Why I Saw It: Denzel Washington does action movies right.
Cast: Denzel Washington carries the movie and it shouldn't be a surprise. Expendables cast be damned. Denzel and Liam Nesson are the kings of the over 50 ass-kicking crowd. He isn't asked to do anything he hasn't done before, so you should know what to expect. Marton Csokas plays the main villain and he's just on the right side of being cartoonish.Chloe Grace Moretz has probably the next biggest character after those two. She plays an underage hooker and disappears for a solid hour in the middle. Again, make no mistake. This is Denzel's movie.
Plot: Denzel plays Robert McCall, a "retired" special ops master who is called back into action. The movie begins with Robert as a normal enough guy with a few quirks, who befriends a hooker (Moretz) at the diner he frequents. After she gets beaten up by her pimp, Robert decides to get some retribution. That's when we find out what Robert can do. Needless to say, he single-handedly takes on the entire Russian mafia and does pretty well. It's all pretty implausible, but in a fun way. There's a lot of well-shot fight scenes. Things explode. Lines that only exist in action movies are spoken. It's the kind of movie that succeeds by doing everything well, not by trying something new. The movie is based on a TV show of the same name and the end implies that there could be future installments. I kind of hope there won't be though. This goes so big that I'm not sure what's left. Any sequel would almost have to have lower stakes.
Elephant in the Room: How skilled is Robert McCall? In short, he's a demi-god. There is no way that he could be that great of a fighter, at that age, with so little practice since being decommissioned, or be that technologically proficient. This is the kind of movie where you go along with it though, because it's fun that way.
To Sum Things Up:
This is a well done movie of its ilk. If this doesn't look like a movie you'd enjoy, then you'll be right, but if you tend to enjoy movies like this, I see no reason for you to not enjoy this too. It's nice to get a little high-octane fun before entering into a fall season full of Oscar hopefuls and blockbuster franchises.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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