Fallen (1998)

John Goodman and Denzel Washington

Going back to a Denzel Washington movie for this one. It was made by Gregory Hoblit, who has directed some pretty decent movies like Frequency and Primal Fear. Fallen is rated R for language and violence.

Dan -
This is another movie that has been sitting in my Netflix queue for more than a couple of years as it gradually made its way to the top. I worked at a movie theater when this movie was originally released and had seen the last 2 minutes of it more than I can count, but I have never watched it from the beginning. So the bad thing is that I knew how the movie ended, but the good thing was that I still liked the rest of it even when I knew how it ended.

I'll let Mark deal with the plot explanations except to say that Denzel Washington is a detective who has caught, convicted, and seen through the execution serial killer Edgar Reese. The intrigue starts after the execution and he investigates several murders that mimic Reese's crimes.

Be warned that this is a movie filled with supernatural elements. That being said, if you aren't interested in stuff like that which deals with themes of faith, God, evil spirits, etc. you may want to skip this movie. It is well made with some clever cinematography and the fantastic use of The Rolling Stones' music. I can almost guarantee that you will be humming one of their songs when the movie's over. And the last song in particular strikes me as funny especially considering the title of it. Look it up when the movie's over.

This becomes a tough movie to review because you as a reader most likely have not seen this movie, and may not have even heard of it. Adding to that is the fact that I don't want to give anything away. I will only say that there is a lot of point-of-view shots that are distorted to give clues as to what is happening. I am not trying to hype this up as a fantastic movie, so don't get me wrong about that. But I thought it got better as it went along and I had half a smile at how it ended.

I give this movie 3 stars out of 5. Honestly, it's probably a one-timer. If it's on TV, check it out or DVR it. You won't miss anything if it's edited anyway.

Mark -
I have to admit that I’m really not sure yet how I actually feel about this movie. It kept me entertained and I wanted to know what happened next, but at the same time it seemed that as the movie progressed it also digressed. This is the first time I’ve seen this movie, and to be honest I didn’t know anything about it. I love it when I get the opportunity to see a movie I don’t know anything about, but it seems rare that such things happen, because how can you know that you want to watch something if you don’t know that it even exists?

The movie focuses on Detective John Hobbes, played by Denzel Washington. Hobbes has put away an infamous serial killer named Edgar Reese, and witnesses Reese’s execution by lethal injection. The same night as the execution of Reese, Hobbes begins to have reoccurrences of ways that Reese would torment him. Hobbes begins to receive phone calls in the middle of the night in which no one speaks on the other end of the line, and he also begins to hear people singing the same song that Hobbes did right before his execution. As a number of murders begin to pile up around town, it is thought that possibly a copycat murderer is doing the killing. As more and more strange phenomena take place, it seems unlikely that a copycat would be able to have all of the inside information to be able to pull off such accuracy of impersonation. Things start to go from bad to worse for Hobbes as it starts to look like he may be the one committing the murders.

I don’t really want to give away everything in this movie so I’m going to stop my summary part of the movie at that point. I really enjoyed the mystery side of this movie, but there is also a supernatural side of events that somewhat turned me off. I thought the first half of the movie was much better than the second half. I will give it credit for at least having an ending that is an ending, unlike a lot of movies. 3 ½ * out of 5

My Random Thought For Fallen: Hobbes partner, Jonesy, is played by John Goodman and has some great one liners in this movie including, "If it wasn't for pizza and other fine Italian foods, there would be no happiness."

The Hurricane (1999)

Denzel Washington as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter


At the end of 1999, "The Hurricane" was released starring Denzel Washington. It was a modest hit, but maybe you have never seen it. It is rated R for language and violence.

Dan-
I have been wanting to see this movie for a really long time, but have never taken the opportunity to see it. It finally made its way up the Netflix queue (after more than 2 years I think) and I finally got the chance to see it. As cliche as it sounds, this is one of Denzel's best performances. He was nominated for an Oscar for it, but lost to Kevin Spacey in "American Beauty" (how he won against Denzel AND Russell Crowe for The Insider is beyond me). I also think this was a better performance than his role in "Training Day", for which he actually did win the Oscar.

