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The Boxtrolls
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The Equalizer
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The Boxtrolls
The Calgary International Film Festival ends this weekend so if you haven’t had a chance to see anything yet you still have time. If you’re looking for something that hits the lizard brain sweet spot this weekend’s best bet is The Equalizer. It looks like the usual action stuff — Denzel Washington’s goes medieval on some sadistic Russian gangsters presumably in a quest to save wet noodle Chloe Grace Moretz. (OK she’s not that insufferable — she added some much-needed pathos to the otherwise awful Carrie remake — but she still seems like a smug teenager riding on stardom not talent.)
The Equalizer reunites Washington with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua still riding the success of the inexplicably popular Olympus Has Fallen the poor man’s President in peril version of White House Down which was itself a poor man’s Air Force One. (Sans airplane.) Anyway Training Day as everyone knows gave Denzel the Oscar he should have won for Malcolm X. The film has aged as well as a solid cop drama typically does part of Denzel’s cannon of action flicks showcasing his winningly ingratiating blend of witty (occasionally snaky) charm and gravitas. He lends otherwise mediocre to good and occasionally great flicks (Safe House American Gangster Déjà Vu Man on Fire Unstoppable… the list goes on) the sort of celebrity magnetism that makes movie-going such an easy habit.
For the kiddies and animation fans Laika Studios (Coraline ParaNorman) returns with more stop motion magic with The BoxTrolls. This one looks weaker than the studio’s previous outings – the story of an orphan raised by dumpster-diving trolls sounds like generic grade school fodder – but the technical side of things might make it worth checking out.
