I reviewed my hierarchy of movies before, so here’s my hierarchy of actors. Think of it as a pyramid, at each higher level, the population decreases. The base is composed of shitty actors, let’s face it, there’s a ton of them. The next tier, the mediocre, is followed by the meh. Next we have the good, then the great, and at the top of the pyramid, the rarified spectacular. Think Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. That’s a pretty good pyramid, right? Do you picture it to be maybe 100 feet tall? I do. Now picture another pyramid, 300 feet high, looming behind the first. It only houses one actor, who sits in a golden throne at the very top, peering down at the smaller pyramid with his trademark smile, smirk and the nod of his head as he chuckles at the poor saps staring up at him as if he were God himself in the heavens. This is the actor di tutti actors, the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). Of course, this actor is THE ONE, THE ONLY, DENZEL WASHINGTON. Without doubt, he is the best actor ever, and the only actor I can think of where I liked every performance and every movie. Even this crock of shit!
Okay, it’s not really a crock of shit, but it is a remake of a famous movie from 1962, starring – good Lord – Frank Sinatra? Come on, man, that guy was never a good actor. Great singer, obviously, but from the little I’ve seen of his acting – he blew.
Anywho, so the plot was about Major Ben Marco (The GREAT DENZEL) commanding a raid during the Gulf War involving Sergeant Ray Shaw (Liev Schreiber), who then was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Liev Schreiber – I can never figure out how to pronounce his name – is it leave? Lee-ev? Liv? Live? Who knows?? But back to the plot – Shaw was now a US congressman, groomed as a candidate for Vice President (over the more qualified Senator Tom Jordan, played by Jon Voight) by his mother, Senator Eleanor Shaw, played by Meryl Streep.
Jeffrey Wright from Boardwalk Empire fame played Corporal Al Melvin, one of the soldiers during the raid who was suffering mental illness. He contacted Marco about dreams he kept having about being captured, brainwashed and killing fellow soldiers during captivity. So, the update here was instead of brainwashing, a “nano-implant” created by Manchurian Global corporation was used to control people, with words used to trigger them to do whatever they were commanded. How any of this nonsense worked was conveniently avoided. And because this corporation, along with a conspiracy of politicians led by Sen. Shaw, wanted Raymond to be president, Marco was ordered to kill the president-elect. It doesn’t take a clairvoyant to determine how this movie ends, but I won’t spoil the ending.
So to summarize, let’s get something straight here. Sure the plot was ludicrous, sure the ending was contrived and no surprise, but don’t you DARE blame any of the shortcomings of this movie on our beloved DENZEL WASHINGTON. His acting was brilliant per usual. And, if for no other reason, this movie must be watched because it stars…. DENZEL WASHINGTON. End of story. Six nano implants out of ten.