In his last film, he took down five men from a Russian mob in 28 seconds with his bare knuckles, a knife and a corkscrew. Two cops with guns were on their backs begging for mercy in less than 10 seconds.
The idea of a 60 year-old Denzel Washington taking down men half his age and twice his strength and escaping with barely a cut or a bruise may seem a bit farfetched, but the film “The Equalizer” topped the U.S. box office when it opened.
Not a surprising opening for the mega star, it’s the kind of opening we’d come to expect from Denzel Washington whose last 10 wide releases, including “Flight” (2013) and “Deja Vu” (2006), have each opened to more than $20 million.
“The Equalizer,” is the latest collaboration between Washington and director Antoine Fuqua who worked together on the hit film “Training Day,” which won Washington an Oscar. In film Washington plays Robert McCall, a middle-aged retired intelligence officer. He works at the local Home Mart — a supplies and hardware store, has no friends, and dines each night at a local diner where he faithfully brings his own tea bag carefully wrapped in a napkin.
There’s a method to his madness and it’s glaringly clear from the first few scenes (something director Antoine Fuqua takes his time in building) that McCall has an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Every day is the same for this mild mannered man for the first half of the movie as it pans from his home, his work, to the diner where he has halfhearted conversations with a young Russian prostitute called Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz). He tells her she has other options, she replies she has none and over time they develop a father/daughter type bond. One night, he discovers Teri has been brutally beaten by a client. Inspired to help, he finds himself the target of a viciously vindictive Russian mafia and becomes a one-man army of vengeance.
While Washington, who was ‘discovered’ by Hollywood when he was cast in 1979, in the television film “Flesh and Blood” doesn’t quite give us a ‘Training Day’ kind of powerhouse performance, it’s a gripping, suspenseful drama that’s hard to fault.
“Denzel is unpredictable, in the best way possible – he’s in his world, and you’re a fly on the wall, to capture it, if you can be smart enough to know when to continue in the scene,” says Fuqua.
Also starring Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo, “The Equalizer” is a rousing, furious action-drama. People get stabbed in the throat, the eye socket and the earlobe. They are punched, burnt, blown up and strangled and the film does become extremely violent and torturous, but as the audience, we feel justice is being served. After all, we have seen what the mafia’s hit man, a Russian sociopath called Teddy (Marton Csokas), is capable of. So he rightly deserves a dose of Denzel justice.
It’s a slow boil with a stellar cast, but it does beg the question; will “The Equalizer 2” have Denzel as its continued star?
