John Wick vs. The Equalizer

just recently re-watched these. both feature outrageously talented but very different types of assassins as their protagonist.

wick is a legendary underworld hitman, mccall is a seemingly ordinary man whose past is a mystery. wick is motivated by a vendetta, mccall is motivated by justice as a protector of the oppressed and vulnerable. wick is a man of few words who performs gun-fu (apparently that's a thing) in intense and lengthy, highly choregraphed fight sequences. mccall is more personable and empathetic whose combat style is more black ops commando with a calm, calculated but ruthlessly cold hearted style of killing.

so, two questions.

first, which do you think is the better film - john wick 1 or the equalizer 1?

and second, if these two were pitted off against each other with no plot armour to protect them, who do you think would win and why?

Said in the Lounge, but the problem have with John Wick is that don't care what is going on. And never feels like he's under any threat. Movies feel like a screensaver, for all the action, gets incredibly boring, esp with so many released for what was a simple concept.

Thinking about it, most of the scenes I like in The Equalizer aren't actually the action scenes, it's the character and namely, Denzel Washington, who by default will raise the quality of anything up.

Like, this is my fav scene in the series. The eye movement to the wife casually talking to her. Pick the kid up, don't turn his back. A sly "**** you" tone.

These kind of nuts and bolts Deathwish type movies where it's overpowered man minding his own business but is actually deadly as hell are always fun. Taken (even though it kinda sucks) seems to have revitalized them.

If you were just going by action scenes John Wick is miles better. But again, I don't care about what is going on.

Can watch any number of random Asian movies that are better with actual stories. Hero for example, giant epic of a movie. I care about what is going on in that movie.

But yea, John Wick would win in a fight. Equalizer man would have the better theme tune.

JW is what a teenager or a kid would prefer. Equalizer is for grown ass adults. Not only is equalizer far superior (even EQ2 is better than any JW movie, and EQ2 is far inferior to EQ1 and EQ3), but Denzel is one of the best actors in hollywood, while Reeves is like a 6.5/10 actor, maybe a 7.5/10 in his best roles.

Eventhough I liked the John Wick movies more the second time around, I mean all of this still comes down to him losing a dog, a cherished dog, which is a weird thing to set all of this into motion.

He falls off a building for crying out loud.

But on the other hand I like that he and Lawrence Fishborne team up again. Same thing with Dakota Fanning and Denzel Washington, these are the kind of team ups that I want in a movie, not those silly Spidermand and Dr Strange.

@uninspiredcup: **** me I forgot how menacing Denzel is.

I need to have myself a Denzel-a-thon. I don't even think I've seen The Equalizer movies. Did love Book of Eli, though.

What the hell.

I don't know Equalizer. John Wick is mediocre, as I explained in my Chapter 4 thoughts.

Tourist movie. See and fight in famous European places (masked in heavy color filters), strangely ignored by the police and even generally bystanders. At the Berlin rave everybody just kept dancing as they hacked and shot at each other and then suddenly for some reason they ran. I heard screams, but all their faces were calm. At the famous Arc de Triomphe, everybody drives really fast and nobody stops in spite of all the shooting. The scene looks very fake. Famous cathedral is almost totally empty of tourists so that the society of criminals can talk in peace. As staged as the the action... Nobody aims, takes a moment to steady on John Wick's head. He is constantly exposed. They just charge into his line of sight.

There are scenes I would watch again, but they are in a B-rate straight to video quality written, kind of boring movie. Only watched the first John Wick before this and was not going to check out 2 and 3 just because my brother wanted to watch 4 together. They're not good. Cool sometimes, but not good.

I think Keannu Reeves is trying less at acting with age.

The 4/5 (letterboxd) and 7.9/10 (imdb) averages with viewers are strange. I think it's partly because this fourth movie is curated, if I'm using the word correctly. I mean that mostly people who are really into these movies will watch up to this point in the series.

This post from rpgcodex is good.

Rewatched John Wick (2014) this week. I haven't seen it since it first came out (I can't believe that movie is almost a decade old).

I remember liking it well enough at the time, but this rewatch really left me cold. It probably didn't help that I also rewatched Thief (1981) this week, as well. Even though Keanu kills roughly 8 million people in John Wick and James Caan kills, like, 6 in Thief, it is Caan's character who actually scared me. Both characters are supposed to be men with nothing left to lose, but Caan is the only one of the two who actually made me believe it.

It's not just a difference in acting, though. While I know that John Wick is an action movie and Thief is more of a drama, everything outside of the action in John Wick is pretty damn stupid. And not in a "dumb fun" kind of way, either. The beginning is way too depressing for what should be action schlock like Commando or Cobra.

