Movie Star Blog

I had an opportunity to watch “Inside Man”, the new Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen movie. As I have always enjoyed caper movies and given the actors involved and that it is directed by Spike Lee, it was a given that this would be something that I would really enjoy. And I did! Recommended!

The fine script by Russell Gerwitz provides an excellent puzzler about a bank heist that isn’t quite what it seems. The performances by Clive Owen and Jodie Foster are an absolute pleasure. And though Denzel Washington is not the best actor we have, he’s the best actor who is also a movie star. As so often, he’s unbelievably good in this.

Even someone who paid only a marginal amount of attention to the movie (like the two teenagers behind me who were making out and chattering the whole fucking time) will notice that Spike references the rampant racism among the police and the ways in which they rationalize their beliefs with reference to their personal experience (which, in places like New York City, is mostly with people from ethnic minorities). Someone paying a bit more attention might notice that two black men are the heroes/good guys (to use the terms losely) of the movie while the white people in the movie tend to have either little regard for morals or a pretty fucked up way of going about being moral. However, what I think is particularly clever about Inside Man is that it isn’t operating in a cultural vacuum.

I don’t have any well-worked out theory regarding race and casting for theater, film or television, but I find the topic an interesting one nonetheless. The first time I can remember this sort of thing really striking me was when I saw Kenneth Branaugh’s Much Ado About Nothing, with Denzel Washington as Don Pedro. Again, his performance didn’t disturb me at all–it was excellent, in fact, and I suppose that playing him as a character from formerly Moorish Spain allowed for a little literary license in regards to race as well. But it still sticks out in my mind. Anyone care to contribute other examples of race-blind casting that worked well? Or that didn’t? And for that matter, any thoughts on how to justify doing so in the first place?

An example is Denzel Washington, some say he plays essentially the same part in every role he plays and can be categorized as a movie star. But the difference as I see it, is in his delivery, his timing, his seemingly effortless abillity to act like a regular person. He walks, talks and even yells like people we have seen all our lives. He doesn’t over reach.

“The titles scheduled for launch include recent hits such as “Four Brothers” and “Sahara,” sci-fi thrillers “Aeon Flux” and “Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow,” action-adventures “The Italian Job” and “Tomb Raider,” the renowned music documentary “U2: Rattle and Hum” and Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow.” Rounding out the debut slate are “We Were Soldiers” and “Manchurian Candidate” starring Academy Award(R) winners Mel Gibson and Denzel Washington, respectively.

What a fantastic movie this is. I hadn’t heard of this movie at all until suddenly it showed up in my Netflix Cue. Move is about John Creasy (played by Denzel Washington), a retired assassin with 16 years of miltary experience and extensive counter-terrorism work, who heads off to Mexico to meet his friend Rayburn (played by Christopher Walken) who recommends that Creasy get a job. Through his associates, he finds Creasy a job as a body guard protecting Pita Ramone (played by Dakota Fanning). As in a typical Hollywood movie build-up, she ends up getting kidnapped and the story takes off from there.

Denzel Washington is one of my favorite actors. I like to watch movies - prefer to watch movies rather than watching most of the current shows offered on tv. There are some movies that I have watched many times. These include Glory, Crimson Tide, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Remember the Titans and Courage Under Fire. My wife has worn out our copy of the The Preacher's Wife and is now trying to do the same with a second copy. When choosing to watch a new movie, I feel pretty confident that if the movie stars Denzel Washington then I would probably enjoy watching it.

Late one sultry night in Banyan Keys, Florida, Police Chief Matt Whitlock (Denzel Washington) is called out to the house of Ann Harrison (Sanaa Lathan) about a break-in. Ann takes Whitlock to the bedroom where the alleged crime took place, declares that the intruder ‘kinda looked like you’, and gets Whitlock to re-enact the ‘assault and entry’. In fact, Whitlock is Ann’s lover, and this has all been an elaborate erotic charade, but it also serves as an economic introduction to all that is to come in ‘Out of Time’ - the confusion of police investigation and personal life, the framing of Whitlock as a criminal, and a heady mix of sex,circle-playing and unexpected twists.

