My Review of "The Equalizer (2014)"

The Equalizer (2014) is the catalyst movie that started a whole franchise. This movie has gone on to a sequel and a TV show. I fell in love with this movie when it first came out, watching it again today gave me new insights as to why I liked it.

The movie starts off innocently enough. Our main protagonist Robert is a mild mannered middle aged man working at a home improvement store. He has a lot of friends at work and seems to be living the life of an everyday Joe.

This is crucial to the story as Robert obviously is more than meets the eye. We see that he's social and he does genuinely like the friends that he's made in the neighborhood. It gives us a way to relate to his character a little more.

Then we start to see some weird quirks about his character. He's obviously got some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), as he's always repeating certain things in his daily life. Everything is very tidy and neat and the guy seems to live like a monk. From what I can tell he doesn't really have any vices in life. He's methodical in everything that he does and pretty much does everything that you would a model upstanding citizen.

All this is about to change when he meets up with his friend Teri at a diner. He frequents this diner everyday to read a book and eat a snack. Teri so happens to be a prostitute for an organized crime ring. Obviously the two of them become fast friends. This is all interrupted when Robert starts noticing that Teri is being abused.

Robert can't stand this injustice and it basically becomes the catalyst that transforms him into an old version of himself. A man that did despicable things but did them very well. From avenging Teri he gets a taste of justice and he it's like he gets hooked on that high.

Pretty soon he starts noticing other things that have been happening throughout the neighborhood and he starts to get the itch to avenge them as well. We then see him spiral into this crime fighter of sorts and it's really satisfying to see him do what he does.

That's one of the great appeals for this movie. Robert isn't just fighting for himself he's fighting for the neighborhood that he lives in. Throughout the run time of this movie I started wondering why we don't have more people like this in real life. Of course this is a movie and everything is absolutely outlandish but there's a small piece of all of us that wishes there really was a real life Robert out there.

The movie is packed full of stylistic cinematography and the action sequences are utterly brutal but yet so satisfying because you know the bad guys are that bad. Of course the movie is a bit hokey in the sense that it's really dumbed down. Everyone is binarily good or bad. There's no real gray area. At times this makes it feel like a 80's b-movie action flick. Which isn't totally a bad thing.

This feels like a very comfortable movie despite the gratuitous violence. It's sort of like a romantic comedy where you can just shut your brain off and enjoy it. That's very much the same for this movie. The bad guys are going to get what's coming to them and you love this movie for that.

The method in which they get these bad guys was done so well that you don't mind all of this movie's faults. Even though you know what's going to happen there's this sense of intensity that permeates through the screen. It's quite a feat considering how predictable the movie is.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and I'm sure a lot of people did as well. They wouldn't go through so many iterations if this movie didn't speak to the people. The movie is relatable and very satisfying. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. It is a guilty pleasure that I'm sure many people share. If you haven't seen it already I highly encourage you to do so!