Wake Up With Denzel Kicking All Sorts of Ass as the Equalizer

“The Equalizer” films have been making a run on basic cable over the last couple of weeks. And while I’m not about to argue they are peak “Glory”/“Remember the Titans”/“Training Day”-level Denzel Washington, even second-tier Denzel is as good as anyone.

I get Shawshanked by these all the time and I know exactly why. Because the best archetype of all time is the quiet loner with the guts to do what needs to be done, according to his own moral code. From Duke Wayne in “The Searchers” to Clint Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy, Mad Max to John Rambo, Batman to the Mandalorian. The badass who rights wrongs for no reason other than he’s the one who can. And when those wrongs are a bunch of rich, smug, sexual-assaulting cokeheads and the hero in question is posing as a Boston rideshare driver who will kick your ass with your credit cards and rpower ties - the very symbols of your moral bankruptcy - that’s as badass as it gets.