It's no Equalizer but worth watching for Csokas performance alone

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2014)

Helpful gentleman Robert McCall is a retired black ops government operative who after befriending a young woman goes head to head with the Russian Mafia.
Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer is stylishly violent with both Denzel Washington as Robert McCall and Marton Csokas putting in tense and excellent performances. Harry Gregson-Williams score complements the dreary mood but lacks Stewart Copeland's signature theme Busy Equalizing.
Mirroring the recent Sherlock Holmes (2009) in terms of fighting logic this offering is more reminiscent of the Get Cater (2000) than The Equalizer 80s TV series. Writer Richard Wenk and Fuqua's drop nods to Woodward's McCall a silhouette, his ingenuity and stone cold shootings but it's comparable to Ridley Scotts Robin Hood (2010) being an almost The Equalizer prequel, in terms of how/why he becomes The Equalizer.
Overall, put against Fuqua's own Training Day (2001) written by David Ayer or in terms of being a film based on 1985-89 The Equalizer it falls short. That said, as an atmospheric revenge action it's wonderfully filmed highly entertaining and worth watching for Csokas performance alone.