Also, I kind of hated how John Wick is this force of nature who gets by on skill and will instead of using his brain. The club scene is a good example of this. He just walks into the middle of the dance floor at one point, somehow instantly aware of goons rushing at him from every direction despite the deafening music and pulsing lights. That scene could have so much cooler if he did something clever to handle that situation instead of just brute forcing it. I might be able to forgive that more if the action was amazingly choreographed, but, while it certainly is good, it's not even close to the best Hong Kong stuff.

I was going to say that it's hard to believe that this somewhat above average movie got three sequels, but then I remember that the Fast & Furious franchise is up to...what, like 10 damn movies? So, I guess it's not that surprising that there are four John Wick flicks.

Interestingly, Thief seems to be one of the first movies where the the actor received training in modern firearms technique, so in at least that way, it's more of a direct ancestor to John Wick than you might think.

I know, right? WHAT THE HELL!

If it makes you feel any better, I literally just pressed "play" on The Equalizer. So...I'll get back to y'all in a couple hours.

*edit*

*SPOILER*

OK, wow...Equalizer rules. Denzel rules. Still have 30 minutes left but wow holy shit here is little ol' Denzel and now suddenly the CIA is involved and he is best friends with a woman that's in pictures with the president?! WHAT!?

Equalizer

Equalizer is dope, I saw the first one in theaters and loved it, need to see 3 still.

But yeah Denzel don't miss, training day, man on fire, John q, book of Eli, American gangster, remember the titans, he's never bad

Give me the Equalizer movies. John Wick 1 was fantastic time though. I've enjoyed the others but they aren't favorites.

If you haven't seen Nobody, I highly recommend it. Fantastic movie in this genre.

OK so I watched the first two Equalizers just now and I am watching the third at the moment.

Really enjoying them so far. They're not THE BEST but they're pretty great. Just when I think I've had my fill of Liam Neeson-type "Old man doing action movie shit", I discover these movies and think "You know what? Let the ol' farts have their fun. If they want to be retirement age and still star in action movies, let them!"

Anyway, first one was great. Second was entertaining but not as good. Third one I'm too early to tell but it's definitely more espionage than vigilante than the first two.

If you like these movies, I highly recommend "Nobody" starring the great Bob Odenkirk

Hard to choose. They both suck so much.

Maybe Equalizer. So funny in the end when he killed all those guards, but they didn't show any of it since Denzel is too old for that kind of action. Was so lame I couldn't help but laugh.

@mrbojangles25 love how this thread inspired you to do a equalizer marathon lol. glad you enjoyed them. i rewatched them all over xmas and absolutely loved the first. second and third good too.

@uninspiredcup having rewatched them in the right order this time instead of reverse and now understanding the backstory with susan, that scene in eq2 connected much better, definitely a great scene. but i'd take robert mccall in a vs battle. wick's too gung-ho, too conspicuous. he'd walk straight into a trap. lights out before he even suspected a thing.

you've just seen him take out the russian mafia's equivalent of john wick and all his henchmen lol. did you really need to see him kill all pushkin's guards rather than just pushkin himself?

and you blame that on his age, despite what he's done throughout the film, rather than it would 've added another 15-20 mins to the film and be completely superfluous at that point lol. i thought it was a nice way to end having him lay the trap to electrocute pushkin then casually stroll out past all the bodies he'd left throughout the mansion

interestingly, to me anyway lol, dexter the tv show had already done a season with a plot based around dealing with a deadly ukrainian hitman sent over after dexter killed a ukrainian gangster from a miami strip club. that was 2012, equalizer 1 was 2014. probably not the first to do it either but was curious if there was any influence

i dont know equalizer

I suppose I prefer the Equalizer.

John Wick just comes off as too rehearsed. A large part of the enjoyment of any film for me comes in the suspension of disbelief I can hold onto to engross myself into the respective fiction it's trying to sell. John Wick looks like a choreographed dance of death, and for any violence to persuade me it's genuine, there needs to be an element of unpredictability and spontaneity in it. To put it another way: it's too clean, too perfect. And when he's chopping through guys to the point where one hundred corpses lay in his wake after 10 minutes of constant fighting, I can't help but roll my eyes and simply enjoy the show for the spectacle it is. It gets boring when nothing is an obstacle.

The Equalizer is a bit more plausible in its violence. John Wick is simply gun porn turned up to 11 and while fun, like a roller coaster ride, it's ultimately shallow, predictable, and unsatisfying at the deeper level I crave from my media.

