The blood flows like wine in "The Equalizer 3," as dark as Chianti, seeping into cobblestone streets, splattering onto stained glass and statuary.

Yes, star Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua have used the third installment of this trilogy as the opportunity for an Italian vacay, with vigilante hero Robert McCall (Washington) leaving Boston behind to follow a spate of movie sequels, TV productions and Instagram influencers to the old country for a taste of "la dolce vita." But Robert has to take care of business before he can truly enjoy retirement on the Amalfi Coast, which means ridding this charming village of pesky mafiosi.

It's clear Fuqua has been watching his mafia movies, and he revels in the visual drama offered by the setting and subgenre. His compositions are stuffed with religious iconography, baroque embellishments, claustrophobic medieval alleys, and lots and lots of pasta. But he and cinematographer Robert Richardson put their own stamp on the imagery, draining and desaturating the color palette of the picturesque seaside town of Positano.

Speaking of Positano, the iconic town poses here as a village called Altomonte, which is a real place situated between Sicily and Naples, though it is much farther inland. It's unclear why Fuqua renamed such a recognizable slice of the Italian coast for another town, but it's sort of par for the course when it comes to the plot of "The Equalizer 3," which is the most ephemeral yet in the series.

We don't come to "The Equalizer" movies (based on the 1980s TV series) for plot, and this third installment privileges performance and visceral, dramatic imagery over everything else. We start in media res: Robert has already laid waste to a group of anonymous men at a Sicilian winery, butcher knives buried in brains. He will soon punch a pistol into another guy's head and get shot himself in the process while fleeing.

The bullet in Robert's back will be extracted by a kindly doctor in Altomonte, and while recovering in the village, he will fall in love with the warm hospitality of the people and the peaceful way of life. He just has to dispatch the bloodthirsty Camorra gang, who seek to intimidate the residents out of their homes so that they can develop resorts and casinos.

The appeal of this film is just watching Washington do what he does best, quietly threatening bad guys, flashing toothy grins and the necessity to do evil in order to be good. It's also the reunion of Washington with his "Man on Fire" co-star Dakota Fanning, some 20 years later. Fanning plays a CIA agent, Collins, whom he tips off about "jihad drugs" being trafficked through the winery. She shows up in town to chase down the terrorists, but she's really there to banter coolly with Robert.

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. But the film is not unenjoyable on a purely impressionistic level, as Fuqua and Washington take the audience along on their Euro trip and ask us simply to sit back, relax and watch Robert McCall inflict terror and mayhem on very bad people.

Sometimes that's as good as it gets.

'The Equalizer 3'

2.5 stars out of 4

Rated: R for bloody violence and language.

Where: In theaters Friday.