The Equalizer (2014)

Awards
- 1 win & 9 nominations

Trivia
The script originally had no back story about Robert, so Denzel Washington contributed much to the character's background and back story, including McCall having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In addition to his daily physical and fight training before filming, Washington met and interviewed several real-life OCD sufferers in order to gain insights on how to play that disorder correctly.

Goofs
The quote shown at the start of the movie, "The two most important days of your life are the day you're born and the day you find out why." is attributed to Mark Twain whereas the source of this quote is actually unknown.

Quotes
Robert McCall: When you pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too.

Crazy credits
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. -- Mark Twain

Alternate versions
The UK cinema, DVD and Blu-ray versions are cut for violence to secure a 15 rating, removing or reducing the following:
The closeup of the corkscrew being pushed further into Tevi's mouth, and the final shot of his face right before it's withdrawn.
The first shot of the mercenary bleeding and choking on the barbed wire noose.
Columbia made additional cuts in two more scenes, which appear not to have been requested by the BBFC:
A closeup of Teddy beating Little John's bloodied face twice, and a shot from behind that shows him readying another punch.
The gangster being impaled through the neck was shortened at the start and end.
The six cuts total approximately 15 seconds. The UK Ultra HD Blu-ray is uncut and rated 18.

Connections
Featured in The Equalizer: A Villain's Psychosis (2014)

Soundtracks
Sixteen
Written by Screamin' Jay Hawkins (as Jay Hawkins), Chris Ellul, Kelvin Swaby, Daniel Taylor (as Dan Taylor) and Spencer Page
Performed by The Heavy
Courtesy of Counter Records
By arrangement with Zync Music Group LLC

For years now I've had people tell me I have to watch this and for whatever reason I've kept putting it off. Today I apologise, because this is a fantastic film and I really enjoyed it.

What struck me straight away was that first 20 mins or so. I'm sold. It tells us the characters you can see where it's heading and it fished me in quickly. From then on it was just an insane and tense ride. What was great was that every scene had a purpose, there was no messing about, no filler scenes with no point. Everything meant something and that's a rarity in this day and age. The suspense by the way, wow. Had me on strings the entire time, never knew which was it was heading.

I really enjoyed the characters as well. Denzel wasn't just this stereotypical action guy that went round shooting people. There was so more more to him, more complexity if you will and with that there was more to delve into. You definitely get a John Wick vibe to this movie and with the main character, so if you like that. You'll like this.

Just a quick mention, I would have liked to have seen Elena/Teri more, I felt she had a lot of depth that could have been explored. I think my only I guess negative was that the villains "evilness" wasn't explained. Or explained well. Not sure if I missed it, but I didn't truly get why he was so "evil".

But yeah, overall I really enjoyed my time watching this and I'll be jumping on the Equaliser 2 asap. Definitely recommend if you like an action. A very strong 8/10 from me today.