Denzel Washington too old for the parts he's playing?

[RichA]

He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot. I thought it was an affectation for the role, but the most recent trailer of his next movie he looked the same. Something "off" about his mouth movements, almost like he might have had a mini-stroke.

[Nick]

On Monday, May 26, 2014 7:31:40 PM UTC-4, RichA wrote:
> He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot. I thought it was an affectation for the role, but the most recent trailer of his next movie he looked the same. Something "off" about his mouth movements, almost like he might have had a mini-stroke.

So I look up Denzel Washington to see what his next movie is . . . and it's a reboot of The Equalizer?

[Russell Watson]

Exactly so.

[Michael OConnor]

On Monday, May 26, 2014 7:31:40 PM UTC-4, RichA wrote:

> He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot. I thought it was an affectation for the role, but the most recent trailer of his next movie he looked the same. Something "off" about his mouth movements, almost like he might have had a mini-stroke.

Flight was a pretty good character study about an alcoholic pilotg. From the trailer I was expecting more of an air disaster film a la Airport, but the airplane crash was just the first act, and most of the movie dealt with the aftermath.

[trotsky]

On 5/26/14 6:31 PM, RichA wrote:
> He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot.

Yeah, drunks never look old and decrepit. What the fuck are you talking
about?

[Nick]

Normally I'd say it was a risk rebooting a TV franchise popular before a large segment of the moviegoing population was born but Denzel Washington has a solid fanbase and it skews older.

[moviePig]

And it was an unexpected hit, iirc. Like most TV, the concept doesn't
have a lot of staying power, but it sounds to me like a winner for
Denzel -- one that I'm now surprised hasn't been tried earlier.

--

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[bermuda999]

On Monday, May 26, 2014 7:31:40 PM UTC-4, RichA wrote:

> He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot. I thought it was an affectation for the role, but the most recent trailer of his next movie he looked the same. Something "off" about his mouth movements, almost like he might have had a mini-stroke.

The main character in The Equalizer, Robert McCall, is retired after a career in espionage. Edward Woodward was 55 when he started The Equalizer and 59 when the series ended. Denzel is 59. In the trailer for The Equalizer, he does not sound or look particularly old or decrepit. No mini-stroke noticed, although much of the soundtrack for the trailer (including some dialogue) was fuzz-boxed, slowed in parts for effect, and otherwise altered.

[RichA]

His mannerisms betray his age. I've noticed it the last couple movies he's done. People have been deluded into thinking that because people are living longer (about 10 years longer in the U.S. than 40 years ago) they've somehow been able to turn back the clock. The rising incidence of mental incapacitation and physical frailty weighing on our medical system should disabuse people of thinking people are "staying younger, longer."

[Nick]

You might want to pass on The Expendables 3 then.

[bermuda999]

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014 2:09:44 AM UTC-4, RichA wrote:

> On Tuesday, May 27, 2014 9:44:36 AM UTC-4, bermuda999 wrote:
>
> > On Monday, May 26, 2014 7:31:40 PM UTC-4, RichA wrote:
>
> >
>
> > > He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot. I thought it was an affectation for the role, but the most recent trailer of his next movie he looked the same. Something "off" about his mouth movements, almost like he might have had a mini-stroke.
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > The main character in The Equalizer, Robert McCall, is retired after a career in espionage. Edward Woodward was 55 when he started The Equalizer and 59 when the series ended. Denzel is 59. In the trailer for The Equalizer, he does not sound or look particularly old or decrepit. No mini-stroke noticed, although much of the soundtrack for the trailer (including some dialogue) was fuzz-boxed, slowed in parts for effect, and otherwise altered.
>
>
>
> His mannerisms betray his age.

That is something wholly different than "Denzel Washington too old for the parts he's playing?". He is age appropriate for the role to which you specifically referred (Robert McCall in the Equalizer).

[Ralph]

On Monday, May 26, 2014 6:31:40 PM UTC-5, RichA wrote:
> He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot. I thought it was an affectation for the role, but the most recent trailer of his next movie he looked the same.

Implicitly Rich brings up something I've also wondered about -- what's going on in Hollywood that no one seems able to offer Denzel a role equal to his talents? Though it's true not every role he's done in the last decade is the same, every role seems to be and that impression is much worse because audiences don't want to see what they perceive is another actioner in which he appears to be the smart black Sylvester Schwarzenegger. Or a Mad Max as a total recall savant in the approaching-minor-cult-status-but-still-preposterous "The Book of Eli." As others have mentioned here, the once great hope has added Bourne to his nomenclature. He's not boring in "Safe House" -- he's rarely boring in anything he makes -- it's that this movie's jig is revealed too early and watching him waste his skills as an ageing spook is rather sorry ass. I'm not alone in wanting him to soar; every time his name comes up in conversation about movies the same regret is expressed by others -- that he isn't utilizing his gifts, as in "Cry Freedom," "Glory," "Philadelphia," "Devil in a Blue Dress," "The Hurricane," and "Malcolm X." (And some of us have similar misgivings about Liam Neeson's choices after "Gun Shy" and "Kinsey.") The letdown was exacerbated when Denzel played the rogue in "Training Day." If the performance was customarily adequate, it sure as hell wasn't worthy of Oscar; that year he and Halle Berry were honored not for thesping but as the Academy's Ken and Barbie mantel pieces. The "TD" image trapped him into the convenience of pigeonhole by producers, directors -- Tony Scott used him 5 times -- and writers trying to exploit it. Okay, he didn't play "type" in "Inside Man," not with the shaved head and flabby midsection, but he and Christopher Plummer hadn't a prayer fending off Jodie Foster's scene-stealing high heels. Very soon, though, he'd be trapped in the other Scott's "American Gangster." He's the go-to bro to personify venality.

