Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
48:29 – 54:58… driver's seat. He's like, hey, man, I'm sorry. Like that guy. He was really solid. Like Fran Kranz, right? Is it? That was good. Joss Whedon's guy. Oh my God. Apex Mountain. I'll save Denzel for last for this. Any chance Denzel's in the overacting category? No. No chance? He really does draw out the two gun scene. The two gun scene is like, he's like, I'm going to win the Oscar on this one. But I don't find it to be overacting. The diner scene, I think, is the only case you can make. That's why I didn't put that for rewatchable for me. I felt like they hadn't fully figured out that character yet. And he's doing …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Let's do it again. He passed him some of that PCP. Yeah. He was out of control. I also really liked the kid, the white kid in the Volkswagen Beetle in the driver's seat. He's like, hey, man, I'm sorry. Like that guy. He was really solid. Like Fran Kranz, right? Is it? That was good. Joss Whedon's guy. Oh my God. Apex Mountain. I'll save Denzel for last for this. Any chance Denzel's in the overacting category? No. No chance? He really does draw out the two gun scene. The two gun scene is like, he's like, I'm going to win the Oscar on this one. But I don't find it to be overacting. The diner scene, I think, is the only case you can make. That's why I didn't put that for rewatchable for me. I felt like they hadn't fully figured out that character yet. And he's doing the J. Pharoah of Denzel and not just being Alonzo. All right. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. He's doing all like the ticks. Apex Mountain. Ethan Hawke? No. No. No. What would your Ethan Hawke Apex Mountain be, just out of curiosity? Before sunset. The second one, I think. Second one? Yeah. So after training day. I think so. Okay. That would have been my answer too. I like that. He's got a little baggage. I really like him in Before Midnight. And I really like him in Before Sunrise. But I'm saying, I think. We're going to have to have it out. There's a bunch of other really good. I mean, you could make the argument that his Apex as like a movie star is Reality Bites. Yes. I don't know. I think also, regardless of what you think about this movie. I know. I think you're maybe you're not as crazy about it, but he's amazing in Boyhood. He's perfect. He's amazing. He's incredible. I just feel like he's not on screen that much. So it's hard. Does Apex Mountain, does who you're married to at the time count? This is, I'm not, I'm not getting in this with you. I'm just saying, is it a career? Is it a work Apex or an everything Apex? Well, you invented this show and this category. So you can be the determining factor there. I think it, to me, it's, I think only a performance. Not like what's happening in your life. Because you could argue, oh, one training day. He's in a hot celebrity couple. He's a respected actor who now has proven he can be in an action movie. He's had a lot of wins at this point. Things are going well. Oh, one. I see what you're saying. You know what? I'm going to switch my pick to oh, one. I'd say that it's before sunset for me. I want to give a shout out to when he appears in Antoine Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest and basically plays Alonzo. Yeah. And he's very good in that movie. That seemed like an idea they come up with at 2.30 in the morning after like eight bears. Yeah. Yes. What if he came back and you played your version of Denzel? Yeah. He's like, that's great, man. Do you have any cigarettes? This is the, oh, we got to do more Apex. Antoine Fuqua. It's got to be, right? I mean, I think he's had a good career, but this is like, how do you top directing Denzel at his peak performance? It's like, that's, you tell your grandkids about that. It's also interesting too, because he's now made, once the Equalizer 2, Bill's most anticipated movie of the year comes out. Oh my God. No, it's my, it's my dad. It's not mine. Sorry. My dad is going to be there Thursday. Your dad likes the Equalizer? It's like one of his, he loves Denzel and he loves the Equalizer. He fucking loves it. That movie's like, those movies are brutal. Like he just like watches Denzel kill people. He loves Denzel. We should have had Dr. Bill in this episode. He would have been great. He would have been, if we did the Equalizer. The doc needs to do Man on Fire with us. Doc loves Man on Fire. There will be no Man on Fire episode. There will. I think it's, they've made four movies together. This is by far the best. Yeah. Eva Mendes though. No, I don't think it's her Apex Mountain. No, none of the supporting people. And then Denzel. You guys seem to think it's the, the Apex of Scott Glenn. I don't think I'd go that far. Nah, I can't either. I think right stuff is his Apex Mountain. Yeah, because in the 80s, he's thinking he's an A-list actor potentially. Yeah. Denzel, I'm going to say yes. Malcolm X. Malcolm X. Malcolm X. Are you talking now? I think you're wrong. Okay. It's a, it's a subjective award. It's a subjective thing. Malcolm X is a movie about one man, but featuring three primary characters played by the same guy. Yeah. It's an amazing thing. Yeah. It's a 19 year old gangster. And I hate those kinds of movies. It's a 25 year old militant and it's a 30 year old spiritual leader. It's an amazing, amazing, amazing. And I generally dislike like my life story movies and he's just unbelievable in it. I'm still going training day because I have the body of work. At this point, if I'm Denzel, I'm America's like most beloved actor. I have a unanimous approval rating. The one thing I don't have is an Oscar. And the one thing I don't have is like my, my Michael Jordan 1992 finals kind of moment. It's the one thing I'm missing. And then I go and I play this part that nobody else can play and I'm fucking awesome in it. And a movie that doesn't, that shouldn't have worked, works. It's neck and neck. Total coin flip. Do you have a favorite Denzel movie of like the last 10 years? I like Flight. Flight's growing on me. I like Taking a Pell in 1, 2, 3. Oh, that's good. Travolta. I like the two Travolta movies. I was going to say, I think Unstoppable is better than one of the first. Crisp Pine is really fun. I think one thing we forgot to mention with Denzel is I do think he inhabits the characters for better and worse with whoever the character is. So like when he's smoking cools in Training Day, I think he's smoking cools for those three months. And when he's the drunk pilot in Flight, I think he's actually like drinking all the time. I think he's all in on everything. We talked a little bit about this last year though around Roman J. Israel and the Oscars. The only time when he struggles now, and part of it is because of what you're talking about, where he has this body of work and we have this identification with him, is when he tries to do something that is like smaller and tries to recess. If he can't tap into the essential Denzel-ness, for some reason it just doesn't work for people. They don't want to see that. The easiest category we have, could Danny Trejo have been in this movie? I mean, is there any role? He could have played all the parts in the poker scene. Yes. He could have played all five guys. He could have been any of the dirty cops. CGI. He could have been any of the dirty cops. He could have been, yeah, he could have been in every one of these scenes. I think there's only three roles he couldn't have played in this movie. The three wise men, that's it. Everybody else.
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