Thursday 2014-11-20

The Equalizer written by Richard Wenk, directed by Antoine Fuqua

Over-qualified Home Depot associate cleans up neighborhood by destroying the Home Depot, Boston Harbor, and a Russian Mafia.

This film is basically an HR problem. The protagonist -- an esteemed coworker -- has US military operational experience, and is under-challenged by his part-time work at Home Depot. Because he takes up outside work to alleviate his boredom, he has non-work-related injuries and has unexplained absences.

In the larger picture, what happens to soldiers when an army de-mobilizes? In an era of easy globalization, do those skills just move on to other conflicts?

Speaking of which, both this film and JohnWick feature Russians as bad guys. It seems that Hollywood's favorite bad guy is now Putin's Russia. Maybe US troops won't be de-mobilized anytime soon....