Based on the TV show of the same name (but without the brilliant synthesizer based theme tune by The Police’s Stewart Copeland) Denzel Washington stars as Robert McCall a mild mannered, DIY type store worker with a hidden past which gives him some very unique black ops style skills. Well respected by his co-workers but suffering insomnia, (presumably from whatever he done in his previous life and the death of his wife) he spends his nights reading classic books in an all night diner and it is here that he reluctantly strikes up a friendship with a young prostitute who uses the diner as a base between jobs.

When she ends up on the wrong end of a severe beating at the hand of her pimp, McCall takes offence to this and uses his former employment skills with deadly force, dealing with both the pimp and his gang, who have connections with big time Eastern European gangsters. From there it becomes a cat and mouse game between the gangsters, corrupt cops and our protagonist as he builds up the body count in the name of extreme justice.

The film teams up Washington with director Antoine Fuqua for their first outing together since Training Day and the combination works well again although not to the same levels. Washington will rarely let you down with his performances and once again he’s spot on as the man with the shady past who can switch from a killing machine to the man with a smile and a heart of gold almost instantaneously.

While it’s no Taxi Driver or even Man On Fire (despite having some similar traits to both) it’s still a very enjoyable action movie with a particular shout out to the Dead Rising like DIY tool kills in the last 20 minutes. The Equalizer 2 anybody?

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 out of 10