Denzel Washington Is An Overrated Actor
The above GIF is what I anticipate my mentions being today after this blog because people will skip to the comments solely to call me a moron without reading one word of what I'm about to say.
I'm going to make this as quick as possible because I know it's going to turn into some "thing" where I defend myself on radio for 12 days in a row and I don't want that to be the case, so I am laying out my reasoning here. This is my second request for you to do so in only a couple hours, but please unsubscribe/resubscribe/blah blah blah to The Dog Walk:
Thank you.
Yes, the title of this blog is clickbait to some extent. No, I don't think Denzel Washington STINKS or anything close to that. The only movie off the top of my head that I truly don't like is The Book of Eli and that's mostly because I thought Mila Kunis doesn't belong in a role like that. She dragged down the entire movie. Denzel? He was Denzel. Pitched a solid 7 innings and gave up 2 earned. His bullpen (Kunis) just blew it for him.
That analogy makes sense in my dumb brain.
But that's my point - I have yet to see hardly any variance from role to role with Denzel. To me, Coach Boone, Frank Lucas, John Q, Eli and Alonzo Harris are all the exact same person more or less. This guy said it best:
Now, I will say this before moving forward. I have yet to see Malcom X, Glory or Philadelphia. I absolutely reserve the right to change my opinion. But like I said, GOAT status is thrown around with Denzel Washington somewhat frequently. To me, Denzel is an awesome actor; a solid MLB regular who has had a few all star appearances throughout his career, if you will. But GOAT?
HARDLY.
And that's exactly why he's so overrated to me, and it's because he's more or less the same guy in every single movie of his. People FREAK THE FUCK OUT when I say this because they're lemmings, afraid to speak their mind if it's against the grain, and in general just open their eyes and use their brain.
When I say range, I mean this: I have yet to see Denzel Washington pull a move where he goes from playing Patrick Bateman in one movie to playing a Dicky Ecklund like Christian Bale did the next movie. Or a mentally handicapped kid to Monsieur Candy like Leonardo DiCaprio. Or a sniper with PTSD coursing through his veins to a country singer like Bradley Cooper.
The variance I see out of Denzel is NEGLIGIBLE. He's *pretty much* the same guy from movie to movie.
I mean look at the trailer for American Psycho...
…and then watch Bale portray Dicky Ecklund:
That is ABSURD range. The best actors challenge themselves with roles where they have to go outside their comfort zones big time, and I don't see that with Denzel. I mean Bale lost like 1000 pounds to play Ecklund and NAILED the shitty Boston/Lowell accent while also looking meth'd out AF the entire movie.
Frank Lucas is John Quincy Archibald is Alonzo Harris is Whip Whitaker. Does Denzel throw 95 on the black in those roles? 100%. But it's the same fucking guy movie to movie. That exact lack of range is why I cannot and will not put Denzel in the GOAT category. All star? For sure. Mike Trout? NOPE.
Now that's not to say he can't expand on his range. It's to say that he hasn't, at least to me, thus far in his career. Perhaps he's filming a movie as we speak where he takes home a billion Oscars because of how good he was as a psychopathic mailman that deals with asshole dogs all day. Again, I have no problem conceding and changing my tune with regards to Denzel the actor. Just ONE TIME would I like to see him go from being a power hungry emperor of the Roman Empire to a mentally unhinged aspiring standup comedian that goes on a murderous rampage like Joaquin Phoenix.
Here is an example: I just pulled up our GIF library and in 2 different movies, both of which are AWESOME, Denzel has almost the same exact line. You know what movies these are:
And he says "my man!" in Remember the Titans too. The variance from role to role is negligible. He uses the same tone, same voice inflections, same accent, same hand movements, same eye movements, same voice, same attitude to portray a lot of his characters.
For this reason and this reason alone, I just won't put him in the GOAT category and since he is often times placed there, I consider him overrated. Master at his craft, but overrated.
I'm sure I'll get 1 billion comments calling me stupid and blah blah blah but I don't give a shit. Whenever I bring up this qualm about Denzel, I feel like Mugatu in Zoolander. IT'S THE SAME DAMN LOOK IN EVERY SINGLE DENZEL MOVIE!!!
Now is the time where you roast me because you didn't read the blog and even attempt to absorb what I said in it. Have at it.
PS - this is exactly what I'm talking about