Toe to Toe With the Russkies!

Rating: 6/10 (3 September 2016)

I've been trying to figure out the difference between action heroes like Denzel Washington here or Matt Damon in the Bourne franchise and Superman -- I mean Clark Kent's Superman. It's not always easy. They're always "mild mannered" until their latent identity is triggered. None of them ever seems to lose a battle or be seriously wounded. And they may not have X-ray vision but here the camera takes us inside Washington's eyeball and quick cuts show us the details of his surroundings that he's noticing.
Washington is another lightning-fast killer with a hidden identity. Just trying to get along in a huge Home Depot warehouse. But these damned Russian pimps and mobsters keep getting in his way, clobbering his friends, investigating him, and generally making nuisances of themselves. And, man, are they UGLY -- hawk-nosed, covered in inscrutable, tattoos, and with complexions like a relief map of Afghanistan. Always sneering. Washington begins to push back, wiping out six alert armed men in twenty seconds, as if he'd choreographed the dance.
The Russians in turn call in their expert hit man, Marton Csokas, who may be the best performer in the movie in that he's able to segue between his two expressions -- a smile and a sneer. He kills and maims brutally.
No matter that he's the best there is. Washington kills him too, blows up some of the Russian mafia's oil tankers because -- well, just because -- and then tracks down the capo de tutti capi in Moscow and eliminates him. End of Russian mobsters in America, and freedom for all the young girls they've been running. Americans can breathe free again.
If you like the Bourne franchise you'll like this move because it's a close imitation. I thought that -- for what it was -- it was almost ruined by directorial excess. The camera doesn't wobble too much, thank God, but Fuqua seems intent on calling attention to himself as director. Some of the shots are plain pointless. If Washington prepares a cup of tea, we must follow the teabag and watch it dip into the steaming water. If a kitchen faucet is leaking slightly, the camera is position in the basin of the sink, looking UPWARD at the spout, as a drop of water forms and drips down. The explosive fireballs are in slow motion because they cost a lot of money.
It could have been better. The opening scenes in a kind of New York "Nighthawks" cafe are engaging but we don't have to wait long before Clark Kent sheds his drab civilian clothes and emerges in all his majesty to kill the bad guys.