The name Denzel Washington is one of those names that is capable to take any one to the movies, without even knowing what we have to expect from the film. An actor with enough reputation, he already made ​​major roles throughout his career, has won two Oscars and like it or not "a name" greatly influences the expectation that we have about what we want to see. One of Denzel Washington's Oscars he won with the film Training Day made ​​exactly with the same director of this The Equalizer, Antoine Fuqua. What happens sometimes is that good names can not save a film. Unfortunately The Equalizer is an example of that.

Robert has a past that no one knows. He works in a department store of building materials in Boston, apparently has a very quiet life and suffers from insomnia. To try to occupy his time, he reads and many times during the night he goes to a coffee shop opened 24 hours a day. As a frequent visitor of the place, there he knows Teri, a teenage prostitute and the two end up creating a special bond. Robert quickly realizes that Teri belongs to some kind of human trafficking mafia and ends up getting involved with the Russian Mafia bringing to him many problems that he could not predict.

The biggest problem of the story is that we have seen this type of film over and over again, with the same clichés and quite ordinary dialogues. The character development is not done properly leaving many things left unexplained, things that may be important to the audience.

At the beginning of the film we think that we're about to watch a film of a deep, dark atmosphere that will respect all the characters feelings, but ultimately this is no more than a mere action film where the important scenes are all the beating scenes (which by the way are very well choreographed) but with lots of failures along the plot and wasting time with scenes that turn out to be irrelevant, rushing many that could have been better explored. It would have been ideal to combine the two things, a good plot and lots of action but the film chooses the path only in the entertainment style of "One Man Army".

Denzel Washington gives a very solid performance, normally an actor is that despite doing a lot this kind of roles lately, knows how to make them decently. I think he is starting to follow Liam Neeson's path in role choices and that is a shame. I kinda feel sorry for both because they are good actors and I would love to see them do those striking roles that we had seen them do before. The talented and young actress Chloë Grace Moretz is also very good as expected but she only has very little screen time, and her character is the one that will lead to the entire development of the main plot of the film, although is not given proper development and importance to her.

The Equalizer turns out to be a disappointment for those who could wait for something less commercial and deeper, but I know that will surely appeal to many especially to all the lovers of action flicks with big fight scenes.

Denzel Washington plays a hardware store assistant with a murky past, who has a chance encounter with a girl in a diner (Chloe Grace Moretz). They hit it off as friends, but it soon becomes clear she has connections to the Russian mob. When she is hospitalized, Denzel sees red and goes on a rampage to take those motherfuckers down.

The Equalizer has a very simple take on the world - Denzel can and will stop the bad guys, and no good guys get hurt in the process. It’s pure fantasy; the notion that one man with the right skills and the right intentions can stop the entire Russian mafia in their tracks is ridiculous, but it’s all in the way you tell it.

Fuqua clearly had a unique vision for this film. It has a neo-noir aesthetic combined with hyper-realistic visuals and an eye for a great shot. It’s like Nighthawks at the Diner crossed with Watchmen. As with all great Film Noir, shadows, smoke and street lights are almost like an extra character in the film.

The dialogue is clunky, especially when it tries to spoon-feed us the ‘meaning’ behind it all. It’s a shame because the simplicity of the story is appealing, as well as the focus on visuals rather than trying to philosophise for no reason. The final sequence also lets the film down, shifting the tone towards Home Alone more than a gritty thriller.

Still, the great direction and performances make for a surprisingly effective film. Mindless escapism perhaps, but The Equalizer is far from mindless film-making.

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Firstly, to fully enjoy this film you have to suspend your disbelief. It seems so obvious to say this in a review but the amount of other reviews that go so bent out of shape about the realism of a single man taking on…well everyone, and the types of weapons used and so on is, as usual, quite high. I admit I often can get tangled up in the silliness of film-making but if you read the synopsis of this film you know what is going to happen before you even press ‘play’.

Overall the film treats you as an adult. People get killed in rather painful ways and with blood. The ‘hero’, Robert McCall’ isn’t indestructible and gets hurt, not much to be fair, but he does struggle fighting against a bigger man.

In truth the film is greater than the sum of its parts with director Antoine Fuqua and Chloe Grace Moretz adding to this but the jewel in the crown is magnetic, charismatic Denzel Washington, without him this film is average, with him it is great.

The slow-down ‘eye-of-the-tiger’ scenes that start the action scenes are well filmed and a clever method of showing what is in essence fifteen or sixteen seconds of violent action, although they are too reminiscent of the method used in the Sherlock Holmes franchise.

