I had a few hours to kill yesterday, so I decided to see a movie. I’ve been wanting to see something in the fancy new IMAX/RPX theaters at Destiny, and the only thing playing in that format was The Equalizer. I like Denzel Washington and was in the mood for some good bad guy butt kicking.
Spoilers alert! The basic story is retired ex-assassin tries to live a normal life, disconnected from his past. Everything is going fine until he starts a chance non-business relationship with a hooker. Pimp beats up hooker, the lead goes after her pimp and his crew, killing them all.
Unknown to him, he the pimp and his crew aren’t just dime-a-dozen pimps, but higher ups in a russian mafia. Chaos escalates as a cleaner is sent over from the mother land to avenge the deaths. After some back and forth, the lead and cleaner have their showdown in a Home Depot (rebranded Home Mart) after which, the lead goes to the mother land to off the big mob boss.
In the epilog, the lead reconnects with the hooker and she’s got a new life, on the right track. The movie ends with the lead with an A-Team-seque response to Craigslist ad for someone that’s in trouble that needs help.
All in all, I was pretty entertained throughout. The violence was a little over the top (death by corkscrew, barbed wire, powerdrill, and nail gun) invoking a little cringing but I’m not sure if that’s really pushing the bar, or just that I haven’t seen anything violent in ages.
Digital IMAX is pretty amazing. Picture was bright and clear (branded as a SONY DLP experience), with no digital artifacts (unlike the last standard digital movie that I saw.) Sound was also very good, plenty loud, but not hurt-your-momma loud the like the previews. Plenty of neat sound stuff with bullets whizzing by and hearing stuff happening off screen.
Wasn’t super happy about the $19.25 price tag ($18 + $1.25 convenience fee to buy ticket at home), but ended up thinking it was mostly worth it.
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