The Equalizer

My friend brought to my attention yesterday that we have been on quite a run with old man action movies lately. We've seen 3 Days to Kill with Kevin Costner, The November Man with Pierce Brosnan, A Walk Among the Tombstones with Liam Neeson, and now we were about to cap it off with The Equalizer and Denzel Washington. Also I had another buddy of mine call me up a few months ago about The Equalizer and he told me that it was testing through the roof with audiences; so it just further confirmed to me that all of the previous films we have seen to this point simply served as an under card to the latest offering of freshness from Antoine Fuqua. You do know that the last time these two teamed up in Training Day that it eventually led to Denzel getting his first Academy Award for Best Actor (lead) don't you? Isn't it crazy that it basically took him beating up Ethan Hawke to finally get that award? I guess that shows how much Hollywood execs hate the Hawke.

The Equalizer is about an older black man named Robert McCall (Denzel) who leads a rather boring and routine life in the city of Boston. Everyday he gets up early, goes to work, helps his buddy lose weight, and then goes to a late night diner to read a book and relax. And every night at that diner a young and pretty prostitute named Teri(Chloe Grace Moretz) asks him about where he is in the book to strike up a conversation. They eventually become friends as he encourages her to chase her dreams instead of sticking with the life she has fallen into; but one night after a run in with her Russian pimp Slavi, she stops showing up to the diner. Denzel soon learns that she is actually in the ER due to a brutal beating put on her by Slavi  and he decides to reach back into the past that he has promised to forget to confront him about it. And this is where the badassness begins!

Now I'm sure part of it is actually just nature taking its course but Fuqua did an awesome job making Denzel look like he is harmless and past his prime early on in this film. All of the clothes he wears are old men clothes from Sears, Inc. and he is finally starting to look like he is a retired grandpa. But as the movie progresses and he becomes the man he was years ago, you start to see the Denzel that you've grown to love. People, myself included were openly cheering for Denzel after each badass exchange he had with the Russian villains. Just imagine slightly overweight black women yelling "Get em Denzel! That's right baby!" Are you going to tell them to be quiet? I didn't think so! So you may as well join in!

When watching this film you must go in realizing that this is a fantasy revenge flick similar to that of The Crow; so just let go of reality for a bit and allow yourself to enjoy the ride. Denzel represents what we all wish we could be in today's society, and as it gets more and more over the top, you just get more and more into it. It's as if Fuqua saw Tony Scott's over stylized Man on Fire and said to himself "I can make this movie 1000 times better!' And that's exactly what he did.

Fuqua is on point as usual with The Equalizer as he sets the stage for the dark and grim culture that Denzel all of a sudden finds himself in with his use of dark lighting and set pieces. And I have to throw out the fact that Moretz looks dangerously hot in this movie.

I rate this movie as TIGHT and I suggest that you go live vicariously through Denzel.