CREDIT: SONY PICTURES
Guns? Check. Explosions? Check. Denzel? Check. Riddled with cliches and violence, The Equalizer has something for action junkies.

Boston is a city of contradictions. The happy face of Americana hides a seedy underbelly of corruption, where no one is who they seem to be. This is where Bob McCall, played by Denzel Washington, has made his home.

Based on a TV show from the ‘80s, The Equalizer is about a man who must put aside his peaceful new life to help a young girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) is used and abused by the Russian mob.

If you’re looking for something completely new and original, this movie doesn’t have a lot to offer.

From the stereotypical bad guy Russians to the overly clichéd lines and overused dramatic closeups, this is a typical action movie through and through.

However, The Equalizer seems to recognize its own failing, with many of the scenes almost seeming to play homage to the action movies of the past two decades, specifically The Boondock Saints, Sherlock Holmes (the Robert Downey Jr. version, that is) and Sin City. There’s even an amazing tribute to every Michael Bay action movie ever, with Denzel walking in slow motion in front of an exaggerated and unnecessary explosion.

While the movie entertained with its over-the-top antics, there are some points where it definitely drags on, making it feel much longer than its 131-minute runtime. There are many times when the camera simply sits on the results of ultraviolence, seeming to revel in the grisly nature of the assassinations, and there are several scenes where metaphors are driven into the ground, or issues are alluded to and then dropped, never to be mentioned again. There’s also an odd cameo scene with Bill Pullman, who played the president in Independence Day, where Denzel places his supposed friends in danger of being tracked down by the Russian mob for no real reason.

Many of the characters’ choices don’t make a great deal of sense, including using a wide variety of less effective murder weapons when there are many, many guns just lying around. The audience is also left to wonder how a man working at a hardware store has access to, and the money to afford, a large amount of security equipment and explosives, as well as a spare emergency apartment.

While it’s often hard to pay attention to in action movies in general, the musical score is amazing. Even though the sound editing could be improved in some scenes, the music manages to be perfectly on point. The use of Zack Hemsey’s “Vengeance” during the most cinematic fight scene of the movie is a stroke of genius, and huge names like Eminem and Prince appear on the official soundtrack.

Whether you’re annoyed by clichés or find them endearing, The Equalizer still offers a great deal as a generic action movie, full of blood, guts, and vigilante justice. Where the juxtaposition of ultraviolence and apple pie Americana can be jarring at times, this only serves to highlight the different worlds everyday citizens must live in.

The filthy underbelly of Boston is exposed, and Bob McCall is there to clean house.