Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has a mysterious past and is trying to live the quiet life working at a Boston home improvement box store. He helps his co-worker Ralphie lose weight to get the security guard job. He's friendly with street walker Teri/Alina (Chloë Grace Moretz) whom he often meets as he reads at a local diner. She ends up in the hospital after getting severely beaten up by her pimp Slavi. He tries to buy her freedom but ends up killing everybody. Violent Russian gangsters come looking for payback.

This starts well even with the cliché-filled script. Denzel can pull it off. Chloe is the innocent and he's the knight in shining armor. The problem starts when Chloe disappears after the first act. I expected her to be the second star and she deserves to be. She's good in this movie but it is strictly a solo act. The great brutal violence in Slavi's office is the highlight. The action slowly turns more and more cartoonish. Director Antoine Fuqua has made some great gritty action. I wish he brought a bit more 'Training Day'. Unfortunately, the last battle in the Home Mart reminds me too much of 'Home Alone'. There is something compelling about not showing what happened with the hammer. That's a great scene. It's a little more silly to see all the improvised traps in the store.

Denzell Washington works at a Home Depot in Boston. When he isn't doing that, he sits in a diner, reading books and chatting with the other customers, including prostitute Chloe Grace Moretz, or helping an overweight security guard try to get in shape so he can become a rescue worker. Then Miss Moretz is kidnapped and beat to a pulp, and he proceeds to take down the Russian mob operation that killed her.

it's a revival/prequel to the TV show from the 1980s, in which Edward Woodward would help small people fight back against the big nasties of the world. It was a pleasantly fantastic premise, and Washington, as always, convinces me that he is that man. Director Antoine Fuqua directs with his usual pornographic love of violence. It's appropriate here, although his director of photography, Mauro Fiore chooses an odd color palette that suggests that Home Depot only uses natural light, while the streets of Boston are lit by artificial light during the daytime.

An intense and towering performance from Denzel Washington as one of cinema's best-acted action heroes is what makes THE EQUALIZER stand out from the crowd, although as a film it's also a very decent thriller. It's supposedly a big screen version of the '80s TV series with Edward Woodward, although think of it as your usual vigilante movie and you'll be closer.

Let's be honest here: the plotting in THE EQUALIZER is nothing special, and the Russian mob make for clichéd villains. It's the execution where this film excels. It's not an action filled movie, but when the action hits it's hard and heavy, not shying away from crowd-pleasing violence meted out to the villains. The extended set-piece ending might be described as 'DIE HARD in B&Q' and loses the realism a little but, but until that point this is tough and gritty film-making.

Aside from the excellent Washington, we get a fine bad guy performance from Martin Csokas, equally intense and the finest I've seen from him, and Chloe Grace Moretz is wisely kept off-screen for most of the running time, which I was fine with. The final shout-out goes to director Antoine Fuqua, whose effortless style makes this a graceful and thoroughly entertaining viewing experience.