The Equalizer starring acting legend Denzel Washington is about a very low key, down to earth man who works at Home Depot, but who we soon realize has a special set of skills that qualifies him to be an extremely dangerous killer.
The film starts off with Robert McCall (Denzel) meeting Chloe Grace Moretz who plays Teri, a troubled and opinionated prostitute at the local diner. They soon become friends and Robert seems to have a certain fondness towards her. Later on we find out that her pimp severely beats her and seeking retribution, Robert tracks down the pimp and eliminates him and his associates. This in turn triggers a series of events where Robert is being targeted by a group of Russian criminals who seek vengeance. The film’s plot revolved around Robert trying to survive against this vast and powerful organization filled with highly trained Russian soldiers and corrupt cops and throughout the entire film you will constantly be at the edge of your seat, wondering whether Robert McCall lives or dies.
Chloe Grace Moretz did an incredible job playing a deeply troubled prostitute. It is an edgy choice for her, but it worked very well in the end. Chloe is such a versatile actress that her playing this character was very believable, but really not that surprising considering how talented she is at acting. Denzel also had an interesting role to play. We all know about those movies where the protagonist is this dark and cynical person, who only knows how to fight and kill, but with this character, it seemed as though he had two personas, one where his character cares deeply about the well-being of the people around him as well as being the typical stone cold killer. What Denzel did well was being able to transition between these two personas almost seamlessly. There have been so many movies where the main character is this emotionless, cold person, but has people that they want to protect, but what was impressive about Denzel in this movie was that while he was in his “heartless killer” mode, you could also see that he truly cares about the people he is protecting. That emotionality within the character comes out subtly, but enough where you can see it in action, which then gives that extra level of complexity to this already complex character.
The movie had some great fight sequences. The plot was equally as strong, which is something that sets The Equalizer apart from most action movies. The Equalizer is a hard hitting, action packed movie that everyone should see this weekend.
-Vinesh Vora
