Guts Over Fear

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2015)

At 60 years old, Denzel Washington is still one of the best action stars on the planet. Can we get a Denzel vs Liam Neeson film already? Or perhaps even a team up film? I believe they are both in their 60's now so the clock is ticking. The Equalizer is a pure action film. Much like Taken, the story takes a bit of a backseat to the insane action sequences. But when you get a film as entertaining as this one, that's quite alright.
Washington plays a retired agent of some sorts, who swears to not go back to his old roots and stay clean. It all changes when he sees Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), a teenage prostitute, being abused. The premise is very similar to Taken, but I think the payoff for this film isn't as high as Taken. Moretz slips out of the film for the better part of 2 hours. It becomes more of a revenge film without exemplifying the reason behind the revenge well enough. I will say that the action is twice as good, but also over-the-top, as Taken. Robert (Washington) kills people in the most unnecessarily strange ways, but it's awesome. It has all the clichés of a action thriller, but yet it works. It also helps that every explosion Robert walks away from there's a great score to compliment it.
The film is pretty long for not having a lot of depth to the story, but it still has a great amount of re-watchability. There aren't many memorable characters or even people you care about, besides Denzel. If they end up making a franchise out of it, I hope they add depth to the characters and bulk up the supporting cast.
+Ridiculously fun action
+Denzel is still a bada**
+Catchy music/score
-Seen the story before
-No depth to the characters
7.7/10