The Equalizer
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: September 26, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
17
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 25, 2014
The Equalizer is gripping, mysterious and even sometimes moving, but it’s never pleasant, still less fun. If you decide to go, don’t claim you weren’t warned. If you skip it, you’re missing one of the year’s signal works of superior Hollywood craftsmanship. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 26, 2014
The Equalizer features some gruesomely creative violence, but it’s equally memorable for the small, gritty moments set in that diner, or on the rough-and-tumble streets of Boston. And most of all, it’s got Denzel going for it. Read full review
80
TimeRichard CorlissSep 25, 2014
If The Equalizer is the hit it should be, it will give this veteran action star his very first movie franchise. In the sequel, Denzel-McCall could make things right in Ukraine as Obama’s Secretary of Defense and one-man army. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 7, 2014
Ramping up his style to a more dynamic and elegant level than he’s achieved previously, Fuqua socks over the suspense and action but also takes the time for some quiet, even spare moments to emphasize the hero’s calm and apartness. Read full review
80
TheWrapJames RocchiSep 7, 2014
Willfully empty but wildly entertaining, The Equalizer stands out from its peers like a wolf among lapdogs, as Fuqua and Washington bring out the best in each other for the benefit of the audience. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 26, 2014
Director Anton Fuqua has jettisoned almost everything related to the TV series except the title, the main character's name, and the bare-bones premise. Even the theme song is gone. For all intents and purposes, The Equalizer isn't so much a reboot as it is an entirely new entity. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 26, 2014
It's easy to see why neither Home Depot nor Lowe's chose to go the product placement route. Too many cleanups in the power tool department. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 26, 2014
The Equalizer, which reteams Washington with his Training Day director, Fuqua, is an origin story, like the birth of Batman, or Daredevil. If audiences and star are so inclined, it's easy to see this premise and this character - a tough, taciturn gent burdened with regret and a very special skill set - going into Roman numerals. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickSep 26, 2014
There’s nothing hugely original about the script by Richard Wenk (who cowrote “Expendables 2” with Sylvester Stallone), but Washington is a master at putting his own inimitable and stylish spin on even the most familiar situations. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaSep 25, 2014
While some might decry the ludicrous showdown that unfolds in the darkened aisles of McCall’s mega-store workplace, I got a kick out of watching Washington turn everyday hardware supplies into lethal weaponry. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 25, 2014
The Equalizer is silly but irresistible, taking situations of inherent gut-level impact and exploiting them for every bit of emotion and tension. It could never have been a great movie. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanSep 25, 2014
Denzel Washington doesn’t demonstrate how great he is with first-rate scripts such as “Flight.” He does it by elevating sophisticated pulp like The Equalizer to a higher level. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 25, 2014
A tense thriller that also has more on its mind than the familiar genre constraints it operates under. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 25, 2014
Truly, you don't have to watch former secret agents relentlessly wipe out villains. But if you want to, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone better than Washington for the task. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 26, 2014
This is a kid’s fantasy of how to be bigger and badder than anybody else. As for Washington, no doubt he now has his very own franchise. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackSep 24, 2014
Washington is always superb when playing characters with a surface calm, but a boiling-over interior. Here, as the protagonist, he steers a vivid course through a seamy world. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceySep 25, 2014
Bring on the sequel please, because, as fine as Denzel is, director Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer is not so good – a self-consciously stylized, stop-and-start hodgepodge of Death Wish street vengeance, Bond-style Russian villainy, and moodily shot Boston locale. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 25, 2014
The material shows its age when McCall goes all "Taxi Driver" to save a teen hooker (a scrappy Chloë Grace Moretz) from her pimps. But Washington and director Antoine Fuqua, who teamed for the actor's Oscar-winning role in 2001's "Training Day," keep the action humming. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsSep 25, 2014
The Equalizer, loosely based on the TV series of the late ’80s, is a guilty-pleasure platform for Washington’s slow-cooked, kick-butt heroism. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 24, 2014
Through it all, Washington’s stillness is emphasized, so much so that the film slows down just to make sure we appreciate the presence and the talent behind it. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 26, 2014
There's a soothing catharsis in the idea that good guys are every bit as capable as bad guys of raining hellfire down on their enemies. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 25, 2014
Mr. Fuqua, while not the world’s most subtle filmmaker, directs the action sequences with bluntness and clarity and effectively uses his star as an oasis of calm in a jumpy, nasty universe. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 25, 2014
The movie is tense and coiled for its first hour, then becomes routine in its second half. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlSep 23, 2014
Fuqua steadily parades his big moments, and the movie works as unhinged spectacle. As a thriller it's less certain. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanSep 22, 2014
Though overstretched and a trifle ponderous, this is a solidly acceptable star vehicle with more than enough righteous vengeance for an evening of classy thrills. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 26, 2014
There’s a special kind of hell for artists who array vigilante revenge-porn in saintly garb, and Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua should go to the front of that damnable line after The Equalizer. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 25, 2014
This Equalizer is a brooding, brutal origin tale, one that starts well but steadily caves into genre clichés. It’s a B-movie sheep in A-movie clothing, acceptable meathead mayhem as long as you know what you’re paying for. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 25, 2014
Mr. Fuqua, who did such a fine job directing Mr. Washington and Ethan Hawke in "Training Day," loses control of an increasingly slapdash script, and the whole movie turns into a slaughterhouse. The question isn't who wants it — box office action is assured — but who needs it? Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 25, 2014
For an hour or so The Equalizer glides along and works; in the second hour, plus change, it turns into a shameless slaughter contrivance with a flabby sense of pace. I did like one line: "When you pay for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too." Washington's the rain; by the end, the movie is the mud. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 7, 2014
Not particularly sophisticated, the searing intensity of revenge in The Equalizer is still occasionally arresting (and even entertaining) in its stylish hard-R violence. Read full review
50
VarietyScott FoundasSep 7, 2014
Ponderously overlong and not even half as much fun as it should have been, The Equalizer still gets a lot of mileage out of Washington’s unassailable star presence. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanSep 26, 2014
The lunacy to which The Equalizer descends is especially disappointing because the movie starts out with some promise. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 24, 2014
It’s just more joyless junk, another title to bury at the bottom of Fuqua’s resume. Read full review
42
HitfixDrew McWeenySep 7, 2014
It's a dull film. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 25, 2014
Fuqua’s film is lacking much of an intelligible plot other than “tough hombre rights wrongs in ways pushing the boundaries of a 15 rating”. Read full review
40
The DissolveScott TobiasSep 25, 2014
Say this for The Equalizer: It gets the job done, and that job, to quote A Clockwork Orange, is delivering a little of the old ultra-violence. Read full review
40
The GuardianPaul MacInnesSep 9, 2014
Denzel is so cool, so made of pure nails he can make even the most preposterous action scene feel thrilling. But Denzel's strength is also his weakness. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChristopher GraySep 25, 2014
All this should build up to a moderately engaging battle of wits, but Richard Wenk's script has little interest in wit and no capacity for psychology. Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 25, 2014
For all of The Equalizer’s overkill, Washington retains an admirable air of seriousness, embodying McCall as a believable figure of purity and protection, even when he’s going after his opponents with methodical, thoughtfully choreographed sadism. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernSep 24, 2014
It's the sign of an empty, depressing experience when the only tension is over Bob's choice to use a power drill or a weed whacker for his next kill. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 24, 2014
The Equalizer is a stone-dumb movie. Read full review
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