If we’ve learned one thing from Taken, it’s that serious, soft-spoken thespians are the only thing protecting innocent American girls from the claws of those devious Eastern Europeans. If you’re a fan of this kind of movie, rejoice! Liam Neeson might be busy walking among tombstones, but Denzel Washington is available to fulfil your need for righteous violence.

The Equalizer is an adaption of the 80s TV series of the same name and stars Washington as Robert McCall, a quiet man with a mysterious past in US intelligence. Between his day job at the Home Mart and his nights reading in a 24-hour diner, he appears to be running out the clock on his life in as routine a manner as possible. When he sees the brutal treatment of a young working girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) at the hands of Russian gangsters, he decides to utilise his formidable ass-kicking skills in the service of the downtrodden. As the situation escalates, McCall finds himself playing cat-and-mouse with corrupt cops, local mobsters and ruthless international hit men.

This film is directed by Antoine Fuqua, master of humourless, gritty action films like Shooter and Olympus Has Fallen. Compared to his previous work, he is coasting here. The Equalizer is utterly mediocre. McCall displays the same standard improvisational fighting skills that we’ve seen done better in the Bourne films or even Sherlock Holmes. His character’s backstory is bereft of any originality (you can guess how the history with the ex-wife plays out), and for the bulk of the film he seems nigh-invulnerable, emotionally and physically. The baddies are even less imaginative, comprising entirely of the usual group of mob stereotypes distinguished only by their macabre tattoos and funky facial hair.

All that said, Denzel Washington is a fine actor who brings both gravitas and serious action chops to the role. He could do this kind of film in his sleep, so it’s a testament to him that he makes such a generic story more compelling than you’d expect. Chloë Grace Moretz is also good – albeit in a small part. She’s absent from most of the film once the violence starts, and her continued presence could have made the story less predictable. The film walks a fine line, being viscerally satisfying (watching horrible people get a horrible comeuppance at the hands of our hyper-competent protagonist) without becoming as gratuitously sadistic as Taken or the Deathwish series.

Only see The Equalizer if you have a real hankering for vigilante films but you’ve run out of good ones on Netflix. If you’re looking for something great, try something else.