Back to the movie. This is "based on the true story" of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter who, at the peak of his career, was framed for a murder he did not commit and imprisoned for more than 20 years. I use the true story term loosely because this is Hollywood, and naturally there will be some artistic license taken to create drama, conflict, and/or motivations. The movie implies that a single racist cop is the one responsible for all his troubles, which may have some truth to it, but there is likely a lot more to the story. While in prison, Carter writes a book about his life and wrongful conviction. There is also a black teenager named Lesra who is taken from a poor neighborhood in New Jersey to live with 3 white people in Toronto to be educated and given an opportunity he may not have otherwise had. Lesra reads Hurricane's book, shares it with his 3 educators, and they all take the cause to free the Hurricane from prison.

There were two things that sucked me in emotionally to the movie: 1- After Hurricane is sent to prison and refuses to wear the prison uniform he is sent to solitary confinement. There he has an argument with two versions of his personality, one that is weak and one that is strong. This became the point where Denzel's performance really started to shine. Prior to that the character is cocky and arrogant, and this begins to show the vulnerability of Hurricane. And 2- When he asks his wife to stop visiting him and walk away. "I'm dead. Just bury me." It's the emotion in his voice that resonates the most with me.

This is a strong legal drama of a movie. The bad point about real life and the good point of movies is that these appeals and court proceedings literally take years, but can be shown in much quicker so we as the audience continue to feel a sense of urgency. Even after Lesra meets Rubin Carter, the process takes years to get the final appeal heard in court. The movie tries emphasize that fact as there is one point where the attorneys that have been assigned to the case since the beginning of his appeals comment to Lesra's educators that many people have offered to help over the years, but due to the slow process and apparent lack of progress they felt they were making, abandoned the cause.

While I thought this movie was compelling and well-made, I think I loved Denzel's performance the most about this movie. There is a great line that Carter writes to Lesra: "Do not write me. Do not visit me. Find it in your hearts to not weaken me with your love." I'm fascinated by a man who wants to be so strong, but knows he will not appear as such if he gets close to anyone. He gains hope and loses it every time he goes to court.

I give this movie 4½ out of 5 stars.

Mark-
Sadly this movie seems as though it has been overlooked by many people. I don’t know what it is about movies about boxing or boxers, but they continually seem to be some of the best movies produced. My own wife is among those who hate boxing, yet she has admitted on numerous occasions how good movies such as Million Dollar Baby, and Cinderella Man were. I have to add The Fighter and The Hurricane to that list as great movies that have come out in the last 15 years focused in some way around boxing or boxers. This film portrays the personal and judicial struggles that Rubin "Hurricane" Carter endured, as well as a friendship developed between Carter and a young man named Lesra. Rubin Carter overcame many hardships and difficulties in his life to become a boxing champion, before being what eventually was determined a wrongful imprisonment for three murders. The theme of racial injustice is prevalent throughout this film as is the case in many of Denzel Washington’s movies, but these are also his greatest films and roles. When I think about the roles Denzel has played I think of the movies: Cry Freedom, Glory, Malcolm X, The Hurricane, and Training Day (only because he finally won his best actor Oscar for this movie). All of the above films and roles deal directly with racial differences, and you could of course add Remember The Titans and The Great Debaters to the list. Denzel Washington has been among my favorite actors for a long time, and this is in my opinion his best acting performance. Denzel became Rubin Carter for this film! The most obvious observation of this fact is the physical shape that Washington got into for this role. Although he has never been unfit in anyway, it is clear to see that he devoted himself to learning the skill of boxing, and getting for lack of a better word "ripped" for this role. Just as, if not more, impressive is the amount of emotional and psychological toil that Washington allowed himself to be subjected to. There are so many details of this movie that I could give, but I’m the type of person that would rather see the events for myself, rather than have someone tell me all about it. This is truly a great movie and was in my opinion much much much better than American Beauty which unfortunately won best picture the same year. ***** out of 5
My Random Thought For This Movie: Liev Schrieiber appears in this movie, and my random thought is that I’m beginning to wonder if he ever really ages. He has bulked up a little more than his earlier years, but with that exception I would claim that he still looks virtually the same.