The Old Timer Who Masters Time...

Rating: 7/10 (29 October 2019)

"What I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."
The infamous monologue taken from the movie of the same name set a new milestone in action pictures, reinventing the vigilante figure with the additional "special sets of kills" and replacing the 'crusade against violence' by a less high-scaled and more personal-oriented fight, like saving young and vulnerable girls from the claws of male predators and abusing pimps. It's quite a bold move in an era where 'damsels in distresses' and urban violence have stopped to be popular tropes, but I guess this is why it took the talent of versatile and quality actors such as Liam Neeson or Denzel Washington to elevate the film about the level of pure macho-power exaltation.
Audiences would accept these men as role models rather than regular action movies stars maybe because they bring a dimension of humanity and fatherly warmth. Not that it lacked in Arnie, Sly or Bruce Willis but I'm talking about 2010s standards where it's not too cool to sound cool anymore. As Robert McCall, Washington doesn't replay Bryan Mills but gives his own depth in a role that could have been rather two-dimensional, that he made it to finance his "Fences" or make a departure from his award-baity performances doesn't matter, he's quite the man in a performance that isn't too showy even in the showiest parts. And you've got to credit the patience Antoine Fuqua demonstrates in the exposition.
McCall is the bookworm, getting through the Top 100 must-read Books, he works in a home depot shop, gets along with his colleagues, coaches one of them to lose weight to pass a security job test and befriends a young prostitute played by Chloe Grace Moretz. It all builds up to the crucial moment where he makes his 'Mills' offer to Russian hoodlums who showed that women's welfare wasn't their priority. They're all drowning in vodka and cocky arrogance, with every inch of their bodies harboring intimidating skulls and tattoos but naturally, no one takes "Dedushka" seriously... so the old-timer has no other choice than teaching them a lesson or two about time efficiency. It takes twenty seconds of a nasty fight to make his point but since he aimed for sixteen, we get the idea that he's slipping. Still, it's the establishing moment we've all waited for.
The act isn't without consequences and brought the attention to a Russian Mafia "Don" named Vladimir Pushkin (quite the name) who sends his best dragon "Teddy" (Marton Csokas) to hunt the killer. This is a standard action picture about a man singlehandedly defeating the almighty Russian mafia and while the film does find ingenuous ways to avoid the obvious comparisons with "Taken", it's the charismatic presence of Denzel Washington that makes the difference. And it's not a detail, when you have a title that doesn't say much about the film but sound cool enough to make you curious, you've got to have a "name" to press the play button.
It seems crazy said like this but choosing the right movie to pick on Netflix is such a patience-demanding ordeal that all it takes is a title and a charismatic actor. Say what you want about Denzel Washington, his movies aren't all on the same caliber than "Malcolm X" but he always delivers a memorable performance even in a role that doesn't aim for award and where cinematic excellence consists on dodging caricature and being believable as a skilled fighter. And that's the power a few actors can pretend to have, something that makes Washington equal to Clint Eastwood, his "presence" is more vital than his "words". But even Eastwood couldn't do without worthy antagonist and Washington's presence is enhanced by a solid villain.
And maybe that's the aspect that gives the film a slight edge over "Taken", which is that the villain always possesses a special set of skills and doesn't let himself intimidated as well. And so we follow a cat-and-mouse chase where the roles are alternatingly reversed and where the chasers become the chased ones and we don't know if the film is as good as the hero or the villain So the film follows a long storyline where we see a lot of fighting, some remarkably gruesome that reminded me of "A History of Violence", but even violence can get routinely and the most memorable parts turn out to be the quieter ones, which all takes us to a dinner conversation and the closest to a great confrontation the film ever got.
When McCall confronts "Teddy" to his own past in Soviet Union, the writing is brilliant, in fact it's so good that the fact that the film chose the safe way and end with a climactic confrontation set in McCall's job area, his own comfort zone, left me disappointed. It seems that Fuqua wasn't so confident about his material that he thought he had to keep on the track and makes the violence an escalating process... but think of a film like "First Blood", once we know that Rambo is a man not to mess with, the film surprises us with the heartbreaking Vietnam monologue, revealing a hidden depth in Rambo's personality, I wish "Equalizer" could find a way to take us off-guard.
It's a sign of lack of maturity when a film doesn't try to surprise you, even a film like "Taken" chose to have a shocking moment where Mills' mission proved not to be a complete success, but in "Equalizer" even when McCall's friends and colleagues are taken as hostages, it's hard to believe that none of them was killed just to make a point. So, either the bad guys underestimate McCall to the end, or act dumber than they should or get too soft it's almost off-character. I guess it makes the fiim as good as the hero... after all.