I forgot I was a fan of Fallen but yeah that would have been more forgettable without him.

De Ja Vu and Out of Time, Denzel made those movies worth the price of admission. He brought swagger to roles that probably weren't written with swagger.

He elevated Pelican Brief into top their Grisham when it didn't have to be. He brought swagger to a role that didn't call for it.

It's funny you mention Manchurian Candidate because I think that one, as I remember it, didn't allow Denzel to be Denzel and it suffered for it. It might not have been a role capable of allowing Denzel to be Denzel.

This discussion allows me to identify my least favorite Denzol role which is Roman J. Israel. I did not like that part for him and I even think another actor may have been better suited for it. Think of Jeffrey Wright in that role? Now that movie with Jeffrey Wright might not be a movie I am interested in seeing, but he still might have fit the role better.

I didn't realize he was 68 so yeah he can't be the coolest cat in the room anymore. But I don't think he found his stride for older roles.



>You named John Q. and The Bone Collector and those are the
>ones that immediately comes to mind, though it's really kind
>of hard to fault him for stuff like that since he's got a
>really good track record of helping movies that could very
>well be replaceable thrillers into genuinely excellent movies.
>Apparently "Fallen" didn't get great reviews, but I loved that
>film and he's a huge part of why it was so enjoyable for me.
>So if Denzel Washington thinks "Fallen" was good and he had
>fun (and got paid well) to make it, then I can't think of a
>good reason why he would turn down things like John Q. - which
>has a really good cast and *should* have been better than it
>was.
>
>I don't know. Maybe that's not a clear way of putting it. But
>I think your question identifies what's so cool about his
>career, which is that he's been kind of a legend for 2-3
>decades now and even though he's slowing down a little bit now
>that he's 68, he hasn't spent most of that legendary time
>waiting around for CINEMA! but seems confident enough in his
>ability that he'll take jobs that seem fun, with directors
>that he likes, and turn them into much, much better films than
>they had any right to be.
>
>So if I'm gonna say "some of those thrillers were a bit of a
>waste of Denzel Washington" then I also need to acknowledge
>that for any time that happens, there are three movies like
>Pelican Brief or Unstoppable or the absolutely unassailable
>Devil in a Blue Dress that, while they didn't *need* Denzel
>Washington, thank god they got Denzel Washington because
>that's what made them awesome. I'll sit through the occasional
>Bone Collector to make that happen.
>
>Though now that I said all that, I'll also throw out that even
>though it was a pretty good film, we didn't need a remake of
>the Manchurian Candidate.


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