A high quality action movie

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2019)

I'm not sure why it took me so long to watch this - perhaps the hype surrounding it put me off, or maybe my dislike of remakes - but I was pleasantly surprised to find The Equalizer to be a well written, well directed and superbly acted action movie.

The pacing is excellent - a little slower than most of the genre, and with a measure of subtlety not usually found within it. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying this is The Godfather or A Matter of Life and Death, but it's a damned fine action flick. As Luc Besson found with Taken, get a solid script and put a superb actor in the lead, and you can raise the bar on the standard gun-toting fare.

As you might expect, the movie is violent, often gory, and some of the action a touch on the heroic side, but it's well enough done that it is believable and never for a moment takes the viewer out of the film.

Highly recommended.