Last night I was convinced to go and see a film the whole concept of which I wasn’t feeling from the start. Denzel Washington, who can do very little wrong in my book, reprises role as Robert McCall from The Equalizer (2014), a film that kind of came out of nowhere at the time and I thoroughly enjoyed. The acting by Washington and Pedro Pascal was fine, the direction from Antoine Fuqua, who is very hit or miss, was not amazing, but I think what stood out the most was the bad writing.
The twist was a very chewed-up cliché which I saw coming from a mile away, but I could have overlooked that if the main character had been in some danger at any point. The only thing I liked was his relationship to a young neighbour with a creative talent who was threatening to go down the dark path of gangs and violence. When watching Denzel Washington act, or during interviews, he radiates a natural sense of calm and confidence that makes him the right template for the “second father” archetype.
Anyway, the first thing I said when the credits rolled was “Oh wow, I didn’t know Denzel Washington starred in bad films.”
