Le justicier

An intense and towering performance from Denzel Washington as one of cinema's best-acted action heroes is what makes THE EQUALIZER stand out from the crowd, although as a film it's also a very decent thriller. It's supposedly a big screen version of the '80s TV series with Edward Woodward, although think of it as your usual vigilante movie and you'll be closer.

Let's be honest here: the plotting in THE EQUALIZER is nothing special, and the Russian mob make for clichéd villains. It's the execution where this film excels. It's not an action filled movie, but when the action hits it's hard and heavy, not shying away from crowd-pleasing violence meted out to the villains. The extended set-piece ending might be described as 'DIE HARD in B&Q' and loses the realism a little but, but until that point this is tough and gritty film-making.

Aside from the excellent Washington, we get a fine bad guy performance from Martin Csokas, equally intense and the finest I've seen from him, and Chloe Grace Moretz is wisely kept off-screen for most of the running time, which I was fine with. The final shout-out goes to director Antoine Fuqua, whose effortless style makes this a graceful and thoroughly entertaining viewing experience.

Antoine Fuqua's and Denzel Washington's paths collide once more as they come together to create a stylish and daring action thriller about a man with a mysterious past, whose quiet life suddenly turns into a rip- roaring adventure of guns and thrills. Both Denzel Washington and Chloe Grace Moretz give stellar performances and display perfect chemistry as two friends stuck in a world of crime and violence. Arguably Fuqua's best film since 'Training Day', 'The Equalizer' is a brutal and merciless tale that explores the Russian underworld on the East Coast and the corruption ties within the law enforcement of Boston's police department.

In terms of an action movie I gave the equalizer a 7 but soon after felt the need to watch it again and then upped it to an 8. Why? We'll it's an action movie but yet there's no crazy car chases, there's no bombs or heavy big explosions every where. Really the only action scenes are the fight scenes and even they don't come that often. But when they do come they deliver. Denzel is as awesome as ever in these scenes and the creativity in these scenes are what sets it apart from every other action movie. The main character Robert McCall in an ex specialist of some sort, you don't know what at first but know that he's highly trained in something and is now working as an ordinary man working at Home Depot or home Mart as it is in the movie. He looks like just your every day man but can kill you with just about any everyday weapon. And he does this so calmly that big crazy car scenes and explosions would rake away from his character. A man that takes the bus to come kill a whole gang is pretty bad ass by any standard.

As always I don't want to give spoilers but I do recommend this as a good wholesome action movie.

What holds this film back the most is it doesn't really do much to separate from all the other action flicks of a man taking the law in his own hands. The films plot isn't to bad its pretty simple and doesn't go anyway you wouldn't expect. The action scenes are solid bloody, gorey, and enjoyable to watch.

But what I would usually critique as being slightly above average goes above average thanks to Denzel Washington's great performance. It's no Man on Fire but it's satisfactory nonetheless.

It's a little to long considering the content of the film but it remains an enjoyable film, not great but not terrible.

IMDb: 7/10 Letterboxd: 3/5

Watched on Blu-ray.

Denzel Washington is just great and The Equalizer belongs like the John Wick (Keanu Reeves) and Taken (Liam Neeson) movies to the new masterclass of revenge/vigilante movies. The Equalizer is a true to the heart successor of our former (or still) heroes of long gone times like Mr. Eastwood and Mr. Bronson: the king is dead, long live the king, so to say.

The Equalizer is great stuff - if you like your action spiced up with a good shot of violence.