Starring: Denzel Washington, Maton Czokas. Chloë Grace Moretz
Living a low-profile and quiet life, Bob McCullagh (Washington) likes to spend his free time reading in a local diner where he also meets and looks out for Teri (Moretz). Teri works as an underage prostitute for Russian gangsters and after rebelling against them, ends up badly beaten and in hospital. With a skill for defending himself, Bob takes to the streets and literally fights to take the mobsters down.
Director Antoine Fuqua's last effort, Olympus Has Fallen was one of my least favourite films of last year. Beyond its nonsensical plot, I found it to be just rather...disturbing in what it was trying to say. Now, Fuqua has reunited with his Training Day star Denzel Washington, riding high off his success with Flight, to do a film adaptation of the 1980's TV series, The Equalizer; with Denzel Washington playing the vigilante hero, originally played by Edward Woodward.
Towing along as screenwriter is Richard Wenk; not a very big name, but one I have taken notice of. Wenk got his break from cult horror-comedy Vamp, a film set in a vampiric strip club, back in 1985 and more recently wrote Expendables 2, the best Expendables film because it got to the heart of the silliness inherent in the franchise. Here, Wenk's instincts towards comedy have been cut off and we get a very serious film, though thankfully one that doesn't leave the same bitter aftertaste as Olympus Has Fallen.
To get to Denzel Washington from Edward Woodward (excusing he pre-existing work with director Fuqua) is very strange, but as Bob McCullagh, Washington does a good job. Washington has a way of bringing to the screen, likeable, charismatic and confident characters but with a slight hint of being haunted. A quality that was used in Flight. Marton Czokas, who plays the film's main villain, is similarly charismatic and he works well with Denzel. Chloë Grace Moretz plays an underage prostitute and she doesn't get as much screen-time as you might expect, and is also saved from her role being too seedy given her age and the subject matter.
The quality of the presentation is uneven. There are some sequences, particularly towards the film's climax that really look impressive, but others such as Washington analysing each incoming conflict akin to Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films feels hackneyed and isn't pulled off very well. Also, whilst I mentioned this film isn't quite as disturbing as Olumpus Has Fallen, there eventually becomes a sense that the violence being meted winds up being almost without reason. The bad guys are doubtlessly bad, but slowly it becomes clear that what it all boils down to is Denzel Washington going on a slow but destructive rampage.
Well, there are worse things to watch...
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