"When you pray for rain you've got to deal with the mud, too."

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2015)

Growing up I was a big fan of the old Edward Woodward TV series. Honestly, this is nothing like that. I'm not even sure why they gave it the same title. The only similarity, aside from the name Robert McCall, is that both stories are about former secret agents (although Denzel's previous occupation is never made clear) who use their abilities to help people in trouble. In the TV series, he placed ads in the paper and people came to him for help. Here he just helps his friends. I was mildly disappointed because I would like to see Denzel play a character a little outside his wheelhouse. What you see here is pure Denzel like we've seen in many movies by now. Still, despite the fact that it's very different from the series I loved, I had no real problems with the movie. It's very entertaining, as you might expect from Denzel Washington. He's one of the most consistent actors out there that puts out good movies for the masses, not just for the film snob crowd. It's slow-going for an action film (note the runtime) but it's never boring. There's no 'reinventing the genre' here but everything is done in such a way that should please the majority of action movie fans. For those wondering, Chloë Moretz plays a small but important part to the story. She isn't in the whole movie, just the first half-hour or so and the final scene.