The Equaliser (16) **
IN ACTION movies like Man on Fire and cop drama Training Day, Denzel Washington has proven that he does good badass.
Here, he takes on the might of the Russian Mafia with the imaginative use of various power tools. You get the impression that if only Denzel would stop dismembering bad guys he’d be very handy to have around the house.
In The Equalizer, Denzel and director Antoine Fuqua bring the concept behind the 1980s hit TV series to the big screen.
Just like the show, which starred Edward Woodward as a former CIA man who just couldn’t stay out of trouble, Denzel is a man with a mysterious past.
He plays Robert McCall, an even-tempered type who like to spend his days at the same café working his way through some of the greatest books of all time.
He’s a man who seems to be enjoying a quiet life, but it gradually emerges there’s more to McCall than meets the eye when he befriends a young prostitute who also frequents the eatery.
Teri (Moretz) is a young prostitute who’s having a rough time after getting caught up with a particularly nasty pimp whose connections, we learn, run all the way to the top of the Russian Mafia.
When he discovers she’s been viciously attacked by one particularly unsavoury client, McCall can no longer stand by.
Using skills that he acquired in his mysterious past life - and the power tool contents of the home depot store in which he works - he sets about avenging the attack.
In doing so, he uncovers a network of baddies running all the way to a “fixer” drafted in to town by the Russians, who looks remarkably like an Eastern European Kevin Spacey.
Washington is solid and Moretz is good in support. But this overlong and ponderously slow movie has a bit of an identity crisis, moving from tedious scenes of drama to blood soaked killings.
While I know there’s a market for movie violence, some of the scenes feel particularly nasty and graphic - and that’s before we even get to the lengthy blood-spattered finale. Denzel Washington’s better than this.
The Verdict: A bloated drama punctuated with over-the-top violence.
I Origins (15A) ***
The Stars: Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Berges-Frisbey.
The Story: Science and faith collide in this unusual drama.
BOARDWALK EMPIRE star Michael Pitt shows his acting prowess in this uneven but ultimately moving science fiction film.
It’s a hugely ambitious project from writer director Mike Cahill, who sets out to ask big questions about science, religion and evolution in this offbeat drama.
There are a lot of ideas to hold together and the movie doesn’t always succeed. But ultimately it stays engaging courtesy of some fine performances and the human story at its heart.
Pitt shines as Dr Ian Gray, a gifted molecular biologist who’s obsessed with his job - and has been fixated with the make-up of the human eye since childhood.
He’s close to a breakthrough with research partner Karen (Marling) that would prove a huge point in support of evolution and against creationism.
He’s also involved in a passionate romance with an exotic young woman (Berges-Frisbey) that ends in dramatic circumstances.
Years later, as he comes close to making an astonishing breakthrough in his research, Gray is forced to reconsider and investigate his strongly-held beliefs about faith, spirituality and science.
It’s an unusual film that demands mush of its audience but really delivers in the finale, a deeply emotional trip to India.
THE VERDICT: The storyline’s a bit out there but if you go along with the journey, I Origins delivers a gut-wrenching climax.
