Odds against You? Need Help? Look for the Equalizer. Denzel Washington + Antonio Fuqua = box office success.

Rating: 8/10 (9 October 2014)

What do you see when you look at me? Quotes the tag line of this movie directed by Antonio Fuqua. I have to say, when I look at this movie; it's really good, but so formulaic. It has a lot of tiresome clichés and tropes that you see in a lot in a Denzel Washington movie. The movie isn't anything new to Denzel Washington. This film has almost the same similar plot-line of 2004's Man on Fire. It has the outsmart skills and tactics that you would see in a movie like 2012's Safe House. The movie is also a bit one-dimensional black and white as it comes with characters. Bad guys are just really bad. The victims are just victims, and not playing mind games or twisting the truth to get their way. Don't expend any twist and turns in this film. It's just a generic action film. I really don't know, how accurate it was to the 1980s TV show with the same name, but by the looks of it, it really doesn't match, well. Where was 'Control' during all this? Where was the Jaguar XJ? It's look nearly nothing like the show. In this version of the Equalizer, a mysterious man named Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is trying to live a normal quiet life. But when he meets a young prostitute name Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz) in the need of help. He can't stand idly by, and take control by taking on the whole ultra-violent Russian mob. Denzel Washington's character must had the God-like superman codes, because it seem really, it always seem like he was one step further than the bad boys. The bad boys never had a chance. The movie really borderline unrealistic, when McCall rarely shows any weakness. It seems that he always have the unlimited resources to combat, everything that the Russian mob can dish on him. Not once, could I see his character honestly dying. It's really felt one-sided. The movie is full of violent imagery and clever way to kill people. I do like slow-motion sequences meant to imitate Robert's timed-precision combat style. It does remind me so much of 2009 Sherlock Holmes. Too bad, half of the ending action sequence is in pitch dark, making it hard to see. It's also go way too long. This movie is really long, despite clocking in 2 Hrs & 11 minutes. There are tons of dead shots pacing where nothing is going on. It doesn't use the time, wisely. A lot of the Robert McCall's backstory is vague, thin, and poorly developed over the course of the movie. The movie doesn't even show if McCall suffer from OCD or not. Mad Props for Denzel Washington for adding some depth in the character. Anyways, crimes come and go in the film in an oddly forced simultaneously way. It felt more like a series of TV episodes oddly put together than a movie. The whole robbery in the Home Mart should had been in the beginning, than in the middle of the film. Chloe Grace Moretz, while getting third billing is barely in the film. She is in the majority of the first half, and doesn't appear back until the end. Instead, McCall is supported by sub-plots like Ralph (Johnny Skourtis), a fellow employee at the Home Mart, where McCall works at, trying to become a security guard. Characters like Brian Plummer (Bill Pullman) & Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo) particular showing up has with little to do besides exposition. It felt like those scenes would had been cut. The villain despite being over the top, monotone speaking evil Russians stereotypes were alright. Marton Csokas as Teddy, the Russian mob enforcer is fittingly nightmarish. With a combination of meticulous control and savage brutality, he is wildly unpredictable and totally compelling. For the most part, all the acting in this film were alright. The movie has a lot of metaphor storytelling that really don't match with the story within the story. Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway tells the story of honor in struggle, defeat and death. The old man Santiago is characterized as someone struggling against defeat. Santiago, though destroyed at the end of the novella that his fish is eaten by the sharks, is never truly defeated. The film would be more powerful, if characters that McCall care for, were killed. Not once, did McCall lost any of his close-friends, or felt like he got close to being defeated. The movie lose a bit of that. I do hope, they make the film sequels, a little bit more challenging, so it can stand out, more. The movie does have a pretty good soundtrack that was great to listen throughout the film. Overall: It's not a bad movie. It's pretty damn good. I just wish, for more.