Denzel Washington plays Easy, who has lost his job and finds himself working as an impromptu private investigator in 1948 Los Angelos. With voice narration, gangsters, betrayal, and the ‘dame’, it is film noir at it’s best. Of particular note is Don Cheadle’s portrayal of Mouse, Easy’s childhood friend from Texas is both funny and scary. A smallish unassuming figure Mouse has a propensity for violence, but has a charming attitude you cannot help but like.

One of the judges I work with was the lawyer upon which “Philadelphia” was based. He is very businesslike and fair inside the courtroom, and a hoot outside. He says they did a fair job on the story but that he’s much better looking than Denzel Washington. He’s a good man, loves his family and wants to help if he can.

Most will remember Tom Irwin from his role as Angela’s Dad on My So-Called Life. This guy is awesome. I see him every now and again in meaty guest star roles as a distraught dad or husband; which he is rightfully cast in because he completely embodies these characters and seems to rise above the regular cast which is an impressive feat. My So-Called Life was a great show, blah blah, but in past years I’ve watched it a few times and found myself completely sucked in by his performance above all the others. Why isn’t this guy getting cast opposite Russell Crowe or Denzel Washington, who could both benefit by working with such a serious and talented actor? It’s so frustrating when talent like this gets overlooked. And with that, congrats to you too, Tom Irwin.

Carey and I went to see Cinderella Man last night. It was a really enjoyable experience. I thought when Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti were in their first scene together, "One could make a worse casting choice than these two." These two actors fall into my phone book list, meaning I would watch them read the phone book to each other. The acting of the film is one of its strengths. This could have had over the top sentimentality, but the quality of the actors keeps it grounded. (I realized when I watched this film that I have a bias against Renee Zellweger for some unknown reason. My tendency is to think that she is not a good actress, but I've actually thought she has done a good job in every movie I have seen her in -- even those films I did not care for like Chicago or Cold Mountain.) Crowe is, well Russell Crowe, i.e., he embodies a character with such ease that one believes he is the person. Crowe is one of those character-leading actors. Not to take away from the likes of Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, and Kevin Spacey, but when I watch them in a movie, there is something similar to all their characters. When Crowe takes on a character, I do not feel like I am watching Russel Crowe. Instead I am watching Jeffrey Wigand, John Nash, Jack Aubrey, or in this case, Jim Braddock. Maybe this will be the film that finally earns Giamatti his Oscar nomination after being snubbed for Sideways and American Splendor. By the way, if you have not seen American Splendor, go rent it right now.

Universal has tapped Spike Lee to helm “The Inside Man”, which stars Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster.

We were planning to see Denzel Washington in Julius Caesar but we were scared off by the lukewarm reviews. If Broadway ticket prices were like London's West End's, not much more than the price of movie tickets, a lot more people would risk going to see shows the critics were iffy about. But we aren't going to spend a month's mortgage payment to see a play we've already seen done superbly and with one of the same actors playing the same role and doing with it what he did with it when we saw him. Did you follow that?

Nobody seems to like this production much and it earned not a single Tony nomination last week, not even for Oscar-laden movie star Denzel Washington, who is appearing on the Broadway stage for the first time since 1988, in the role of Brutus.

Award-winning actor and director Denzel Washington has signed on to star in the time-travel thriller Deja Vu for director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckeimer. The story centers around an FBI agent with the ability to travel back in time. Washington will play the agent, who falls in love with a woman destined to be murdered. No release date has been announced at this time.

Since last August when I got to do my first film related interview (Will Smith) it's been great. On average I meet about one film star a month - so far it's been Denzel Washington, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jim Carrey, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta and Ricky Gervais... but GEORGE LUCAS whoa that's got me excited.

Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate was just fabulous, I thought. I have a bit of a softspot for the original, but this one just nails the idea, and comes at such a right-time, that I think the renovation has dethroned the blueprint. I've never particularly liked Denzel Washington, to boot, making it all the more apparent how much the film has going for it. Liev Schreiber [one of my favourites for a long time now, nice to see that he's found a spot for himself] and Meryl Streep are just terrifying, these godawfully dead-on mashups...

The film is very well-paced. With such a long running time, the film never really drags. The opening act of the movie, which focuses on two-bit hustler and gangster Malcolm Little (Denzel Washington), is very slowly-paced, but it’s also very entertaining. This portion of the film, in fact, looks a lot like a Spike Lee film. But when Malcolm is arrested and jailed, everything changes. In prison, he is converted by the Nation of Islam, which leads him to radically re-examine his life and goals. When he emerges from prison, he is no longer Malcolm Little. He is Malcolm X.

Jodie Foster has signed on to co-star with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen in Spike Lee’s “Inside Man”.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was a great boxer who once almost won a world championship. However, in 1967 he was arrested and wrongly convicted for a triple murder in a bar, the Lafayette Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. Over the next decades, he and his supporters amassed convincing evidence of his innocence that lead to his release in 1986. His story was told in the book Hurricane. The miraculous Journay if Rubin Carter by James S. Hirsch and also in the movie Hurricane with Denzel Washington. I can recommend both.

The Observer does its best to link Blair and Brown to Caesar and Brutus (with Peter Mandelson as Mark Antony!), but in reality they are more like Aguecheek and Belch from Twelfth Night - PM's question time always being more comedic than tragic. The current American production is also mentioned with Denzel Washington as Brutus giving the feeling that it's more of a stage bound sequel to The Siege with all its post 9-11 trappings. Thankfully this is one British production not padded with actors more at home acting in front of CGI rather than...

Today in CSR 309 we finished watching the movie "Remember the Titans". I really like this movie, this is probably the 4th time I have seen it. This movie relays several very powerful and meaningful messages. Denzel Washington is a black High School footbal coach, he is transferred into the position of head coach of a football team in a formerly segregated and rather racist community. Denzel's charachter is faced with much strong opposition and doubt that he must overcome personally and also help the team and his staff overcome as well. Denzel's character displays a tremendous amount of leadership, he unites the team and passes his passion on to the players, changing their lives forever. Denzel's character exemplifies good leadership qualities through his consistent actions and words. Denzel's character never falters in the face of heavy opposition, this lifts his players and others around him up by showing them his true passion for what he believes is right and just.

Denzel Washington, as usual, plays a man in trouble. This time he’s Bennett Marco, a former squad leader during the Gulf War. Years after a fellow soldier (Liev Schrieber) saves many lives during a raid, many of them, including Marco, develop frightening realistic nightmares about the experience.

Denzel Washington will complete his Broadway stint as Brutus when the play “Julius Caesar” closes this June.

Denzel Washington and Spike Lee will team up again for the hostage drama "Inside Man" for Universal pictures and Imagine Entertainment.

Some of you have probably received that email about Denzel Washington. He's visited wounded troops and offered to donate to Fisher House.

Robin Burk has posted photos from Denzel Washington's visit to Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio. The pictures will tell you how the man feels...I had not seen these before.

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I happened to be walking by the ABC studio in Times Square this morning just in time to snap a picture of Denzel Washington emerging. My life is just so damn glamorous.

After the scene in which Denzel Washington played Russian roulette with another character, deputies said, Overstreet put his own gun to his head knowing that there was one bullet inside the gun.

Hollywood star Denzel Washington is also set to tread the boards in "Julius Caesar" and James Earl Jones will play in Ernest Thompson's "On Golden Pond."

INTERNET tales notwithstanding, actor Denzel Washington did not open his checkbook on the spot to pay for a new facility for wounded soldiers' families during a recent visit to Texas.