The Equalizer

2014 • 132 minutes

About this movie

McCall, who has put his mysterious past behind him, comes out of self-retirement to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless.

Ratings and reviews

A swing and a miss from usually reliable director Antoine Fuqua, reunited with star Denzel Washington, who both bring their A-game to a boring mess of a screenplay that bears no resemblance to the source material ( Edward Woodward's role of Robert McCall in TV's The Equalizer). If you stick around long enough to get through a lot of yawnsome plot inactivity, then thankfully there are some action scenes, but nothing as thrilling as shown in Training Day (2002) or Olympus Has Fallen (2013).

I'm sure Denzel is doing better films the older he gets. It may be unrealistic in places but you don't care. You care about the hooker, the security guard and karma. Minor criticisms are one ridiculous explosion at a shipping yard, silly mtv editing style in places and being slightly too long (a few pointless scenes to get their $ worth from DW) so it lost a star.

If you ignore for a moment the fairly generic premise for this film - Russian gangsters, ex-CIA, oh please not again... - its actually a very enjoyable ride and excellently produced. Denzel puts in a cracking performance as Mr nice guy / one man killing machine and you find yourself rooting for this guy in a way you wouldnt in your average generic action film. No wise-cracks here Denzel's character is deliberately understated. Oh and don't expect any explanation of the back story as there is none, you'll have to guess for yourself. Be aware this film is very gory in parts, particularly the last half hour or so... If you want something intellectual or thought provoking (why are you looking at action movies in the first place ?) then look elsewhere.