I don't remember him doing anything acrobatic throughout the movie. To take out those guards in the end would've forced him to move more acrobatically, so they chose to not show it.

Felt ridiculous and made me laugh, I'm sorry.

These kinda Deathwish movies aren't really about martial arts.

They are more slasher movies in reverse where the good guy is the slasher and the villains are the victims.

After having watched all three Equalizer movies and the first three John Wick movies (still need to see the 4th), I must say they are all great action movies, with great stars and interesting plots and supporting characters.

Keannu has a very charismatic, likeable aura to him where he somehow manages to play a literal murderer (well, hitman/assassin) that your manage to root for with a tragic past.

Denzel on the other hand plays a very human former "operator" of the government who is trying to find his place in the world, and is doing a really good job being a positive presence while not resorting to full-blown vigilantism (well, he does...but still). He is kind to good people, and legitimately tries to give bad guys a chance to do the right thing, and is a full-blown terror when they fail to do the right thing.

They both play the "boogeyman to bad guys" role well, though I admire McCall's involvement in the ordinary person's life a lot from a story and narrative standpoint. Wick's detachment from the real world leaves a bit of a void in the world he inhabits, though admittedly his attachment to the "underworld" of the Wick films is a major draw for me (I love how they have their own shops, their own special hotels, their own currency, this interested network, etc).

Now, as for the question: who would win in a direct fight?

John Wick. No contest.

There is something borderline supernatural to John Wick. I believe he was described as, more or less, the physical manifestation of "pure ****ing willpower".

McCall would be a worthy adversary, but in the time he starts his timer and does his mental math and planning, Wick would have killed him three times.

I'm not saying McCall can't improvise, I just don't think McCall could really match Wick's proficiency at ranged and melee combat, his mental fortitude, and his physical endurance.

With that said, I think they are both great characters and I reckon their shared sense of honor and mutual respect would mean that a.) they wouldn't ever fight, and b.) if they did fight, they'd probably honor and respect eachother enough to not kill eachother. After all, Keannu let Common get away with his life.

Haha yeah, I don't watch too many movies these days (too many games to play!) so when I finally do get motivated, it's reason to celebrate and why not celebrate with a marathon :D

Two very different styles of action movie.

John Wick leans more Hong Kong style, especially John Woo style (it's in the name). It's a homage to HK "gun fu" flicks of the '80s and '90s. The emphasis is mainly on the choreographed action scenes.

Equaliser leans more classic Hollywood action movie style. It's a homage to classic Hollywood action movies of the '80s and '90s. The emphasis is mainly on the story and script.

nothing wrong with that, i was just surprised by your take.

i actually thought the equalizer films handle denzel's age really well throughout the trilogy and portray him age appropriately, unlike a lot of the shitty liam neeson, bruce willis modern action films where they're playing characters that act like they're still in their twenties doing all sorts of eye rolling acrobatics and stunts. on that subject if they do another john wick keanu will be over 60 😬

That's a good take to have. I'm way more negative than that, which is lame for me. Enjoying things is more fun.

To me, it felt like they wanted to star Denzel only because he's very popular right now (you know how Hollywood stars a person in everything no matter the type of movie when they're popular?), and wanted to do basically what Taken did, and had to compromise things because of Denzel's age. Maybe I'd enjoy the sequels more, but I doubt it.

Keanu's 60 is like a normal person's 40. He can do it. :P

Taken, btw, made me laugh too. 14 cuts to show Liam jumping over a fence. xD

I enjoyed John Wick 4, don't get me wrong...but my god, I think the few dozen (or hundred?) henchmen killed in that movie have worse aim than Stormtroopers from Star Wars.

Fun movie though!

Yeah I will be honest, after watching all three Equalizer movies and then John Wick 4, I found it very hard to adjust to the different styles. John Wick almost seemed cartoonish and, in a way, it sort of is and that's a lot of fun. I mean that's kind of the point. I had to really suspend my disbelief when watching John Wick 4.

With that said, both movies are pretty preposterous (in a good way!) so it's not like one is really more believable than the other. Well I guess The Equalizer is; John Wick is almost reaching fantasy or sci-fi levels of creative liberty.

No action movie done better than John wick when it comes to action.

Like JW for the over-the-top action, and The Equalizer for being a somewhat grounded show (obviously not that grounded). Also like the lore of JW, and have just started The Continental on Prime.

I love both because they're equally ridicuous. Younger man, murdering people by the dozens for the sport of it...or old man, murdering people by the handful at a slightly slower pace for the sport of it.