The film has flaws that stick in the craw, for instance in the final scenes the black-hats go from ruthless we don’t care about anything killers to bumbling fools who fall into simple traps even though they know a killing-machine is out to get them and Moretz’s prostitute is a typical Hollywood ‘tart with a heart’ and is too pretty and too nice to be authentic but I guess if she was realistic this would destroy any empathy the audience might feel. Also Marton Csokas’ evil enforcer is far too pantomime-like to be menacing in my eyes and his accent was slightly distracting.

The actual premise of a one-man army who has retired and then is forced back to his old ways to dish out violent and instant justice is not new or even new to recent cinema history.

John Wick, instantly springs to mind as an equally violent and visceral film in this category but like John Wick, The Equalizer at least tries to treat the violence as having some consequence, as in you are going to get very badly hurt, there is going to a lot of blood and it will not be clean and clinical.

None of these type of films ever deal with the aftermath or consequences of a three figure body count in just one small area of the USA but to be honest this not what they are about. They are not realistic takes on organised crime, special operations operatives or the grey area of vigilantism but neither have they presented themselves as such. You are meant to watch some really bad people getting some unpleasant vengeance handed out to them like you sometimes wish might happen in real life. I was happy with this before I started to watch and consequently the film made sense to me.

There are other films and shows that ask different questions of the same subject and if I were watching one of those then the targets would be different. It is a simple equation that so many people seem to miss on viewing a film.

Overall though, if you don’t take this too seriously and just sit back and watch Denzel Washington play an interesting killer, who despite his murderous tendencies you might actually like to know, then you should enjoy yourself. Just try to relax into it.

Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is a man full of mystery with a past he is trying to move on from, however he is called into action when a young girl Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) is being controlled by violent Russian gangsters.

I definitely enjoyed watching this film more the first time around. Rewatching it a second time and really looking at the film, it is a good film with a few flaws that does stop it being a great one. Having never watched the 80s tv show of The Equalizer, I don't know how it compares to this film. This is a very fun movie that is made even better with Denzel Washington as the leading man. Robert McCall is a very interesting character and has traits of a man you don't want to mess with.

The slow build up in this movie was great, as we witness Robert living a normal life working at a hardware store during the day and visiting a diner every night to read a book. Denzel is really good in this movie as a man who is just a quiet man and wants his life to stay that way, until he meets Teri. Played by the wonderful Chloe Grace Moretz. She plays a prostitute for the Russia Mafia. After each visit to the diner you start to see Robert warming up to Teri until she finally stops coming. I was a little disappointed to see Chloe just disappear pretty early on as I felt she could have given so much more to the film.

I am not sure if Robert has some sort of OCD, but it seems that way to me with everything he does. Especially the use of hit stopwatch and watching him brutalise the gangsters in that office with such careful and precise calculation was fascinating and among my favourite scene in the whole movie.

It has the typical cliché Russia gangster villains that is so overused it becomes tiring. However I did like Marton Csokas as Teddy in this film. He felt believable in a way where he could go toe to toe with McCall. There were scenes where Robert trains a guy called Ralphie to be a security that just dragged the film down a little for me. Was one too many scenes with them together that felt out of place and served no real purpose except to maybe give Robert more motivation to do what he does at the end. Also had that scene with the corrupt cops that offered nothing except to show Denzel kicking ass again. The end showdown was not what I expected, and to be honest was a little disappointment. On paper I think it sounds cool, but it was pulled off a little too silly.

The Equalizer is a film that is enjoyable but could have been so much better with a few tweaks here and there. 7/10.

Kinda laughable at times with the serious stares, the overdramatization and the dad music. Denzel Washington is a badass though and it's quite entertaining watching him kicking the shit out of people in the coolest most brutal ways. The kills are fabulous and creative. There's no over-the-top action set piece or car chases but it compensates with more restrained hand-to-hand action sequences.

Denzel was good overall, his character is kinda interesting but I wish he had more dialogue and interactions with others because we hardly know him. But maybe it just reflects the character, he's closed off. Chloë Grace Moretz did not fit in this movie. Anytime she was there I was just disturbed by her presence. Something was off. Her costume and makeup was horrible for starters. The villain was cool in the first two acts but he didn't offer much in the third act.

The film almost lost me at the beginning (with Chloë Grace Moretz and the restaurant stuff) it was just so damn slow and quiet. Way too long of a runtime for what this is also. Loved the third act in the superstore. Ok ending. It's a decent action thriller overall but not one i'd revisit.

*That* explosion scene! Damn!