IN the 1980s TV show about an avenging angel for the common man, Edward Woodward found work by putting an ad in the paper. “Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer”. Short, sweet, efficient. In Equalizer 2, itself a follow-up to the 2014 film of the TV show – do keep up, dear – the modest hero, played here by Denzel Washington, is a taxi for hire, driving around, Uber-style, until someone needs his services. He then decides if the passenger also needs his special skills as a former secret service operative. It is a random way to work, and one in keeping with a film that takes an age to find its course.

When we catch up again with Robert McCall (Washington) he has quite the packed diary, ranging from returning an abducted child to her mother to finding a lost painting. There are problems to be fixed closer to home, too, including a young neighbour on the brink of falling into a life of gangs and drugs. McCall’s progress through this “to do” list, all the while acquiring new cases, is a long, wearying slog punctuated by bursts of some very nasty violence when the Equalizer gets round to settling scores. It is only when a case comes along involving his old boss (played by Melissa Leo) that the film finally snaps into shape.

A tendency to wander around like a Sunday driver is not The Equalizer’s only problem. There are worse things in cinema than being in Denzel Washington’s company. The Glory and Malcolm X star, whose career was rejuvenated by teaming up with Fuqua for Training Day, always has charisma to burn. The quiet, obsessively neat McCall, whose idea of a good time is working his way through a list of 100 classic novels, is an intriguing character, an enforcer who is even more intimidating to the bad guys because of his low key, no fuss style. The ones who make the mistake of thinking he’s some old busybody soon learn the error of their ways.

Age does turns out to be relevant, though, when it comes to some of the film’s action scenes. If the self-started rumour mill is true and Idris Elba does turn out to be the new Bond he already has a head start over the incumbent, Daniel Craig, in age. While the Pacific Rim and Luther star is 45, Craig has just entered the 50 Club of ageing action men, there to take his place alongside Tom Cruise (56) and Jason Statham (51).

Denzel Washington, at 63, is in the class above. Cruise’s latest thrill-a-minute Mission: Impossible showed that age does not matter, but it does here, with Washington occasionally coming across as more lumbering than lithe. It is the same when McCall tries to talk to his neighbour in a way he thinks the youngster will understand. In both instances, Washington is unconvincing. While it is more the screenplay’s problem than his, the jarring disconnect is there.

Fuqua and Washington manage to deliver a strong ending, but the energy wasted on the way makes for a baggy film. What do you know: it turns out that the book McCall is currently reading is In Search of Lost Time. After two hours of this I knew the feeling.

There is hardly a shortage of tributes to the great man, so you may wonder what a new documentary, The Eyes of Orson Welles (12A) **** can bring to the party. This one, however, is by one of our favourite film anoraks, Mark Cousins, and he has something novel to offer. Cousins gained access to a box of Welles’s art work, and through it he begins to see the Citizen Kane director’s films anew.

Cousins, who does everything on the film bar deliver it to every cinema (though I would not put it past him), presents the piece as a love letter addressed to Welles, which sounds irritating but is rather sweet. Another coup is an interview with Welles’ daughter, Beatrice, though Cousins does not make as much of this as he should. A fascinating film, with even the most dedicated Wellesian likely to come away with something new.