Won't contend he isn't good in "Flight" -- he gives a performance that for many will help wipe away the bad smells after nearly ten years in the garbage heap. The movie itself is insipid in its lack of complexity, springing to mind the vacuums that are Richard Gere's "Arbitrage" and Brad Cooper's "The Words." By the time Denzel looks at a small passenger in an elevator on his way to the NTSB grilling, by insipid Melissa Leo, the outcome is a foregone anti-climax. He has his moments -- his sneaky pouring of vodka into orange juice; his juiced-up mental agility rattling off all the emergency procedures that helped saved most of the passengers; his antagonism toward Don Cheadle; his untamed urge to drink. Since proportionately little is made of the finding of negligent maintenance of the plane for the sake of the far more "sexy" scandal of Denzel's inebriation (not an issue in the fatal crash of Alaska Airlines flight #261 in 2000 on which the movie is partly based), Zemeck pushes his cast into phony morality traps: aside from all of Denzel's infractions, the airline and union are conspiring nullifiers of fact and ethics to avoid their share of responsibilities and a young co-pilot is suddenly turned into a Jesus freak that suggests a steal from Peter Weir's "Fearless." When the movie was over, I did appreciate that, so far, Denzel hasn't yet turned into Sidney Poitier as a pompous moral gasbag. If he doesn't get better material, he'll likely give that routine a go too.

[bermuda999]

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014 2:14:10 PM UTC-4, Ralph wrote:
> On Monday, May 26, 2014 6:31:40 PM UTC-5, RichA wrote:
>
> > He seemed really old and decrepit in that movie he did about the drunk pilot. I thought it was an affectation for the role, but the most recent trailer of his next movie he looked the same.

> Implicitly Rich brings up something I've also wondered about -- what's going on in Hollywood that no one seems able to offer Denzel a role equal to his talents?

Have you never met Hollywood? What roles have been out there equal to the talents of any of the best actors around? Which ones did Denzel turn down?

> Though it's true not every role he's done in the last decade is the same, every role seems to be and that impression is much worse because audiences don't want to see what they perceive is another actioner in which he appears to be the smart black Sylvester Schwarzenegger.

That's how you feel every Denzel role seems from the last 10 years?

> Or a Mad Max as a total recall savant in the approaching-minor-cult-status-but-still-preposterous "The Book of Eli."

Or every other role seems to be THIS role?

>As others have mentioned here, the once great hope has added Bourne to his nomenclature. He's not boring in "Safe House" -- he's rarely boring in anything he makes -- it's that this movie's jig is revealed too early and watching him waste his skills as an ageing spook is rather sorry ass. I'm not alone in wanting him to soar; every time his name comes up in conversation about movies the same regret is expressed by others -- that he isn't utilizing his gifts, as in "Cry Freedom," "Glory," "Philadelphia," "Devil in a Blue Dress," "The Hurricane," and "Malcolm X." (And some of us have similar misgivings about Liam Neeson's choices after "Gun Shy" and "Kinsey.") The letdown was exacerbated when Denzel played the rogue in "Training Day."

Which repetitive role did his performance in Training Day fit? A "black Arnold Schwarzenegger" or Eli?

> If the performance was customarily adequate, it sure as hell wasn't worthy of Oscar; that year he and Halle Berry were honored not for thesping but as the Academy's Ken and Barbie mantel pieces.

Uh...

> The "TD" image trapped him into the convenience of pigeonhole by producers, directors -- Tony Scott used him 5 times -- and writers trying to exploit it.

Perhaps you could point out subsequent roles in which DZ was "pigeonholed" by his performance in Training Day. Starting with Tony Scott - Did DZ's performance in TScott's Unstoppable, Déjà vu, Man on Fire, or The Taking of Pelham 123 remind you of DZ's character from Training Day?

> Okay, he didn't play "type" in "Inside Man," not with the shaved head and flabby midsection, but he and Christopher Plummer hadn't a prayer fending off Jodie Foster's scene-stealing high heels.

Footwear reviews

>Very soon, though, he'd be trapped in the other Scott's "American Gangster." He's the go-to bro to personify venality.

Aside from Training Day (in which he played a villain) and American Gangster (in which he played as much a semi-sympathetic character as Henry Hill in Goodfellas or Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon), what other films represent his propensity to be the "bro" personifying venality?

[Flight stuff snipped]

P.S. - Please tell me my antennae are overtuned, explaining why they pinged at the coincidence of curious word or phrase choices such as "this movie's jig is revealed" and "ageing spook", a deprecation of the Academy Awards for Halle Berry and Denzel Washington, and the use of the term "go-to-bro" in the same post.

[lunarso...@gmail.com]

But what about that stroke though????


*smh* I got here because I said,has he had a stroke?? Let me see....

[lunarso...@gmail.com]