Home Depot denouement not up to rest of scenes

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2014)

I never saw or even heard of the TV series upon which this film was based. I enjoy revenge pictures with super efficient warriors like Liam Neeson in Taken and also Man on Fire with Denzel Washington. And most of the killing of bad guys lives up to that level in this film. But when McCall finds his way to the Home Depot and the hostages he has all the advantages: he knows where the tools are, the lights, the best hiding places . . . everything. He should be able to surprise the bad guys easily one by one. In fact isn't it a little out of character for Teddy, the efficient Russian henchman, to continue his pursuit of McCall given that he's totally in enemy territory? A wise adversary would cut his losses I'm thinking. . . wait and fight another day. But McCall makes uncharacteristic blunders as well. Killing a guy with a drill bit is one of them. Even though he heated the bit ahead of time, the fact that it succeeds in the movie is pure fantasy. A drill bit isn't sharp enough to penetrate a skull at least not on the theory of it's effectiveness in drilling into wood. It is a slow cutting device that peels away in thin layers. To actually kill someone who isn't tied down you'd have to slam it into the back of the head with incredible force. Using it like that would be an iffy proposition because of balance and the amount of force needed. The fact that it isn't very sharp would work against you. (And anyway, that's not how it's used here. In the film the victim politely holds still while the drill slowly progresses into the brain, but we don't actually see that.) But a bigger blunder is to get into hand to hand combat with an enemy while other foes are within yards of your position. McCall does just this against the thug with all the mustache wax. They fight for a full minute. I don't remember what weapon McCall tried to use on Waxie but he had ample opportunity to pick up guns from earlier skirmishes and should have used one on him. (Even a sludge hammer would have worked.) Instead they tussle for a full minute or more which would have brought Teddy to the scene in time to win the day. But we're supposed to believe that the store is so big and the other thugs were so far off that they couldn't arrive in time. A full minute? Come on! Up until then I was enjoying the efficiency and coolness of McCall's successes. He was quick and always outsmarted them. And he seemed to be very studious in paying attention to detail and the laws of physics as he contemplated his moves. I liked the closeups of his eyes as they seemed to weigh just how quick he had to be and how accurate. Good stuff. I wish he'd kept that up all the way through.