It’s kind of wonderful that the award-laden Denzel Washington has a kind of secondary career as a B-grade action star. Sometimes it seems like they have to promise to let him bust some heads every once in a while to keep him interested in doing the kind of Academy-bothering stuff he’s better known for. He did five movies with the late, lamented Tony Scott, for crying out loud, including the just-shy-of-brilliant Man On Fire, which The Equalizer looks like a kind of spiritual sequel to.
It certainly doesn’t look much like the Edward Woodward-starring ’80s TV series it takes its name and vague premise from. Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) reteams with Washington to tell the story of a retired badass – really retired; he’s a greeter at Home Depot – he divides his time between reading Hemingway and decimating the Russian Mafia. Based on that business with the sledgehammer alone, this looks like it should be fun. Sony certainly think it will be; they’ve already greenlit a sequel (which means that, all else aside, this will have a happier ending than Man On Fire).
