THE EQUALIZER (2014)

Genre: Thriller
Running Length: 2:13
Cast: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloe Grace Moretz, David Harbour, David Meunier, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman

Director: Antoine Fuqua 

 

"Would you do something about it because you can?"

That is basically the premise our knight in shining armour, Denzel Washington has to wrestle through in THE EQUALIZER. For the most part, this movie is a character study about an elderly man holding back his destiny because of his dark past. Antoine Fuqua (director) and Denzel Washington have collaborated before in a similar territory in Training Day, a gritty tale of police corruption with a more complex character study which was brilliantly explored but The Equalizer chose to flirt with the drama instead and focused more on the stylish (OTT at times) action scenes. Those looking for a non-stop revenge action flick (as seen in the trailer) will be disappointed as the filmmakers elected to develop this flick as a slow-burn thriller. A major portion of the running time is dedicated to set the viewers up into the right mood (the beautiful close-up shots and lingering camera work capturing the beautiful sunset over Boston) and to give a clue to who Denzel's character is (a disciplined, OCD-ish learned man. A genuinely kindhearted man with a soft spot for the oppressed and marginalized) so that when the violence starts, it's shocking and brutal. The hero scenes are from the Bollywood school of filmmaking - Denzel looks god-like as he walks calmly slo-mo across the room or away from an explosion. The action scenes are also very inventive - we get a lot of impressively choreographed hand-to-hand fight scenes using everyday items available (think Macgyver) to dispose off the uber badass baddies. Items include and not limited to; cork screws, books, sledge hammers, barb wires, a drill, broken mirrors etc If The Equalizer has any weakness, it's that Denzel's character seems to be superhuman - he is almost indestructible and can take on an army of baddies anytime (so much so that during a scene where Denzel confronts a bad guy, a cinema goer sitting nearby uttered in Cantonese, "(Profanity) lor...yi gor yau chai sei ngang" (translate: This guy is sure to meet his death)). The pacing of the movie could have also benefited from a tighter running time. In the end, The Equalizer will not carve out any new niches in the action genre (like how Die Hard did) but it's a memorable origin movie that will certainly belong at the top as one of the more successful TV-to-film adaptations, alongside the Mission: Impossible series. This is probably the ultimate Denzel movie.

Rating: 7.5/10