The Equalizer
A big screen movie very loosely based on the 1980s TV show of the same name, from the director of the 2011 art house film Drive, which featured Ryan Gosling.
The film version of The Equalizer has the same basic premise as the TV show, but takes off in its own way, tailored to Denzel Washington’s skills. He plays a solitary, monastic figure who hates injustice and devotes himself to helping people who are being victimized. The TV series starred British actor Edward Woodward as The Equalizer, a veteran covert operative who, seeking redemption for his dark deeds, quits a CIA-like agency and puts a classified advertisement in the paper that reads simply: “Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer.” If you thought that the casting of Tom Cruise, who is barely 5′ 7″ tall, as the character Jack Reacher, who is 6′ 5″, was beyond credibility imagine your horror to discover Denzel Washington cast in the role made famous by a senior citizen, white, British actor. If Hollywood wanted to make a movie with Denzel Washington in the lead as a sort of retired CIA agent… um, well, they did. It was called SAFE HOUSE. The perfect actor for the role of The Equalizer would have been either; two-time Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson, or Oscar winner Jim Broadbent, both of whom are the same age, race and nationality as the iconic character, Robert McCall, that Edward Woodward made famous on TV. |
The Equalizer Trailer
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The Equalizer Posters and Photos
Review
Brutally satisfying but elaborately interminable, The Equalizer seems to digress randomly and ever so frequently. The movie focus on many elements that is not conducive to the center plot. Apparently more efforts is centered around placing Denzel as some sort of Good/Bad Guy hero Punisher rather than to allow progression to flow smoothly without the interjection of irrelevant content
Eventually, The Equalizer will feel prolong and become a tedious effort to channel undivided interest throughout the entire running time, until the latter twenty minute crescendo. Furthermore, the plot itself feels ever so cliche for the novel Denzel we have become accustom to. A guy admires a girl, she is in unfavorable predicament and he opts to help her by taking on a ruthless Russian mobster and though cognizant of the TV series, The Equalizer appears too jaded to be substantively entertaining. The Movie primarily benefits from the natural magnetism of Denzel performance and is what solely holds your attention from not drifting off into slumber. Invariably, it will hinge on the audience expectation to discern if the climax of the film was gratuitously gratifying because some persons will expect a little more challenge be meted out to Denzel character. 7/10 |