Before you flip over Denzel Washington’s portrayal of the bald black old man who refuses to sprint over speeding cars in hot pursuit, let me tell you that the guy who starred in the original Equalizer movie looked like a grandpa with white hair. The original series came out in 1985 and aired for 4 seasons, bringing it to 88 episodes.
The original Equalizer, Edward Woodward playin Robert McCall (left), next to Denzel Washington’s McCall
Chloë Grace Moretz plays Teri – the girl who gets beaten up by her pimp, angering McCall to the point where he is convinced to exercise his skills again. She gets beaten up in the beginning of the movie and doesn’t show up again until the end. But you won’t really miss her because Denzel does a pretty good job of leading the plot. He doesn’t pull any Bruce Lee blows and he doesn’t take the time to make an Jack Chan jokes. He gets in, gets the job done, and gets out. There is an emotional back-story about a wife who was the center of his life, but none of that really matters.
Denzel Washington pulls off a super fast gun disarm
He doesn’t run around like Liam Neeson in ‘Taken’, yet he is just as precise in his combat and just as driven in his fights. If you want to enjoy this legend you have to begin by respecting the fact that this particular hero isn’t out to save the world. He just wants to make life better for people in trouble – one individual at a time.
Denzel Washington doesn’t really do a very bad job, considering the fact that he is 60 years old. In fact, I think I should point out that some of the best actors we have are still managing to churn out some pretty good movies. Liam Neeson is 62 but kicking ass in Taken. Sylvester Stallone is 68 and on a roll with his Expendable movie series, Arnold Schwarzenegger and expect to star in Terminator Genisys this year.
Most people don’t understand that Denzel Washington is a much better actor than Liam Neeson. I admit that Liam Neeson did some amazing movies besides the Taken movie series (such as Schindler’s List, The A-team andThe Dark Knight Rises), but all of these are some pretty intense roles in which Liam Neeson delivered dialogues with the same expressions and the same tone. Denzel Washington on the other hand has done some pretty diverse acting work.
You can’t complete a review for the Equalizer and not mention Marton Csokas! Remember the guy who played the cop in Hit Man? or the villian in Vin Diesel’s XXX? Marton Csokas plays a super smooth villian in The Equalizer. His James Bond-ish style helps give the movie some serious intensity.
The thing I love the most about his character is how he makes slight alterations to his facial expressions to shift smoothly between different moods. This guy has managed to do an amazing job and has truly redeemed himself from the somewhat lame roles he did in the past.
An added bonus of becoming an Equalizer fan is that you don’t just get the Denzel Washington movie, but also an entire series that you can binge on. I don’t know about you but I can hardly wait to see what happens in Equalizer 2! Maybe they’ll give Denzel Washington’s McCall a partner like the original McCall used to have.
Cheese Monkeys 