What the corpus says about The Equalizer (2014)

You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished The Equalizer (2014) and wants to know what to watch next.

Below is what people who love movies said on three podcasts (Blank Check, The Rewatchables, The Big Picture) about The Equalizer (2014) and the films around it, one line each. Every line starts with where it came from, in brackets: [show · episode · time · speaker (how sure we are it was them)]. A [pairs] line says how often two films were put side by side. A [speaker] line says what that person likes. A [bits] line lists a show's running bits: a format, not an opinion.

[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:07:29 · Shea Serrano (0.60)] Taken ⇒ The Equalizer (the host's read) · lineage · Taken's box office started a subgenre of an older star beating up younger bad guys, and The Equalizer is the first example. · "There's a whole subgenre of movies after taking exploded at the box office where everybody's like, oh, shoot, we just have to get an old person and let them fight young people"
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:21:10 · Bill Simmons (0.80)] The Equalizer ↔ Chris Ryan · theme · Chris Ryan pitched The Equalizer to Simmons as Denzel killing a bunch of dudes in a Home Depot. · "Denzel kills a bunch of dudes in a Home Depot."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:01:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.30)] Denzel Washington ↔ The Equalizer · career · Denzel's brand is secure from the Equalizer movies, so he can take a risky villain part. · "I do the equalizer."
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:07:45 · Shea Serrano (0.60)] Taken ⇒ John Wick (the host's read) · lineage · John Wick may belong to the subgenre Taken started, though Wick is a more elaborate 5 o'clocker. · "Probably even John Wick, maybe."
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:18:47 · Shea Serrano (0.60)] Taken ⇒ Kidnap (the host's read) · lineage · Kidnap is another of the movies stemming from Taken. · "Kidnap is another one of the stemmed off of taken movies, so it's funny that you mentioned it."
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:42:00 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Taken ↔ Taken 3 · lineage · Taken 3 is conceded as horrific. · "let's concede that taken 3 was horrific"
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:43:16 · Shea Serrano (0.70)] Taken ↔ Taken 2 · lineage · The first film works because there is no main villain and Neeson figures it out as we watch; Taken 2 gives him a known enemy. · "I like Liam Neeson figuring it out. I don't like him being pitted in a spot where we know exactly what he has to do."
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:10:08 · Shea Serrano (0.70)] Commando ⇒ Taken (the host's read) · theme · Taken returned to the basic Schwarzenegger/Stallone template, but with a real actor selling the lines. · "We're still going to have him do all of the same stuff that a Schwarzenegger or Stallone would do in commando or cobra, but now we've got a guy who, when he says things into the camera, when he gives the phone speech, you feel it."
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:14:44 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] The Grey ↔ Taken · theme · Neeson's later action films each fit the five-words-or-less 5 o'clocker test: The Grey, Non-Stop, The Commuter. · "Liam Neeson wilderness wolves."
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:45:40 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Taken ↔ Training Day · theme · Bad guys playing cards at the hideout is a staple, as in Training Day, which was even more intense. · "this happened in training day as well, and training day was even more intense"
[The Rewatchables · 'Taken' · 0:52:34 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] Furious 7 ↔ Taken · theme · Toddlers are like cars without brakes, as in Furious 7 with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. · "in fact, in Furious seven. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in that car are jumping across buildings because there's no breaks in it."
[speaker] Bill Simmons · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · Loves the Friday series as a communal, rental-era memory and tells childhood stories about the ads and theaters. Likes casting what-ifs and sports analogies for everything. Skeptical of horror at Christmas and of anything that wastes the premise. · stances: Friday the 13th is not the best entry but the origin story had to be told; Friday 2 is a leap over the original
[speaker] Sean Fennessey · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Resident Evil’ Absolutely Rips! · Loves gory, funny, fast genre movies with craft and confidence, especially 87-minute films that never overstay. Can't stand ponderous elevated horror that fills out its runtime with introspection and sad family history. A sucker for the Carpenter-era lineage, Die Hard homages, and directors who break studio dogma. · stances: Resident Evil is one of the best films of the year; Horror movies have become a drag; fun genre experiences are needed; Short running times are a virtue; Video-game films work best when great filmmakers get creative license
[speaker] Shea Serrano · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Fast 9’ and the ‘Fast & Furious’ Rankings · The franchise's biggest fan, loves family, Dom, Letty and stunts, and the first film as the centerpiece. Shrugs at villains and wants smaller street-racing again. · stances: The Fast and the Furious is number one; Tokyo Drift is the keystone; Worst moments are still really fun
[bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
[bits] The Rewatchables: Apex Mountain (The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits); Who Won the Movie (The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off); The Ebert review (Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show); Casting what-ifs (Who was almost cast, or who should have been); Most rewatchable scene (The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels); Aged best / aged worst (What holds up and what does not); Picking Nits (The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits); Double feature (The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick)

Recommend three to six films, and only films that appear in these lines. A series, a TV film, or a franchise counts too when a line recommends it or pairs it with The Equalizer (2014); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend The Equalizer (2014) itself. For each one, give one short reason in your own words and say whose reason it is: the show, named exactly as the brackets name it, and the speaker when the line names one (an "unknown" speaker is just the show). If the lines are thin, say so plainly rather than stretching them.

Keep a contrast a contrast. When a line sets two films apart, the reason is how they differ; never turn it into a way they're alike. A line with ⇒ puts the source first and what drew on it second, and one marked "the maker said so" is still the host reporting it: say who said it, and never state an influence as fact.

You know only what's on these lines. Add no fact they don't state: not who directed a film, not what kind of film it is, not when it came out, unless a line says so. Say nothing about the store or how anything rents here.

Talk the way a clerk talks to a customer at the counter: plain text, titles written plainly with no asterisks or other markup, no headings, no lists of more than six, no JSON.