Taking a page from the Neeson playbook

IF there's one thing The Equalizer proves, it's that Denzel Washington can play the avenging angel just as well as Liam Neeson (in the Taken series). These ageing stars may be past their physical prime, but they still have the moves and can convincingly dispose of several dozen heavily-accented heavies over the course of a two-hour action movie.

Playing a weapon of mass destruction is a departure from the norm for Washington, who brings a thespian's sure touch to the role of a former government agent compelled to un-retire in order to help those unable to help themselves. In films of this nature, there are no troubling moral issues at stake: our hero uses violence for a just cause, and the more gruesome deaths he inflicts on the bad guys, the better.

The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua (who directed Washington to an Academy Award in Training Day, 2001), written by Richard Wenk and based on a 1980s TV series of the same name, explores Boston's seedy underworld: the one ruled by pistol-waving pimps, corrupt cops in search of payola and impressively-tattooed Russian mobsters. When all seems lost Gotham City may call upon the Batman, but Boston has The Equalizer.