Review:
*Originally written December 12th, 2018*
After seeing The Equalizer 2 I was worried that it might impact my opinion of the original Equalizer, a film I'd always quite liked, despite it's problems. After stupidly buying the 4K steelbook for the second film, I realised I had yet to own this on 4K, so here we are. I was pretty pleased to discover that despite it's problems, The Equalizer is still very solid, violent and stylish action film in its own right.
Antoine Fuqua is a director that gets a lot of flack in my opinion. It's true his career peaked over a decade ago with the excellent Training Day, but ever since then he's released a series of solid action films that arguably take themselves far too seriously, but they're all great fun for the most part. In fact the only film I've never liked of his is Brooklyn's Finest, but I'm far due a rewatch on that.
Anyone, The Equalizer is the Hollywood reboot of some '80s TV show I've never watched. It's Denzel Washington as an ex-special ops, OCD, lonely and highly capable man who gets involved in taking down the Russian mob after he avenges the brutal beating of a teenage prostitute. It's basic, surface level stuff that really doesn't earn its bloated run-time.
The biggest problems here are its length and over-seriousness of what an absurd, cliched plot this is. Denzel's Robert McCall is well developed and we learn just enough about him through visual cues and the way he acts, but sometimes the dialogue just tries so hard to sound meaningful, but can just come off as a little pretentious. It's a dumb action film that desperately doesn't what to be one. Which is actually most of Antoine Fuqua's career thinking about it.
Denzel does manage to make this work though. He plays bad-ass pretty effortlessly, much like he has through his entire career and he has enough to work with to make McCall feel like a real human being despite the moments of highly stylised action. I kinda just wish the script was a little tighter and more focused and decided whether it wanted to be a dumb action film or a character piece, but instead we get a messy mix of both.
I think that's where the tone clashes the most is within the action scenes. This wants to be a real human drama about a man sticking up for the people who can't defend themselves, but then descends into becoming a borderline superhero film when McCall's Sherlock Holmes like powers come into play. Part of me really likes the brief moments of McCall's ridiculous powers, but then I sort of hate them for blatantly ripping of the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes thing he does much better.
When it's not ripping off Ritchie's style, Fuqua really brings some insane brutality to the action. I forgot how nasty some of this film was and it was nice to it finally uncut in the UK in the now 18 rated 4K (Which is a great transfer too. With a film this dark, the HDR really helped make the night scenes more detailed and easier to make it while retained a gorgeous dark look).
It's also refreshing to see an action film that takes a more creative approach to its violence. The finale in the home depot store is glorious and turns McCall into a slasher film villain as he brutally wipes out a squad of mercenaries using DIY equipment and setting up a series of demented, Home Alone style traps. We also get to see the biggest douchebag in the world Dan Bilzerian get lynched by barbed wire while we slowly watch him bleed and get choked out. Beautiful.
It's a slow burn to get to the action scenes for the most part, but it's definitely worth it for the most part. I just feel there's an excellent film here if it was just a bit more focused and cut down by a good 20 minutes or so. For better or worse it's another solid action film from Antoine Fuqua and seeing Denzel slaughter faceless Russians in increasingly brutal ways is always fun to watch. I just wish the sequel was as entertaining as this one.
7/10 Dans
The Equalizer is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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Letterboxd: Dan
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