Review of The Equalizer (2014) by Guillermo C — 17 Jan 2015

Denzel Washinton's actioner, with more-than-a-whiff of Liam Neeson's 'Taken' series about it.

In this, Denzel's former black-ops commando McCall ends up taking on the Russian mafia, after they brutalise a young girl/prostitute that he has befriended.

I found this to be painfully slow in starting, however, with it taking nearly 45 minutes or so before it actually started going anywhere. I've also since discovered that it is based on a TV series from the mid-to-late 80s, and perhaps relies somewhat too heavily on familiarity with said series - I had no idea, for instance, that McCall was a former block-ops commando until after watching the film and reading up on it, since it is never mentioned with said film itself! I mean, obviously he has a very-particular skill-set (to steal a line from 'Taken'), but we're never told where that skill-set actually came from.

I've seen better.