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"THE EQUALIZER"
(2014) (Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas) (R)


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QUICK TAKE:
Action: After killing an abusive pimp and his goons, a former covert government operations officer must contend with a deadly assassin who's been sent to deal with him.
PLOT:
To everyone he knows, Robert McCall (DENZEL WASHINGTON) is an unassuming, middle-aged man who keeps a low profile but isn't above helping others, such as Ralphie (JOHNNY SKOURTIS) who works with him at a big box hardware store and dreams of being a security guard. When Robert isn't helping him get into shape for that job, he enjoys spending his evenings at a local diner that's often frequented by a young woman, Teri (CHLOE GRACE MORETZ), who dreams of being a singer, but currently works as a high-end hooker for her pimp, Slavi (DAVID MEUNIER).

When that man brutalizes the young woman, Robert steps in and offers to buy her freedom from the pimp, but Slavi refuses. Accordingly, Robert eyes the situation and proceeds to kill Slavi and his armed goons with quick efficiency, a result of his former life as a covert government operations officer.

His actions, however, don't sit well with a mob head back in Russia who sends his clean-up assassin, Teddy (MARTON CSOKAS), to take care of matters. The mobster's American forces, including corrupt Boston cop Frank Masters (DAVID HARBOUR), aren't happy about the situation, but take a back seat to the calculating killer who sets out to find the man responsible and will interrogate anyone he thinks might know something, including Teri's fellow hooker friend, Mandy (HALEY BENNETT).

As Teddy leaves a wake of wounded and dead people in his quest, Robert utilizes his skills and expertise to prepare to do battle with the assassin and his goons.

OUR TAKE: 5.5 out of 10
In today's world of hundreds of cable channels and plenty of individual shows on each of them, it's easy to understand why many people haven't heard of certain comedies, dramas, sci-fi offerings or what have you. Decades ago, however, it was far easier to be knowledgeable about most everything that was on, even if that meant simply recognizing a title and knowing a few scant details about who starred in a certain show and what it was about.

That said, and for reasons that truly escape me, I simply don't recall "The Equalizer," a drama that ran on CBS for four seasons from 1985 to 1988. Perhaps it was because that was the end of my college career and beginning of my time out in the workforce. Whatever, the case, I have no memory of the series where Edward Woodward played a former agent since retired from the CIA who used his specialized skills to help those in need.

Back in 2010, Russell Crowe apparently was looking to bring that tale to the big screen with director Paul Haggis attached to direct, but that never came to fruition. It's now been resurrected as an action film of the same name that might be most notable for reuniting the star and director of the acclaimed 2001 film "Training Day." The helmer was Antoine Fuqua who helped Denzel Washington win his second Best Actor Oscar, and while that's highly unlikely to occur again with this offering, fans of hard-hitting action films featuring bad guys getting their comeuppance might just enjoy what's offered.

This time, rather than playing a bad cop as he did in the earlier collaboration, Washington plays a retired covert government operations officer who's just trying to lay low in his newly fashioned life. He works at a big box hardware store where he tries to help a fellow employee (Johnny Skourtis) lose weight in order to score a security guard gig, and spends his evenings reading classic novels at a local diner where he occasionally interacts -- non-sexually -- with a local hooker (Chloe Grace Moretz) who also frequents the place.

When her pimp (David Meunier) brutalizes her, Washington's character steps into action and "removes" the immediate problem. But he ends up creating a new one when a non-pleased Russian mobster sends his "cleaner" (Marton Csokas) to take care of matters, much to the chagrin of a local corrupt cop (David Harbour) who thinks he has things under control. The newly arrived assassin -- seemingly coming straight from some 1980s action film that commonly featured the same sort of intense and deadly but otherwise calm and calculating villain -- then gets to work. All of which will obviously lead to a number of confrontations between the two highly trained men.

There's never any doubt where the plot -- penned by Richard Wenk -- is headed or which man will ultimately be left standing. After all, this isn't like Russian films of old where the good guy dies at the end. This is Hollywood where sequels always have to be a possibility, and this one concludes with a heavy suggestion that -- box office gods willing -- a follow-up will definitely be in the works. And like the story's symbolism -- that's not so subtly hammered home via references to aspects of classic novels of old -- Fuqua's direction is occasionally overbearing when not redundant (for some reason he returns to show the brutal deaths of the pimp and his goons not long after we just saw that in an earlier scene).

And by the time the action moves itself into the big box hardware store, there's no doubt that any number of tools are going to be put into play in terms of dispatching the bad guys. Once that time arrives, the pic turns into something of a goofy, if brutal and graphic, guilty pleasure where the "fun," if you will, is in watching Washington's character utilize said hardware store products to get the job done.

Whether the '80s style action pic elements are accidental or intentional is open for debate, but so much of the movie contains so many elements from such past pics that not much escapes feeling derivative. That said, the action sequences are handled well, and Washington -- as always -- makes the film immensely watchable. Without him, this likely could have been some straight to video flick that few would see. But Denzel has such an onscreen presence and charisma that you simply can't take your eyes off him, even if he's playing a far too familiar character in a far too familiar sort of plot.

Csokas is decent as the calculating and remorseless villain, but I just wish there had been more nuance to his part to make him stand out from far too many similar antagonistic characters from years gone by. Moretz is good -- if similarly stereotypical -- as the hooker who wants a future but can't see it due to all of the "trees" before her, although she's out of the picture for too much time. Harbour is also decent as a corrupt cop, and Skourtis provides a little comic relief in what's just a variation of the friend who must step up to the plate when necessary part.

Without Washington, this likely would have been a forgettable and likely poor to bad offering, especially since it retreads old movie stereotypes without really doing anything interesting with them. But the actor brings more than enough to his character to lift it, and thus the film -- if ever so slightly -- out of such doldrums, especially once things evolve (or devolve) into a somewhat goofy guilty pleasure. "The Equalizer" rates as a 5.5 out of 10.




Reviewed September 16, 2014 / Posted September 26, 2014


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