A nice vigilante story – with a ton of brutal violence though

Rating: 6/10 (1 October 2014)

Sentimental vigilante finds his calling in wiping out the mafia
One man who is able to level an entire gang, it seems to good to be true, but Denzel Washington makes it happen. This movie gives us the hope that justice will prevail, albeit making some messy hands on the way. The movie has a good gloomy vibe, good dialogue and nice acting, but has so much killing in it that one wanders who holds the title of good guy in the end.
Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) seems to be a regular guy, just suffering from some insomnia. He leads his life in Boston, working a daytime job at Home Mart and reading at a diner at night. Everything changes when Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), an escort who also visits his diner and a friend, is beaten up by her pimp. This is the trigger that wakes up the vigilante in McCall. At first McCall tries to buy off Teri's freedom from the Russian gangsters that run the escort service, but when this appears to be impossible, he kills all five gangsters in he room where the meeting takes place. Here he uses some great combat skills resulting from his past as a CIA-agent. What follows is a manhunt on McCall, in which the Russian mob does everything in their power to find him. The scene where mobster Teddy (Martin Csokas, know for playing Celeborn in The Lord of The Rings Trilogy) visits McCall at his house is a highlight in the movie. It has subtlety, suspense and great acting by both lead actors. If only this movie had more of that. On the whole, one can say that the character of Teddy is a bit overdone. An action movie needs a distinct antagonist, but making him a psychopath is not enough. McCall states his motivation for his fight against injustice during his stay at the house of former CIA- colleague Susan Plummer (played by Melissa Leo). He explains that someday something terrible was done to someone who didn't deserve it, and he wanted to do something about it. Here we see a glimpse of McCall's history at the CIA, though this isn't scrutinized any further. It all comes down to McCall's coworkers being held hostage, which ends up in a big killing finale. This scene – nicely staged in Home Mart – shows us how the Russian mafia is getting what's coming to them. McCall kills them to the last man, sometimes brutally, which put question marks to him being solely a vigilante, and not a sadistic killer. But at least Teri is free now.
What is great about this movie is Denzel Washington's acting, as a regular Joe and as a mob slayer. He is a sentimental man with a good heart, but he goes to extremes to fight injustice. The fact that the character of Robert McCall remains sketchy (he hates injustice period) is a pity. Furthermore, the director seems to want to give us mind-blowing images of explosions and brutal fighting scenes, but the fun in this movie is actually in the subtle scenes and the play between actors (especially Washington, Grace-Moretz and Csokas). All put together it is a better than average action movie that is worth your time and money, only with a sleight bit of overkill. The storyline is nice, and the actors do their best to make it a good movie, though it isn't a brilliant one.