The Movie Press
  • Movie Reviews
  • Twitter News/Updates
  • News & Notes
  • DVD
  • Box Office Results
  • Contact
  • About Us

All Things Equal

10/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
In keeping with The Equalizer’s grim efficiency I’ll keep it short and sweet. The sort of review you could look at your watch beforehand, say “16 seconds,” and know you’ve gotten to the meat of the matter: It’s good. It’s brutal.

Though not particularly sophisticated, The Equalizer is heady—and downright delicious—in its ability to plumb the depths of knowing exactly what it is. Has Denzel played this riff 13 times before? Duh. Are we watching yet another iteration of the lone, just-ish man a la Yojimbo, Death Wish, or Neesons given your particular era? Uh…that’s kind of the best part. Should you care about this film? Well, no one’s asking you to start a charity for the damn thing. All The Equalizer asks of you is to cozy up with your favorite corkscrew and let a movie so good at being a movie just be a movie.

The most commendable part of the film is the element most readily apparent, Denzel Washington. Denzel saunters through this picture like a Bengal Tiger stalking around his supplicants. His acting, though nothing outside of his ken, vibrates with tuning fork like perfection and consistency. Playing a character who’s not so much a Robert as a Mr. McCall, he’s a deadly man conspicuously hiding in the cage/façade of ‘regular’ life. Part guidance counselor, part lonely widower, part unknowable man, it’s the best version of Denzel Denzel has played in a while. 

Never once does this film set itself up to be something it’s not, or should even aspire to be. Equalizer, fittingly enough, understands the sort of balance a film like November Man clumsily grabs it. We’re given our motivation, our villain, our ultra-violence, and little else. All in tidy fashion, all just the right amount.

All in exact proportion, the film has an uncanny sense of what doesn’t matter. The Equalizer asks you to invest in Mr. McCall’s mission via a character—Teri as played by the ascending Chloe G. Moretz—who we see for maybe four minutes. Our villain, Martin Csokas, we know better, and not by much. But the scenes where these characters lay their cards out for one another, the engine hums with the same certainty as it does during outrageous ass kickery. Sewn together with deft touches of dialogue and decent book references turned framing device, The Equalizer casts a shadow without the gaudy action pieces.

But let’s not overlook gaudy action pieces. I’d never tell tales out of school, but I feel obligated to articulate my reaction and my lingering impressions. My reaction, once the fisticuffs hit a rolling boil, was a gleeful giggling, “Whhhaaaatttttt?!?!?” I’m not sure how that’s supposed to look as decided by MLA standards, but it’s the only way a man knows how to say a thing. “Whhhhaaaatttt?!?!” 

The fight sequences are tight, savage, well-choreographed, and deeply satisfying. My favorite wrinkle? Mr. McCall rarely uses guns because, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” ‘Real’ men kill with their bare hands. You want these one dimensional baddies to be run through, and Denzel lives up to the task with tangible zeal. After I left the theater, lingering in a mist of blood and slo-mo rain, it occurred to me what the writer had accomplished. He thought to himself, “You know, if you had to fuck up a whole grip of dudes—and make it, like, awesome—THIS would be the place.” And he takes us there. He takes us deep down into that black and blue Promised Land.

The Equalizer is crazy good fun. I could sit here and bemoan what we all already know about this picture, but the movie deserves better. Because there is really only one thing we definitively know: The Equalizer is a moving picture show. And it’s so good at just that, a celebration is in order. 

—Monte Monreal

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2020
    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008

    Categories

    All
    Austin Film Festival
    Darcie Duttweiler Reviews
    Derrick Mitcham Reviews
    Eric Harrelson Reviews
    Eric Pulsifer Reviews
    Eric Pulsifer Reviews
    Fantastic Fest
    Greg Maclennan Reviews
    Greg Wilson Reviews
    Jessica Hixson Reviews
    Mark Collins Reviews
    Monte Monreal Reviews
    Reviews
    Rob Heidrick Reviews
    Rob Heidrick Reviews
    Sxsw

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.