The Equalizer (Antoine Fuqua)

[TGM]

THE EQUALIZER

Director: Antoine Fuqua

imdb

[Kurosawa Fan]

What a stupid film. I'll get the good out of the way first, because the list is short. Denzel is good, has great charisma as usual, and does what he can with the character. There are some very inventive action sequences. And...yep, that's it. The film is too long, is visually inconsistent (seriously, did Fuqua recently decide to go back to film school?), is amoral in the worst way (in that it thinks it actually has a solid moral center), and is unrelentingly corny to boot. Stupid cartoonish villains, obnoxious camerawork, a terrible soundtrack, absurd stretches of reality, etc.

I go to movies like this because my dad is in his seventies and lives 15 miles from me, loves to go see action films, loves to treat (I got there first and bought a ticket for us and he refused to go in until he paid me back, plus bought the concession stuff), and frankly I just love spending time with the guy. I mean, I won't go so far as to say that films like this make me question my acceptance of his invitations no matter what he wants to see, but it's sure not helping the cause.

[Dukefrukem]

Yeh this wasn't as good as it could have been. I don't understand why in the finale he needed to play Tony Stark and invent all these different ways to kill people. After he took out the first mercenary he could have just used his gun. Instead he needed to dramatize the whole scene... cauterize the wound... then continue making nail guns that fire like real guns and walking in slow motion. I'm giving this a nay, but I liked the first half this quite a bit. Also the music playing during the finale when he was killing the first 3 bad guys I liked.

[Stay Puft]

Not much to add. It was indeed awfully stupid. The ultimate fantasy wish fulfilment action movie, in which Denzel Washington kills everybody and everything with an impossible set of skills, while also - peculiarly and outrageously - suffering from OCD. You know shit is about to hit the fan because he opens and closes the door four times, then locks it. Go fuck yourself, Denzel Washington.

[Irish]

I don't understand why in the finale he needed to play Tony Stark and invent all these different ways to kill people.

This is the part that mystified me. In a movie that felt stiff & overlong, that warehouse scene went on forever, with Saint Equalizer turning into some weird combo of Jason Vorhees and MacGuyver. Every single bad guy was a generic shadow. I didn't care about any of it. I just wanted the damned movie to be over.

[Dukefrukem]

This is the part that mystified me. In a movie that felt stiff & overlong, that warehouse scene went on forever, with Saint Equalizer turning into some weird combo of Jason Vorhees and MacGuyver. Every single bad guy was a generic shadow. I didn't care about any of it. I just wanted the damned movie to be over.

Not to mention you would think the other mercenaries would hear the hand to hand combat fight going on in Housewares.

[Morris Schæffer]

Well, I actually liked it a lot. I appreciated the very slow build-up, found it very tense in that regard. I like how the good guy's past is somewhat murky, instead coming across as somewhat of a mythical figure, and that reminded me of the movie "Drive". Surprised by how much I cared even though McCall has no ties to any of the victims beyond meeting one in a diner and I thought he symbolized the idea that in rough times we all need a champion to stand by our side unconditionally. I got a kick out of the hard R violence, especially gratifying after seeing the decent, but hopelessly sanitized Taken 3. The villain, played by Marton Csokas seemed like a good match for McCall and that is another thing I welcomed. Their verbal tete-a-tetes are actually pretty good, sometimes funny like on the stairwell, but oftentimes nicely sinister. I became less engaged when McCall started blowing up oil tankers, and when his coworkers were taken hostage as it became a bit ludicrous by that time.

I don't understand why in the finale he needed to play Tony Stark and invent all these different ways to kill people

Something about fingerprints on products he's handling every day not being a big issue. As for his gun, he was going up against some serious hardware so perhaps he needed to be clever. Wasn't really bothered by it, this was clearly a person who lives by a bunch of codes and rules. On the whole, I agree with you though, but I wasn't bothered by it.