The Equalizerby Wilson Morales
With the exception of The Book of Eli, Denzel Washington’s latest action films has had him paired with Chris Pine (Unstoppable), Ryan Reynolds (Safe House), and Mark Wahlberg (2 Guns). While those guys brought their own game opposite the Oscar winner, there’s big difference when audiences get to see Denzel as the solo star and he gets to do his “one-man crusade.” With Liam Neeson making a ton of profit with his ‘Taken” franchise, why not Washington? Both of these guys over 55 and still at their ‘A’ game. With ‘The Equalizer,’ his first collaboration with Antoine Fuqua since they worked on his Oscar winning role for ‘Training Day,’ Washington gets to be at ease dishing out violence in a straightforward revenge thriller.
A remake of the 80s TV series, The Equalizer is set in Boston where Washington plays Robert McCall, a manager at a Home Depot-like hardware store where he does every normal until it’s time to go. Seems like he has insomnia and takes him a while to get sleep. In that time, he goes to a nearby diner, order small food and reads. While there, he occasionally has a conversation with Teri, a teenage prostitute, (Chloë Grace Moretz) and quietly urges her to leave the business and start a singing career that she’s been talking about.
When Teri doesn’t appear over a couple of days, McCall learns that she had been severely beaten by some Russian mobsters and that unleashes his skills from his previous life as a CIA agent to come out and exact justice. Does Robert need a team to find who’s who and where to find them, not at all. His focus is to seek and destroy and when he does that to a good number of Russians by himself at a restaurant. His quick disposal , (29 seconds), of these guys not only hurts business, but also brings into town Teddy (Martin Csokas), the head of Russian mob, to handle this business when his dirty cops can’t seem to get a brake in the case. It’s then a cat and mouse game between Robert and Teddy to see who’s going to get the best of each other.
If this starred anyone else besides Washington, this film would have landed on VOD or any cable channel. What sells is Fuqua’s flair for the dramatic while adding some intrigued to McCall’s background. We’ve seen Denzel kills bad guys in most of his recent films, but Fuqua added some more graphic to its violence. There really wasn’t a need for this to be a adaptation of the TV series as countless films have used similar plot lines. Washington is a commanding presence on-screen and whether he’s quiet in dialogue or loud in action, all of it sells.
The only disappointing aspect of the film is that by the time third act comes along, we know how it will play out. As good as McCall and Teddy are in their skills, it sure does take a long time for either to catch the other. So, we have to sit through the typical guns blazing, bullets flying scenario before one of them wins out. Nevertheless, Washington is the sell, no matter if this film is a retread from the fast-paced, high-octane action thriller genre .
