Pigeon-Holed Denzel
Last night I saw a commercial for the new Denzel Washington picture “Man on Fire.” (This movie does feature Chris Walken, so that ups its stock some.) During the commercial all I could think was this could be any Denzel film and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Here is a quick rundown of his movies since “Training Day” courtesy of Internet Movie Database:
“Out of Time”: A Florida police chief must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under suspicion.
“Antwone Fisher”: a young navy man, is forced to see a psychiatrist after a violent outburst against a fellow crewman. During the course of treatment a painful past is revealed and a new hope begins.
“John Q”: A down-on-his luck father, whose insurance won’t cover his son’s heart transplant, takes the hospital’s emergency room hostage until the doctors agree to perform the operation.
“Training Day”: On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn’t what he appears.
So what have we learned? When a Denzel flick comes out we can assume the movie will be a crime thriller where Denzel will be some sort of government employee and he needs to protect or revenge a person or group to whom he is some sort of father figure. Writing a new Denzel movie must be like Mad Libs.
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