Though I am by no means a "completist," I'm a big fan of Denzel Washington. I'm not sure of any other actor who somehow so powerfully equally radiates fierceness, intelligence, and charisma. Plus, he just does *stuff* - he's just so natural in the way he stands, moves, and speaks. It's positively enthralling.
The other night, we watched Fallen, and it just really worked for me. I'm a big fan of genre movies that play it both straight and small. I'm also a sucker for littler movies like this (hence my love for Boiler Room and A Simple Plan). The movie is spooky, with a clever premise that it executes well - it's just really fucking scary to watch the demon hop from body to body in a sea of people. And the handful of "chase" scenes, where the demon pursues via body jumping is just neat. The ending is aces, with a cute "twist" of sorts that appealed to the stickler in me. Plus, I like how the movie doesn't spend a whole lot of exposition turning Washington's character into a believer. He's willing to buy in the plot quickly, so we can get into the meat of the story.
After watching Fallen, it occurred to me that the real acting powerhouse pairing of this era is not DeNiro/Pacino. It's Daniel Day Lewis and Denzel Washington. I think there are no two actors who are more *believable* or *intense*, and watching them beat on each other for 2+ hours could be fantastic.
(Preferably this pairing would *not* be in the lame, standard thriller procedural. Cops and robbers is a lame, overdone genre for great talents to meet in. They would need something like Malcol X or There Will Be Blood to really dig into: character dramas motivated by grand ideas not bad guys.)
The other night, we watched Fallen, and it just really worked for me. I'm a big fan of genre movies that play it both straight and small. I'm also a sucker for littler movies like this (hence my love for Boiler Room and A Simple Plan). The movie is spooky, with a clever premise that it executes well - it's just really fucking scary to watch the demon hop from body to body in a sea of people. And the handful of "chase" scenes, where the demon pursues via body jumping is just neat. The ending is aces, with a cute "twist" of sorts that appealed to the stickler in me. Plus, I like how the movie doesn't spend a whole lot of exposition turning Washington's character into a believer. He's willing to buy in the plot quickly, so we can get into the meat of the story.
After watching Fallen, it occurred to me that the real acting powerhouse pairing of this era is not DeNiro/Pacino. It's Daniel Day Lewis and Denzel Washington. I think there are no two actors who are more *believable* or *intense*, and watching them beat on each other for 2+ hours could be fantastic.
(Preferably this pairing would *not* be in the lame, standard thriller procedural. Cops and robbers is a lame, overdone genre for great talents to meet in. They would need something like Malcol X or There Will Be Blood to really dig into: character dramas motivated by grand ideas not bad guys.)
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
sockpuppet:
Oh definitely not. Nor TV, either.
sockpuppet:
Well, I tend to think that everyone does 