Tag: Denzel Washington

Man on Fire (2004) – A Movie Review

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In this action/crime drama Denzel Washington is John Creasy, a former CIA killer whose past haunts him and has reduced him to an alcoholic.  He is visiting his friend and associate Paul Rayburn, played by Christopher Walken in Mexico where he has a security business that provides wealthy businessmen with bodyguards.

(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)

Rayburn convinces Creasy to take a bodyguard assignment to help him reconnect with life and take his mind off his past.

And so, Creasy takes an assignment to guard Pita (played by a very young Dakota Fanning), the daughter of Samuel Ramos; a wealthy industrialist.  And improbably, the little girl and the professional killer bond and Creasy regains his will to live.

But a kidnap squad that includes members of the Federal Judicial Police come for Pita.  Creasy kills four of the kidnappers but is himself critically wounded and the girl is taken.

While Creasy lies close to death in a hospital the kidnappers negotiate a ten-million dollar ransom which Samuel agrees to pay.  But dirty cops who know of the payment ambush the kidnappers, steal the ransom money and kill the ringleader’s nephew.  After this betrayal the ringleader informs the Ramos family that Pita is dead.

Somewhat recovered from his wounds and outraged at Pita’s death Creasy vows to Pita’s mother Lisa that he will kill everyone involved in Pita’s kidnapping and death.  With weapons furnished by Rayburn and information provided by a crime reporter and an anti-corruption officer in the Mexican government, Creasy proceeds to do just that.  With the liberal use of gruesome torture and threats of death he works his way up the chain of command in both the corrupt police organization and the kidnappers’ gang.

Along the way he finds out that Pita’s father and his crooked attorney were involved in the kidnapping.  And no one is spared.  The anti-corruption officer follows Creasy’s trail of bodies but allows Creasy to lead him to the kingpin, a shadowy character known only as “The Voice.”

Finally, Creasy captures the kingpin’s brother and pregnant girlfriend and tells him that he will torture them to death unless The Voice trades himself for them.  But the Voice has a different bargain.  He informs Creasy that Pita is alive and that he will trade her for the release of his girlfriend and brother.  But there is the further stipulation that Creasy surrender himself to the mobster.  Creasy agrees.  He calls up Lisa Ramos and tells her where the rendezvous and trade will occur.  Lisa will keep the gun on the mobster’s brother at a distance until Pita is safely back in her hands at which point the brother and Creasy will be transported back to the mobster for Creasy’s horrific fate.

We have a final reunion between Pita and Creasy before she runs across a bridge to her mother’s car.  The brother is released and Lisa and Pita drive off.  Then Creasy is shoved into a car and heads off into the countryside for his rendezvous with death.  But between his earlier wounds and a gunshot wound to the chest he sustained while capturing the mobster’s brother Creasy is already dying.  We watch him expire while clutching the St. Jude’s medal that Pita had given him earlier.

We learn in a postscript that the mobster is killed in an arrest attempt by the anti-corruption officer soon after Creasy’s death.

So, what’s the verdict on this extremely frenetic movie?  The action sounds like the plot of a 19th century Italian opera.  Death, betrayal, revenge, love.  It’s all so overwrought.  But for me, it works.  Maybe partially it’s because I enjoy Denzel Washington’s acting style.  Whether he’s chopping off a crooked cop’s fingers and cauterizing the wound with a car’s cigarette lighter or coaching Pita to reduce her time in a swimming competition Washington’s Creasy is a rational, intelligent man who will accomplish his objectives in a business-like manner.  But his motivation is to punish those who destroyed innocent life for money.  Basically, he’s atoning for his own sins as a killer.  In an early scene Creasy asks Rayburn, “Do you think God could forgive us for what we’ve done?”  Rayburn shakes his head no and you can tell that Creasy agrees.  At the end of the movie as he clutches his religious medal, I guess Creasy is hoping his self-sacrifice might even the score in heaven.  The movie is very violent.  But I think it is well made and if this kind of story interests you I think it’s well worth watching.

Training Day (2001) – A Movie Review

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(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last two paragraphs to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)

Training Day is a crime drama starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Hawke plays Officer Jake Hoyt, a young LA police officer who is heading out on his first day under the command of highly decorated and influential narcotics detective Alonzo Harris played by Washington.  But from the minute Hoyt meets up with Harris he realizes that nothing will be done according to the department rules or even according to the rules of law.  Harris pressures him into smoking what he thinks is marijuana but then finds out contains PCP.  Harris uses narcotics busts to steal money and drugs from the perpetrators without actually arresting them.  In one scene Harris uses a phony search warrant to steal $40,000 from a drug dealer’s house and then has to run a gauntlet of gangbangers who riddle his car with bullets as he escapes.

The only legitimate police work done occurs when Hoyt spots two men attempting to rape a Mexican teenage girl.  Hoyt has to subdue both men singlehandedly because Harris remains a spectator.  When the two men are cuffed Harris tells the girl to just leave without getting her information and merely beats and robs the two attempted rapists without charging them.  Hoyt sees the girl’s wallet on the ground and retrieves it to return it later.

And it just keeps getting worse.  We find out that Harris has the Russian Mafia after him for beating one of their men to death.  Now he has to come up with a million-dollar payment or be gunned down by the Russians.  He cuts a deal with the leadership of Los Angeles’ dirty cops whom he calls the “three wise men.”  He agrees to give them the $40,000 to obtain for him a search warrant that will allow him to steal $4,000,000 from a major drug dealer who is also a retired policeman.  Harris offers Hoyt a part of the money but Hoyt refuses.

