Bloodless Coup

Hah... I just saw the trailer for this tonight (rented The Queen. I love Denzel, but...

It's really that bad? Worse than "Alexander"?

That makes it sort of tempting...

I never saw Alexander, given your response to it. But yes, I really think it is that bad. I'm guessing that Alexander at least had going for it ridiculousness in epic/casting/accent ways that while really bad aren't as mind-destroying and mood-crushing as this sort of utter stupdity. It's awful, and sadly not in a single way that's remotely funny.

funny, i've had Inside Man in my DVR queue for a couple of weeks and was thinking of watching it this afternoon. now i've got vague doubts about choosing it over others located in the same place (recently, Thank You for Smoking, Romper Stomper, and others).

Watch Thank You for Smoking! Well, I haven't seen Inside Man, but I know Thank You for Smoking was good.

somhow, i recalled that i wanted to see Inside Man but forgot the best reason why -- it's a Spike Lee joint (TM), and Lee's been flooring me with his recent run of excellent, less soapboxy movies, the New York love letters "Son of Sam," "25th Hour," and "He Got Game." and "Inside Man" is the same thing, with a cast that's just insanely good (Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Plummer, Jodie Foster). i watched it and adored it. amusingly, while i was watching it, my DVR recorded the latest installment of Kill Point on Spike (it's pretty bad, but i've been watching it because it was all shot in pittsburgh). unthinking, i started that episode up, before realizing how insulting it would be to watch a hackneyed, cliched miniseries featuring a bank robbery, when i'd just got done watching one of the better, more clever bank robbery movies i've ever seen. and then it dawned on me that Kill Point is strikingly derivative of Inside Man, and i almost lost my stomach to ever watch another episode again. which might be where i am, now. instead, i watched the latest episode of Big Love, which was suitably dissimilar not to ruin the lingering glow of a thoroughly satisfying entertainment that Inside Man left in its wake.

also, i think you're being categorically unfair to Denzel, especially as regards his recent Lee Joints (TM). his performance in He Got Game, while not antirely at odds with your description, was one of the most gut-wrenching roles of his career, and one of the toughest in a major motion picture in a long time, and he dove into its ugliness with abandon and did a phenomenal job. ditto, Training Day, albeit that wasn't even in the same category of quality as HGG.

Well then maybe I should see Inside Man, and He Got Game for that matter, as I haven't seen either one. Though for now The Lives of Others is at the top of the queue (it's being released tomorrow) - well, 2nd in the queue behind one of the South Park season 10 discs (also coming out tomorrow). Their WoW episode was freakin' hysterical and I'm anxious to watch that again.

And personally I thought he was terrible in Training Day - his worst qualities with some sort of evil Pacino (or Hopper?) thing thrown into the mix, and I didn't believe him in that role for a minute. I thought it was hackneyed overplaying - just like Oscar tends to like. If anyone was going to win an award for that movie it should have been Hawke (and I'm not a Hawke fan either).