There are two problems with this turn of events. Soon enough dozens of people are being blown up, shot dead and having their testicles shoved in their mouths. The organisation is headed by a man called Pushkin who sends his enforcer, Teddy, to tie things up. The pimps are, naturally, the lowest orders of a massive Russian crime syndicate who trade in everything from people to oil. Then McCall heads to a well-appointed private bar and takes out Lena's assailants in all of 28 seconds, putting a corkscrew to effective use in the process, and things go entirely to pot. It's a small drama with a vague air of menace and it's all quite compelling. He's organised to the point of mania, holding himself together for the memory of his dead wife. It's there that he chats with Lena, sharing his vaguely hippyish wisdom ("mind, body, spirit") and ploughing through classic works of literature. He has a smoothie in the morning, gets on the bus to work, is a cheery adviser to young colleagues at a DIY superstore, then returns for dinner in a local diner that really should pay Edward Hopper some royalties. McCall has come to know Lena as part of his meticulous daily routine. This film begins in similar territory with Washington's McCall volunteering to assist a young prostitute called Lena (Chloë Grace Moretz) who's been bloodily assaulted by her pimp. The Equalizer is a remake of the 80s TV series that starred Edward Woodward as a sort of refined Charles Bronson, taking out street scum with a Walther PPK and a stiff upper lip. ![]() And this time the nation that needs to watch out is Russia. Here he reunites with another former collaborator, Antoine Fuqua (with whom he won an Oscar for Training Day), to play former black-ops commando Robert McCall. ![]() ![]() Or a decade or so anyway, ever since his ex-CIA officer John Creasy tore up half of Mexico in Tony Scott's Man on Fire. W ith the current vogue for ageing action heroes – Liam Neeson, the Expendables, more recently Kevin Costner – it's easy to forget that Denzel Washington has been doing this for ever.
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