The Equalizer (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Antoine Fuqua (Olympus has Fallen, Shooter, The Magnificent Seven)
	Actors: Denzel Washington (Crimson Tide, The Book of Eli, Man on Fire), Marton Csokas (The Amazing Spider-man), Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass 1-2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 01.11.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: Robert McCall (Washington) is apparently a simple worker in a hardware store, but nobody knows about his past. On his evening routine he regularly crosses paths with Teri (Grace Moretz), prostitute working for a Russian mafia. When she gets hurt, he will go back to a part of his past that he though he had left behind.
Review: The trailer of the movie that I saw in 2014 was appetizing. The retired ultra-gifted CIA operative story had a feeling of the Taken (with Liam Neeson) series to it. In fact I mistook its director Antoine Fuqua for a French disciple of Luc Besson like Taken's Pierre Morel. But in addition there was some darkness and a vigilante approach that could have been paralleled with John Wick released the same year. The movie was thus disappointing to me in spite of a nice slow first act and the apparition of a pretty bad villain to match our hero. In summary the actions of McCall feel less and less justified, and are shot in a style increasingly stylish: more and more slow motion, rain, darkness, attempts of original ideas to decimate the gang of bad guys. To the point that I was far too detached from him, destroying the close relationship that was built from the beginning. A sequel was produced anyway in 2018. Note that I have learnt that the movie is adapted from an eponymous 80;s TV-series with Edward Woodward (The Wicker Man, Hot Fuzz) in the title role.
Rating: 4 /10