? I mean, this is a movie about a nearly 69-year-old man who can waste literally any opponent of any age or strength level so why go pulling at threads.)

As Robert recovers, he finds himself enjoying the peace and serenity of this cliffside town — Altamonte — with its picturesque streets and its friendly people and its flirty barista (Gaia Scodellaro). When mafia types, led by Marco (Andrea Dodero), show up and start pushing people around, Robert hangs back, giving them glares, but not involving himself until they’ve burned down a business and harassed Joe and his family. Then Robert is compelled to politely explain — well, politely and with a little literal arm twisting — that he likes Altamonte and Marco should take his criminal activity elsewhere. Marco is compliant during the arm-twist-y, nerve-pokey part of the conversation but then later in the street he yells to his henchmen he’s going to murder that American blah blah blah — hope your affairs are in order, Marco.

As part of Robert’s peaceful Italian existence, he had called CIA agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) to tell her about the drugs and money at the Sicilian vineyard. Though Robert didn’t tell her who he was, she used the information to uncover a smuggling operation that had obvious terrorist ties. The two threads of this story come together in Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio), Marco’s brother and the head of their crime family. Collins and her team come to Italy, which puts the squeeze on Vincent’s operation but he’s pretty focused on finding Robert and teaching the people of Altamonte a lesson about standing up to the mob.

Washington is solid here. He knows the work and executes it with precision. Even at under two hours, The Equalizer 3 isn’t without a little flab, mostly in the form of showing us Robert recuperating and underlining how charming the town is. But it doesn’t really get in the way of this movie’s purpose, which is letting Washington absolutely mow down bad guys. It’s the movie’s purpose and kinda all there is to the movie. And that’s fine. That’s why you’re here and the movie knows this and doesn’t try to do a whole lot more. B-

Rated R for strong bloody violence and some language (i.e. the reason you’re watching this movie), according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Antoine Fuqua with a screenplay by Richard Wenk, The Equalizer 3 is an hour and 49 minutes long and is distributed by Columbia Pictures in theaters and for rent or purchase on VOD.

Reptile (R)

Benicio Del Toro plays a police detective with a vexing murder to solve and an outdated kitchen to remodel in Reptile.

You can understand why he looks like a guy in need of a nap and a strong cup of coffee.

Tom (Del Toro) is called to the scene of murdered real estate agent Summer (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz). Boyfriend and fellow agent Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) is the one who found her and the natural initial suspect. But soon other suspects surface — Summer’s ex (Karl Glusman), a shifty guy who blames Will for his family’s financial ruin (Michael Pitt).

As mentioned, at the same time, Tom and his wife, Judy (Alicia Silverstone), are redoing their kitchen. They previously lived in Philadelphia, where Tom also worked as a police officer but got tangled up in scandal when his partner was found to be corrupt. Judy seems determined to help Tom find some peace in this new job and hometown.

Tom and Judy — Del Toro and Silverstone — are actually kind of a great couple, with Judy a willing and eager sounding board for Tom’s discussions of the case and considering of theories. I could imagine a procedural where she becomes his sort of unofficial partner in solving cases. That’s not exactly what we get here — we get just enough to see how entertaining something like that could be.

There are a lot of other layers to the way the crime and the movie unfolds and all of it is moderately successful but way too slow. Slice off a good half hour and you might have an energetic who-done-it, but as is, no amount of good performances or fun (if predictable) twists helps inject the kind of liveliness and tension this movie needs. C+

Rated R for language, violence and some nude images, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Grant Singer with a screenplay by Grant Singer & Benjamin Brewer & Benicio Del Toro, Reptile is two hours and 14 minutes long and distributed by Netflix, where it is streaming.

Featured photo: The Equalizer 3.