Feels genuine but with some obvious flaws

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2015)

So I was a bit skeptical when I loaded up this movie as, although I like Keanu Reeves, he does not have much depth in his acting skills. In particular he has a hard time to properly express emotions and that is one of the flaws in this movie as well as there are some situations where he should have shown genuine rage but he does quite a poor job in doing that.
However, he does OK as a former hit-man in this Equalizer type of movie and for once it is not over a girl, well not directly anyway, but rather about a dog and a car. That does sound a bit weird but seeing as Keanu is supposed to play a cold- blooded hit-man who killed people for the smallest slight, it does feel believable that he goes on a rampage over it. Specially when you learn what that dog meant to him.
But, as Keanu's lack of acting skills are apparent, it is more than enough made up by the mobster boss Michael Nyqvist. He has really intense duologue's with both his son, played by Game of Thrones star Alfie Allen, who also plays his role really well and later on a dialogue with Keanu Reeves which was well played as well.
Other than that, there are some stupid Hollywood moments, such as the ending and the token strong-woman character (another hit-man in this case) who does not add much to the movie and exaggerated action scenes as well as the "bad guy" being too stupid to finish things off when he could. But overall I enjoyed this movie. It has a good mix of action, intensity and with some drama thrown in and a really nice supporting role played by the excellent Willem Dafoe and small, but equally excellent efforts, by John Leguizamo and Lance Reddick.
Warmly recommended but don't take it too seriously.