A cinematic marvel spoilt by a simplistic story line

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2014)

It seems that all the world's problems with crime could've been solved if only we had Robert McCall on the other end of the line. This unstoppable force of nature could bring in world peace in no time, and if we gave him some more leeway I'm sure he'd solve world hunger and global warming too. Which is plainly speaking just a shame, the film as is is superbly shot and acted, it uses the cinematic image like very few others in the industry do, and previous encounters with Antoine Fuqua, proves that he simply has this great understanding of the visual aspects of movie making, The Replacement Killers and King Arthur are just two obvious examples. The original series, was superb because in its Edward Woodward version McCall's limitation were always part of the story, he was super because he never tried to overcome a roomful of armed gangsters, he strategized his way around such circumstances. And never tried to solve the entire American problem with the Mob. What's the point of translating TV masterpieces of the past to the big screen if you miss its core point.