Denzel Washington

Just when pundits had begun to reduce the Oscar fracas to a two-horse race between toe-tapping populist favorite La La Land and critically-adored downbeat character piece Moonlight, a possible spoiler has come out of nowhere. Last night, the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards gave Hollywood’s union of performers a chance to recognize some of their own whom had done outstanding work over the past year. The most coveted award of the ceremony is the prize for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture, regarded by some as a bellweather for Oscar night, and it went to unexpected contender Hidden Figures.

“If this were a TV show, I’d watch it every single week.” These were the words I spoke right after watching Antoine Fuqua’s theatrical version of ‘The Equalizer,’ which is kind of a dumb thing to say considering that ‘The Equalizer’ was a TV show. Though, this updated version of ‘The Equalizer’ bears little resemblance to the mid-‘80s version, even though it kind of has everything to do with it.

The new trailer for 'The Equalizer' essentially doubles down on what the other trailers have only hinted at: this movie is all about taking weird pleasure in watching a remarkably calm Denzel Washington kill off the Russian mob. It looks nothing like the TV show it's supposedly based on, but it does look like it'll fall right in line with the bulk of Washington's modern filmography. Once again, he plays the coolest guy in the room and once again, he's a good enough actor to make it all look oh-so-easy.

Do you like Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg cracking jokes with each other while watching them shoot things and blow stuff up? Well then, you're probably gonna love '2 Guns.'