The Equalizer ? 3 out of 5
While Denzel Washington has settled into playing the same
role in a lot of movies, there is no denying the man is talented. So, how does he do with a loose adaptation of
the old television show I never knew existed until this film came out?
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| Something else I never knew existed...that there was a Jennifer Lawrence clone out there. |
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| Home Mart, located right next to S-Mart. |
Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is trying to live a quiet,
unassuming life while keeping his past a secret. He works for a Home Depot knock-off and seems
to be content with spending his sleepless nights at a greasy spoon drinking tea
and reading books. At the diner, he
becomes acquaintances with a young escort named Teri (Chlo? Grace Moretz) and,
one day, finds her in the ICU beaten up pretty badly. Using some old skills of his, McCall pays a
visit to the men who did that to her and made them pay...mortally pay (he killed some folks, is what I'm trying to say). Now, the bosses want to know who hurt their
men (hurt them mortally) and they send a dangerously psychotic man to find out (played by Marton Csokas). Now McCall is being hunted but it?s not going
to stop him from cleaning up the injustices that are being done to the people
in his life.
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| Pictured: Uncut badassdom. |
While I thought this film looked pretty cool from the
trailers, I wasn?t foaming at the mouth to see it. However, after a couple of people all told me
how cool it was, I finally bumped it up to the top of my list and checked it
out. For the most part, the film is
pretty generic and the story moves very slowly.
It sometimes gets to the point of tedium as the story chugs along.
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| Who knew Hit-Girl would have such a career? We all did, really. She's pretty talented. |
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| He doesn't need a gun with that 'stache. |
Additionally, the film kinda feels all over
the place as minor B-stories will suddenly insert themselves into the main tale
and they receive little-to-no attention, even though most of them seem to be
awesome and need to get some detail shown.
There?s no real surprises that goes on with the plot and most of the
characters are one-dimensional?hell, one of the characters, the whole reason
McCall starts his quest, is forgotten about for almost the entire film. Acting wise, however, the film isn?t terrible,
but there is one thing that makes this film super awesome?the action.
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| For some reason, Bill Pullman is in the film for about 3 seconds. |
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| Jesus...bruises just formed on my face with that stare. |
The action sequences break up the film?s tedious story and
they do so in a completely epic way. The
way the scenes play out are badass and the stone cold way Denzel plays the role
of McCall and the way he deals out ass-kickings makes the film completely
amazing! It makes up for the slow-moving
and, dare I say it, boring way most of the story unfolds. Hell, these action scenes are so awesome that
there are times where the film actually robs you of a potential action scene
and it feels like a disservice and a slap to the face. However, the action scenes the film does
deliver is what makes this film something to watch.
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| I'm sure this will come out just fine... |
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| Hallway lights always know who's the bad guy... |
Aside from the action scenes, I really didn?t see much in
The Equalizer that I dug in a big way.
While I liked how Marton Csokas? character was just as cold as Robert
McCall and made for a bad guy who isn?t that different from the good guy
(opposite sides of the same coin, if you will) but with its slow moving story,
this film just didn?t feel any more special than a one-shot rental type of
action flick. Don?t get me wrong,
Washington is cold blooded as hell and the way he kicks ass and deals out
justice is awesome but that?s really all the film has going for it. Sure, director Antoine Fuqua really knew how
to shoot those scenes and make Denzel look even cooler than he is but you still
have to deal with lackluster characters and a slow moving story. It?s a decent movie but it could have been so
much more?
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