And it just keeps getting worse.  Harris and the dirty cops are going to make it look like the drug dealer shot at them during the arrest and had to be killed in self-defense.  When Hoyt refuses to shoot the drug dealer Harris does it but tells Hoyt he is still going to have to claim to have done the shooting.  If not, the other cops and Harris will claim he did and because of the difference in stories Hoyt will be under suspicion and his blood test will show that he was using PCP.

Hoyt pulls a gun on Harris and threatens him.  The rogue cops tell Harris they’re going to shoot Hoyt but Harris defuses the situation by claiming that Hoyt is okay and will be allowed to opt out of the rogue unit Harris runs.  Hoyt calms down and leaves with Harris hoping to end his work with Harris after that day.  Harris tells him that they have to stop off at a Mexican gang house to hand off some payments for various illegal activities that Harris is involved in.  Harris says he has to go to the bathroom but ducks out and leaves Hoyt to be murdered by the gang.

But during the setup for the killing, they find the Mexican girl’s wallet on Hoyt and it turns out she is the niece of the gang leader.  When he calls up his niece and confirms Hoyt’s story, he lets Hoyt go.  Now he goes looking for Harris at his girlfriend’s house in a notorious gang area.  A knock-out drag-out fight ends with Hoyt beating Harris into submission and taking the million-dollar payment to bring into the police as evidence against Harris.  Harris calls on his neighbors to shoot Hoyt but we find out that he has alienated even these hardened criminals by his violence and corruption and they abandon him leaving Hoyt to leave with the cash.

Harris makes a run for the airport but two cars full of gunmen box in his car and riddle him with machine gun bullets and he staggers onto the street to die.  In the last scene we see Hoyt trudging exhaustedly home while a radio report announces the death of the hero cop Alonzo Harris during the execution of a warrant on a dangerous drug dealer.

This movie is a relentless assault on the sense of duty of an honest cop.  Harris pushes at the limits of criminal behavior from the beginning of the movie until the end.  Hoyt keeps meeting up with proof that the police system is riddled with corruption from the top down.  But Harris is a glib and persuasive devil who excuses every illegality as “how things have to get done in the real world.”  And surrounded by Harris and the other dirty cops Hoyt is confused and demoralized.  But he maintains his integrity even when it almost costs him his life.

The movie is incredibly gritty and hard edged.  But if a movie like that is acceptable then it is undoubtedly exciting, dramatic and entertaining.  Denzel Washington puts on a tour de force performance.  To paraphrase his character, “King Kong’s got nothing on him.”  So, for an audience that tolerates very crude language and movie violence “Training Day” is highly recommended.

Inside Man – A Movie Review

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For the most part, the Millennial Generation is composed of hopeless nincompoops whose taste in movies, television and books is so vapid and cretinous that being boiled in oil would be preferable to watching one of their picks.  But there are exceptions.  I work with a young fellow who has demonstrably received an education that includes many of the elements of the Old School.  He has a good grounding in history and science and is acquainted with the western canon of literature.  Without a doubt he leans far more to the left than I do but paraphrasing Churchill a man in his twenties who isn’t a liberal has no heart.  Well about a week ago we were talking about crime dramas and he asked me whether I like the “caper” movie genre.  I assumed he was going to mention Ocean’s Eleven or a Guy Ritchie film.  But he said it was a movie with Denzel Washington as a New York City Police Detective negotiating a hostage crisis during an abortive bank robbery.  It sounded interesting.  I like many of Washington’s movies.  As an expat New Yorker, I’m sort of a pushover for New York City stories so I was interested.  But then he said it was a Spike Lee film.

I had never, up to that point, watched a Spike Lee “joint.”  I consider him a race hustler who has built his reputation by fanning the flames of black animosity toward white people.  All in all, I consider him a jerk.

In my reaction to my young friend’s suggestion I mentioned these feelings.  He did his best to assure me that this was a pure crime drama without any hint of racial justice propagandizing.  Based on his past track record of good sense, I begrudgingly decided to give it a shot.

So last night I watched it.  It was good.  It was very good.  Full disclosure, there were a few minor race hectoring flourishes that added nothing to the story.  But they did little to harm the story either.  I looked at them as involuntary reflexes that Spike Lee probably didn’t even know he’d added.  But they were minor and didn’t spoil the story.

The movie is a very good caper.  I won’t spoil any of the plot but will just say that there are lots of balls in the air and several interesting major characters and lots of minor characters doing interesting things.  Denzel is the star of the movie outside of the bank and Clive Owen is the star inside the bank.  Other relatively big-name actors are Christopher Plummer, Jody Foster and Willem Dafoe.  Washington’s cop partner is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor whom I know from his role as “The Operative” in “Serenity.”  And lots other unknowns do good work as the hostages, cops and criminals.

So, knowing that Spike Lee made this picture does detract from my enjoyment of the film.  I begrudge the African music he adds at the beginning and end.  I take points off for those flourishes of racial sniping I mentioned above.  But after all that I am forced to admit it’s a very good caper film.  I recommend it to anyone who likes this genre.  It’s highly enjoyable and skillfully constructed.  Well done Spike Lee?

 

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