Watching The Equalizer is almost like watching the Iraq War.

Rating: 6/10 (29 October 2014)

The Equalizer is one very brutal film. There's hardly any humor in it and, at times, it's violent in the extreme. It's definitely not something that you should watch with your girlfriend because it deals with prostitution, corruption, murder, loss and the underworld. If The Equalizer didn't contain any action it would have been a truly depressing and unpleasant viewing experience. I guess the only reason to see this film is Denzel Washington, who plays Robert McCall. One can think of The Equalizer as a superhero movie because of its break with reality and McCall's ability to kill people in impressive and often ridiculous ways. McCall also has a knack for avoiding injury and he deals with the bad guys mostly at night. There are attempts in Richard Wenk's screenplay to develop the characters but they don't go far, and the result is a simple fight of good against evil. The mobsters are mostly clichés, their victims are clichés, and the only thing that McCall has to decide is whether or not he should again become the unstoppable killing machine that he was before. The gruesome and violent action scenes manage to entertain because of Washington's slow-burn, perfectly modulated performance. It's just shootouts and fights. There's nothing new or original about them even if they are expertly staged. As the film moves along it gets more and more ridiculous, going from McCall wanting to help a brutalized girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) to McCall taking on almost the whole mafia underworld, foreign and domestic. The Equalizer is no Lethal Weapon (1987) or Die Hard (1988). It's more like Death Wish (1974). The film isn't really entertaining but it can be compelling, especially when the mobsters try to find McCall and take him down. I don't recommend The Equalizer because it's not much of a thriller and it's not much of an action movie. It has its moments but it's predictable, brutal and mostly forgettable.