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'The Equalizer'
Rated R: for strong bloody violence and language throughout, including some sexual references
Running time: 131 minutes
xxx1/2
"The Equalizer" is the latest in the newest wave of action film, the Don't Mess With Pops genre, first hinted at years ago by Harrison Ford but perfected only recently by Liam Neeson. In Don't Mess With Pops movies, a peaceful man that any baby boomer can tell is in his prime - but that young people have the temerity to think of as a geezer - quietly takes abuse until he snaps and starts killing everybody.
The appeal of this should be apparent to anyone.
Now, Denzel Washington gets in on the action, loping into rooms as only he can, his face apparently placid but his eyes strangely dead, just an average guy doing his best to solve the population crisis. "The Equalizer" is silly but irresistible, taking situations of inherent gut-level impact and exploiting them for every bit of emotion and tension. It could never have been a great movie, but between Washington and director Antoine Fuqua, it's as good as it could be, as in good enough to keep audiences glued to the seat for over two hours.
It's based on an all-but-forgotten TV show from the 1980s, about a former secret agent who offers his services to help people in need. They may face huge outsized enemies, but this guy is … the equalizer. Just having him on your side is like having your own private army.
The movie updates the show for modern times and to suit Washington's sensibility. At the start of the movie, he's wearing a smock at Home Mart (think Home Depot), living a quiet life and working his way slowly through the 100 Great Books. But you can tell he's had a past. As played by Washington, he is courteous and rigorous and has something in his eyes that suggests loss. Washington also gives this fellow a touch of the obsessive compulsive. He is fixated on time, on schedules and on making sure that objects are properly lined up.
"The Equalizer" fulfills the first demand of a movie of this kind. It presents us with an evil so horrible it gives us complete license to want to see it wiped off the face of the Earth. In this case, it's a gang of Russian mobsters who are exploiting girls and trapping them into prostitution. In the diner where he goes every night, Robert (Washington) becomes friendly with one of the girls (Chloë Grace Moretz), and when she gets beaten up one day, well, let's just say Robert takes a personal interest.
One of the best things about "The Equalizer" is that it starts at a high pitch. Very early, Fuqua and screenwriter Richard Wenk establish the terms of "The Equalizer," that Robert will go to extremes and so will the movie.
These extremes include activities such as killing a guy with a corkscrew, which takes time and effort and involves lots of blood. No surprise, the movie is rated R, and Fuqua makes use of the rating. This is one gory, nasty movie, and it's safe to say that you should probably seek other entertainment if you never want to see a villain getting killed with a nail gun or a power drill.
Much hangs on Washington's powers of stillness and observation, of his ability to be read by the audience while seeming to be giving nothing away.
In one impeccably composed sequence, Robert walks into an office, and Fuqua shows us what he sees - as in, every single thing in the room that could be used as a weapon. What we don't know is whether he's looking for defensive reasons, or if he's planning to improvise a slaughter.
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