Cinemazlowski 'The Equalizer' review

Sep 26, 2014

Denzel Washington has long established himself as one of the classiest actors in Hollywood, rarely if ever engaging in sex scenes and nearly always playing men of deeply heroic character. His new movie "The Equalizer" - a reinvention of a beloved 1980s TV thriller that ran on CBS, about a retired British secret agent who stepped in vigilante-style to solve New Yorkers' crime-related problems when the police could not - maintains those moral traditions, but there are a few elements of concern for discerning viewers to consider.

The movie follows Washington as retired American secret agent Robert McCall, who left his secret life years ago and is now happily living a quiet life working in a Home Depot-type store. The movie leaves much of his life mysterious - we don't quite know why he left his job, and only vaguely hear that his wife died under sad circumstances years ago - but two things are clear: he is a highly trained killer and he has a strong sense of justice that, frankly, may be too strong for his own good and for any other moral person to support.

When a young streetwalker he has befriended and tried to guide out of her dangerous lifestyle is beaten by her Russian pimps, McCall first offers nearly $10,000 to buy her freedom. When his offer is rebuffed, he winds up laying waste to all the mobsters in the room in highly inventive and brutal fashion. As a result, he triggers a dangerously escalating war against a vicious and ruthless Russian assassin out to stop McCall's meddling, and McCall winds up fighting back with both psychological and violent means that will leave viewers on the edge of their seats.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who guided Washington in his Oscar-winning role in "Training Day," "The Equalizer" raises the game in the action genre and mixes in plenty of heartfelt emotion and psychological depth. The performances are outstanding across the board, and the score is superb, while Richard Wenk's script is so good that this will likely stand with the likes of "Die Hard" as a violent action classic.

But viewers should be aware that Washington uses plenty of tools from the shelves of his home-supplies store as murder weapons, and the results are squeam-inducing at times. But more than that, the movie is likely to stir questions in viewers of how much retribution is too much and whether the deadly punishments McCall metes out are proportionate to what even such evil villains deserve. There is also quite a bit of swearing from bad guys - about 70 words in 2 hours and 11 minutes - but McCall chastises even his friends swearing, so the movie does paint a good vs. bad line on even that behavior.

For adults who can handle movies in the vein of "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon," however, "The Equalizer" will be  a richly rewarding ride. One just wishes that Hollywood could show a little more restraint in the violence, rather than pushing the envelope here.