His gravity-warping screen presence and awards-worthy thespian skills lend McCall a depth of character not present in Richard Wenk’s muddled script, overshadowing the rest of the one-dimensional cast. Like Liam Neeson in his own recent glut of thrilleramas, Denzel Washington is practically the only reason to sit through The Equalizer to the end credits. But while there’s an undeniable, visceral thrill in seeing Denzel Washington violently dismantle wave after wave of generic bad guys (even if at times said scenes are a little too closely shot and choppily edited to be totally coherent), those bad guys are painted in strokes broad enough to verge on caricature. Only those whose moral compass has been stabbed to death with an ice pick would fail to sympathise with the plight of the timid victims McCall helps in equalizing. Whether it intended to be or not, The Equalizer belongs to that sub-genre of straightforward, vengeance-tinged actioners that succeed in manipulating us all by tapping into our collective sense of righteousness. Along with a suitably permanent sneer and a platoon of extravagantly bearded Russian stereotypes, Csokas just about falls shy of twiddling an imaginary moustache whilst laughing maniacally as he cuts his own murderous swathe through Boston in his increasingly farcical attempts to track down and equalize McCall before he can do any more equalizing. So here we have Hungarian/Australian Marton Csokas as a psychotic ex-Spetznas Russian mob enforcer with the least intimidating name in cinematic bastardry (Teddy?).
Good thing too, as we were getting bored of them beating on Arabs all the time. Thanks to Vladimir Putin’s crazy, Ukraine-baiting antics, Hollywood feels it’s OK again to shove any burly, ornately tattooed toughie with a vaguely Eastern-European accent in front of a camera and slap the villain-label on their forehead. When Chloe Grace Moretz’s troubled prostitute Teri becomes more Girl-Hit than Hit Girl - keeping the movie’s prosthetics department busy by winding up in hospital following a particularly nasty beating at the hands of her despicable Russian mobster pimp - McCall takes it upon himself to seek out those responsible and equalize the shit out of them - all the while struggling to come up with a witty enough catchphrase as he effortlessly dispatches yet another gang of vodka-swilling ne’er do wells. Denzel Washington takes over from Edward Woodward’s dapper ex-spy as ex-Black Ops specialist Robert McCall who, like all ex-operatives whose mysterious past features employment by a shady, undisclosed agency, indulges in such varied pastimes as reading, wallowing in painful memories, and engaging in vigilantism to atone for past sins.
#The equalizer series
In the case of Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall and his escalating war with the Russian mafia, events get so preposterous you wonder if The Equalizer isn’t just one of our civic-minded protagonist’s sleep-deprived fever dreams.īased loosely on the zeitgeist-grabbing 80s TV series of the same name, which got in on the fad for vigilantism at the time thanks to the heroic, real-life capers of the subway-riding, red beret-sporting Guardian Angels of New York, The Equalizer v2.0 sees the action supplanted from the grimy, graffiti-emblazoned hell hole of New York to the dark streets of Boston. But seeing as some of the side-effects of sleep deprivation include impaired judgement, hallucinations and, guess what, feeling really really tired, it’s a wonder that any would-be hero could accomplish basic tasks like making a cup of tea without setting fire to their own arms, let alone elaborately taking down an entire criminal organisation. By night, when not staring into the distance brooding over some vague, past trauma, they’re utilising their unique skills to defend the weak and administer some wrong-righting justice upon the innocent-preying criminal underworld. By day, they go about their business projecting a facade of normality. Lack of sleep must be a real problem for your everyday vigilante.
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