Photo: Maya Robinson/Vulture Of all A-list stars, Denzel Washington’s career may be the most enviable. Although he has a well-established onscreen persona, it’s mutable enough to allow him to move from R-rated action films to serious dramas to passion projects with frequent collaborators . Tied to no franchise — seriously, until The Equalizer 2, he’d never made a sequel — he puts asses in seats, but not in such huge amounts that there’s any worry of Denzel fatigue setting in. .
45. Carbon Copy In Washington’s debut film, he plays the long-lost son of George Segal, a lawyer so concerned about appearances that he hides that he’s Jewish from his anti-Semitic boss; Segal has to decide whether he’ll accept his sudden son or side with the racist jerks at his law firm. Take a guess.
41. 2 Guns Sure, it’s a hoot to watch Washington kick back and let his bulletproof swagger do most of the heavy lifting, but 2 Guns isn’t nearly as cool as its star, who teams with Mark Wahlberg to play smartass undercover cops up against the cartel. Their odd-couple pairing has its pleasures, but this is the type of so-so movie Washington does while he’s waiting around for some better material.
37. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 A remake of the 1974 subway-hijack thriller is inferior in just about every way, particularly with its villain, played by a way-too-jacked-up John Travolta. Washington’s a little too, well, Denzel Washington to be believable as a nerdy subway dispatcher pushed into an impossible situation; you know he’s going to end up saving the day because, jeez, he’s Denzel Washington. You can’t nerd up Denzel just by giving him glasses.
33. Ricochet Washington’s earliest junk thriller, and a sort of fun one: He’s a former cop turned district attorney who has to team with childhood friend-turned-drug dealer Ice-T to stop a crazed serial killer . If anything, this movie is a showcase for Lithgow, who chews everything in sight; Washington’s hero is a little more down and dirty than he would be in later films
29. The Great Debaters Washington’s second film as director is less successful that his first but still occasionally stirring. Washington plays Melvin Tolson, the debate coach at Wiley College who puts together a team — including The Birth of a Nation filmmaker and star Nate Parker, in an early role — that eventually takes on Harvard. It’s essentially a sports movie, and it’s produced by Oprah, which adds to its This Movie Is Good For You vibe.
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