Freeview film of the day: The Equalizer

Premiere

9.00-11.35pm C5

Edward Woodward fans may fondly recall The Equalizer, his US crime series of the late 1980s, but you can approach this slick 2014 upgrade with no prior knowledge of his character. Robert McCall, a retired, widowed black ops agent works off the grid at a Boston DIY store and now looks like Denzel Washington. “Old man’s gotta be the old man, fish has gotta be the fish,” he philosophises in a diner to Chloe Grace Moretz’s sharp teen prostitute, forging a bond that drives the plot when the Russian mafia enter. A high-octane vigilante ballet from Antoine Fuqua (who also steered Denzel to Oscar glory in Training Day), its scenes of violence are exquisitely staged in vari-speed, and a cueball-headed Washington exudes righteous cool while agents Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman, also retired, feed him intel. It may also give you some DIY ideas.

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