Posts Tagged ‘denzel washington’

The Flight Movie Review

Denzel Washington delivers an Oscar worthy performance in the new Robert Zemekis (Forest Gump & Back to the Future) film, Flight. Washington is in almost every scene in the movie and he carries the weight of the film on his shoulders with much success. Flight is a character study of a hero with a dark side. Washington plays Whip Whitaker, a pilot who saves dozens of lives when the plane he’s flying has a mechanical malfunction; but his blood alcohol level was over three times the legal limit in any U.S. state while he was behind the controls.

The segment in the movie of the plane going down is a fine piece of film work. Zemeckis is in his element as the director of a special effects blockbuster. You get the feeling of terror that you’d would expect in the moments before you were about to plunge to your death. The hair on the back of my neck stood up for the entire 15 to 20 minutes of the plane crash scene. But it’s not just special effects that carry the movie. The story is fast paced and well told. You see Washington’s character spiraling out of control and you hang on to every scene while wondering how it will all turn out.

In the hospital, after the crash, Whip meets Nicole (Kelly Reilly), a beautiful red head who is recovering after a near fatal heroin overdose, and we are introduced to Harling Mayes (John Goodman), a good old boy “Dr. Feelgood” who supplies Whip with everything he needs for his addiction. Don Cheadle also delivers a fine performance as the attorney who the pilots union provides for Whip for his defense against the NTSB; which is trying to blame the crash on pilot error and negligence.

Whip’s story is told with both tragedy and comedy and it makes for a very compelling and entertaining movie.

Denzel Washington’s Safe House

In the opening scenes of Safe House we see Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), a wet behind the ears C.I.A. agent, cooling his heels in South Africa. After a twelve month assignment as a “house keeper” he’s seen no action in the Safe House and is itching for a transfer to an assignment with a little more action. He gets his wish when an unexpected house guest arrives; Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), a former C.I.A. agent who’s been “off the grid” for the past ten years.
While a special team is “interrogating” (more like torturing) the fugitive they are interrupted by uninvited guests to the safe house; a team of hired killers who want to make sure whatever secrets Frost has remain a secret. With the help of the young, inexperienced agent, Washington’s character escapes and the two try and figure out who tipped off the assassins to his location at the Safe House. That’s when Safe House jumpstarts into a non-stop action adventure spy caper.
Things are not exactly what they seem and Weston has to decide if he should trust a man who’s been selling secrets to the enemy or tow the company line of The Central Intelligence Agency. While on the run the two men try to unravel the secrets while being confronted by both “good guys” and “bad guys” and trying to figure out; which is which.
Washington is extremely cool as the rogue agent. He is grace under fire and able to keep his wits, even while being tortured by his own government agents. His every move is a well thought out chess move. He’s a very cerebral killer.
Ryan Reynolds (The Green Lantern) also gives a fine performance as the young agent who discovers the world of espionage is far from black and white. He soon discovers there are many shades of “grey”.
Safe House is rated “R” for a lot of killing and violence great movie hope you enjoy it.

Movie Unstoppable Has A Unstoppable Weekend.

In Unstoppable, Washington stars as Frank Barnes, a railroad employee with over 20 years of experience. He’s paired up with a rookie union kid named Will Colson (Chris Pine) as they embark on a routine freight grab in Pennsylvania. What they don’t know when they start their day on the rail is that another railroad conductor (My Name is Earl’s Ethan Suplee) has just made a grave mistake that sets all of the drama, suspense, and action in place when he leaves his train to set a manual brake on the tracks. As he does this, the train switches from idle to full throttle, which makes it impossible for him to get back into the train.

As the runaway train builds up speed, Scott sets up several areas of conflict that help build tension and keep the audience at the edge of their seat. Aside from the danger of the speeding train, there is also the threat of its toxic cargo, the safety of the cities along the tracks, the tension between corporate and dispatch as they work on solutions to get the train stopped (which of course ultimately ends up falling on the shoulders of Washington and Pine). The media is also with you every step of the way as the train heads towards densely populated cities. In terms of the media, Scott was able to do something very interesting cinematically. By having them used directly in the action, he sets up multiple fake news report to help establish the narrative and move the story along. He may have gone to the well one too many times with this technique though especially when, towards the end, you may find yourself wanting to see more of the inside of the train with Washington and Pine, but instead it almost feels like you’re watching a newscast as opposed to a Denzel Washington movie.

One Killer Runaway Train in Tony Scott’s Unstoppable Trailer

Our good friends at SlashFilm have uncovered the first trailer for Unstoppable, the upcoming Tony Scott runaway train action movie starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, a few others. Unfortunately this just looks so outrageously cheesy, we’ve heard every line in it before, and I couldn’t find any part of that I was actually looking forward to seeing in its entirety on the big screen. It also just looks like the guy from Taking of Pelham 123 (meaning Denzel) going toe-to-toe with Captain Kirk when he was still on Earth driving trains. I get what they were going for, but I really don’t think this looks good. Enjoy!

Watch the first official trailer for Tony Scott’s Unstoppable:

A rail company frantically works with two of their conductors out on location to prevent an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train carrying combustible liquids and deadly gas from wiping out an entire city.

Unstoppable is directed by veteran action filmmaker Tony Scott, of everything from Top Gun to The Last Boy Scout to Crimson Tide to Enemy of the State to Spy Game to Deja Vu and The Taking of Pelham 123. The script was written by Mark Bomback, of Live Free or Die Hard, Deception, Race to Witch Mountain previously. Fox is bringing Unstoppable to theaters everywhere starting November 12th later this year.