It's got Washington's Robert McCall in Boston, living alone and working a day job at a home improvement megastore and spending his insomniac hours reading in an all-night diner, where he's befriended by teenage prostitute Teri (Moretz in another jailbait role).
She, of course, becomes the reason McCall is soon employing his own particular set of skills he has acquired over a very long career ... sorry that was that Neeson guy in Taken. Otherwise, same idea.
She's left in ICU. McCall makes her Russian mafia pimp an offer he can't refusenik. Cue a corkscrew to throat, and dead henchpersons.
Soon, you pretty much know how this is going to play out. And the worry is Washington's suburban samurai cool and the slow reveal about his past aren't going to be enough to sustain the next two hours.
But as predictable and formulaic and exploitative and brutally stupid - post-screening, my notes amounted to one repeated phrase: "Why doesn't he just kill him?" - as this is, it is also strangely compelling.
That has much to do with Washington and his character, who is one part Dirty Harry to one part life coach. He emits an aura of self-improvement that turns his fellow store-workers into employees of the month. That he is far too Saint Denzel to be true, oddly, helps the massive amounts of suspension of disbelief that The Equalizer requires.
But the good thing about this, is it's not all about him. For after McCall has shut down his local branch of Pimps Are Us, their Moscow boss arrives to clean the house.
That's Teddy, played by our very own Marton Csokas (pictured left), who's played an endless swag of Euro-baddies in the years since he hung up his stethoscope at Shortland Street. This gives him his best consonant- and scenery-chewing mad baddie yet. His wardrobe is evil all by itself. He glowers. He's terrific.
Washington might finesse the base material but Csokas just turns up the volume on his stereotype to ear-shattering levels. Yes, he's the graphic equalizer. Teddy unleashes his small army, supported by bent Boston cops. McCall taps his old boss from Langley, Virginia, for help. Matters escalate.
Antoine Fuqua, who directed Washington in his Oscar-winning turn in Training Day, is good at tension capped by inventively choreographed violence - McCall working his way through the store's catalogue as weaponry is splatterishly hilarious - think Die Hardware. You hope the producers of The Block will be taking notes - "why don't couple no.1 just kill couple no.2?".
No, that doesn't make this a good movie. But Washington's had much worse pulp outings than this and here he's done a bang-up job.
Cast: Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz, Marton Csokas Director: Antoine Fuqua
Rating: R18 (violence, sexual themes, offensive language)
Running time: 132 mins Verdict: Stupid, brutal but watchable
- TimeOut
