Fuqua and Washington Deliver Big Time

Rating: 8/10 (16 December 2014)

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)
Rating: 3.9/5 stars
With Antoine Fuqua behind the cameras and Denzel Washington dispensing justice, "The Equalizer" is a highly stylized, violent, and engaging action film that delivers on many counts. Fuqua infuses the film with a low-key energy and is in no hurry to rush into things, which is something many action films nowadays could learn from.
In "The Equalizer", Denzel Washington plays McCall, a man who believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when McCall meets Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young girl under the control of ultra- violent Russian gangsters, he can't stand idly by - he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help.
Though the plot looks familiar, this familiarity can be welcome when the practitioner is so good at what he does. And there are few actors more commanding than Washington (perhaps only Neeson and Wahlberg among post 2000 action stars) when he's taking out bad guys. Washington, as always, holds your attention, finding in McCall a vulnerability that goes beyond the script's lip service. Denzel's performance and the film's high-voltage action premise make it one to watch this fall season. "The Equalizer"is without a semblance of doubt, Fuqua's most accomplished effort along with 2001's "Training Day" and 2013's "Olympus Has Fallen", and should give its veteran action star his very first movie franchise.
Along with "John Wick", "The Equalizer" is the best R-rated, stylish, brutal, gory, adult-skewed action film to emerge from the Hollywood stable this year.