Cliched But Entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2020)

Just viewed this movie tonight. Denzel fans should enjoy it. Similar to his role in Man of Fire. It is essentially a good action movie about a 'bad' good guy going after the bad bad guys (Russian mobsters) and the 'good' bad guys (corrupt cops) after an encounter with a young prostitute in a cafe.
I loved the original TV series. Edward Woodward was one of my all time favourite British actors from the immensely enjoyable spy series Callan, and the movies Wicker Man, and Breaker Morant. I was hesitant to watch this film, as I thought it was going to be an over the top American take on a classic British show. While it may be over the top, the film doesn't resemble the TV show except for his name.
This film is quite gruesome in its action scenes, and the over use of squelchy sound effects when Denzel dishes out his justice is annoying. There are some good performances from other cast members - Marton Csokas is excellent as the softly spoken, cold to the bone marrow Russian sent to 'sort things out'.
The fight out near the end of the film is dark (as in not enough light to see what's going on), but you knew when someone got slaughtered, as the loud, squelching sound effects kicked in. The scene with some constructive use of razor wire had me laughing. Denzel manages to quickly rig up a pully type arrangement with razor wire while being pursued by five baddies. Anyone who has ever tried to work with wire knows it is the most uncooperative stuff ever invented, and certainly wouldn't magically uncoil without a big fight.
Denzel is one step ahead of everyone in this film, and we get the idea that Denzel may have been a bad guy in his earlier life, but the ending was too quick which spoilt all the previous tension building retribution. And that is all I have to say about that.