The Equalizer Begins Streaming on Netflix

Some favorite movies focus on ordinary men who turn into nightmares for anyone foolish enough to cross them. Pierre Morel directed Taken and turned Liam Neeson into a revenge icon. Then came John Wick with an angry Keanu Reeves to perfect that formula. More recently, Nobody proved there is plenty of mileage left in watching a dangerous man decide retirement is not for him.

Denzel Washington hits different. Having starred in the 2004 action masterwork Man on Fire, Washington knows how to captivate audiences as a tired ex-soldier pushed to the brink. Released in 2014, The Equalizer carries satisfying action energy, and Washington’s kills feel visceral. The movie recently dropped on Netflix, making now the time to revisit the character.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who previously teamed up with Washington for Training Day, The Equalizer takes inspiration from the 1980s television series of the same name. Washington steps into the role of Robert McCall, a quiet Boston hardware store employee who spends nights reading books at a local diner. When a teenage diner regular played by Chloë Grace Moretz runs into serious trouble with the Russian mob, McCall folds back into the person he long abandoned to protect her.

Half the fun of The Equalizer is watching Washington sit still while everyone around him has no idea what is coming. McCall is quiet, polite, and boring on the surface until someone slights an acquaintance or pushes him too far. Washington plays that reversal with warmth, restraint, and menace. When McCall decides to return to his old life, the film becomes an excessive action movie.

McCall is methodical. He calculates options while memorizing surroundings and turning nearby objects into deadly weapons. Fuqua lets runtime fly by before bodies start falling, making those kills satisfying. The centerpiece arrives in the final act when McCall fights armed men inside the hardware store. Dispatching foes like a murderous handyman, McCall turns ordinary tools from a power drill to a nail gun into a deadly arsenal.

The quietest scenes feel heart-pounding, including the dinner table confrontation. After dispatching one mobster off-screen in a bathroom, McCall sits down at the dinner table and drops a pair of blood-stained sunglasses in front of the Russian enforcer sitting across from him. Mid-meal, picking at a plate of fish, Teddy played by Marton Csokas appears intrigued rather than frightened. McCall remains relaxed and delivers a methodical promise to dismantle Teddy’s entire operation “brick by brick, dollar by dollar, body by body.”

While the sequels are not currently available on Netflix, both The Equalizer 2 and The Equalizer 3 serve as follow-ups worth tracking down elsewhere. Fuqua returned to direct the trilogy, keeping tension tight as Robert McCall’s vigilante crusade expanded from a rideshare driver in Boston to the Southern Italian coast. The original remains the gold standard.

The Equalizer works because it takes an old formula and features a charismatic movie star. Denzel Washington is quietly intimidating, unexpectedly funny, and brutally efficient. It is violent, absurd, and a strong streaming pick, especially for a weekend watch.

The Equalizer is streaming on Netflix

Source: Polygon