Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol star Paula Patton has just signed on to star opposite Denzel Washington and Mark Walhberg in the undercover DEA heist film 2 Guns. More below.

For those of you just joining us, here’s the plot synopsis of 2 Guns, taken from the comic’s official website:

In the vein of Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job, Two Guns is a pulp story about cops and thieves and the men that are something in between. Trench has targeted a local bank to rob, and asked Steadman in on the job. Trench figures it’s a great way to score – considering it’s a cover for mob money. They’ll be thieves ripping off thieves. But what Steadman doesn’t know is that Trench is a DEA agent. And what Trench doesn’t know is that Steadman’s got his own secret and isn’t who he appears to be… Classic two gun safe-robbing action delivered with wit and charm from the writer-creator of Whisper!

Contraband director Baltasar Kormakur will be reuniting with Mark Wahlberg for this one, and the excitement I felt when Denzel joined the cast was almost enough to offset how much I didn’t care for Contraband. Patton is an excellent addition to the cast, and I’m definitely interested in seeing what she can do up against a different set of A-listers after she held her own in Ghost Protocol. Deadline reports that she’s set to play Washington’s love interest, but I’m hoping there’s much more to her character than that.

Have you read 2 Guns? Interested in the movie version? What do you think about Paula Patton as an actress?

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Top Denzel Washington Movies

One of the best actors of our time, Denzel Washington is appreciated by critics, liked by the Academy of Motion Picture (two Oscars), and loved by people. Let me give you an example of what I mean when I say loved by people, since 2000 Denzel has opened 15 movies, 12 of those debuted above $20 million and while he might not have the hits of a Will Smith, he certainly more than makes up in consistency. There were no sequels and almost every single time he received top billing. So when I say he opened them, I mean it.

He’s in Safe House right now and as you already know, it’s proving to be a big hit, and could become his most successful to date. But without further ado I give you the top Denzel Washington movies based on his domestic box office hits, unadjusted for inflation.

10. Training Day (2001) $76.6 million – This earned Denzel Washington his second Oscar, a well deserved award for one of the best performances of his career. Also the movie is great, don’t miss it.

9. Philadelphia (1993) $77.4 million – Here Denzel Washington plays a lawyer, the only one willing to help an AIDS infected Tom Hanks fired by his conservative law firm because of his condition. It doesn’t help that he’s also kind of homophobic. Either way, this makes for one of 1993′s best films and apparently quite a hit at the box office considering the subject matter.

8. Man on Fire (2004) $77.9 million – This is Denzel in full on action mode, going after the people that hurt the family he was hired to protect, and by hurt I mean they killed someone in that family. Won’t go into detail since I don’t want to spoil anything but suffice to say, this is one movie you want to see, one of my personal favorites on this list.

7. Unstoppable (2010) $81.5 million – Like the movie above, this is directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun), often a collaborator of Denzel Washington. A very cool fun movie, similar to the original Speed but with a train instead, check it out.

6. Inside Man (2006) $88.5 million – A kick-ass bank heist flick directed by Spike Lee. Very much a film about appearances, masterfully written, shot and edited. While I get that it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I can’t not recommend this.

5. Crimson Tide (1995) $91.4 million – Another Tony Scott flick, this is one of those cult classics that probably anyone older than 20 with an interest in movies has seen. It also features a great soundtrack by Hans Zimmer that helps build unbelievable atmosphere during the underwater scenes (which is most of the film actually). As far as submarine movies go, this is one of the best, for me at least.

4. The Book of Eli (2010) $94.8 million – If you also happen to be a gamer as well as a movie buff, when they first showed a trailer for this, you could have been fooled into thinking this was a movie based on the Fallout video game series. And it actually does have a lot in common with the venerable RPG series but leaving that aside, The Book of Eli is a good movie that could have been great. Sadly, it’s a bit of a missed opportunity. Regardless, Denzel Washington is fantastic here, as usual.

3. The Pelican Brief (1993) $100.7 million – Starring Julia Roberts alongside Denzel Washington, this is a fun romantic-mystery-thriller. While Denzel is more than capable himself here, I have to attribute most of the success of this flick to Julia Roberts, fresh off a string of hits starting with Steel Magnolias in 1989.

2. Remember the Titans (2000) $115.6 million – A good sports drama and at the time, the most successful American Football film. I think I’ve seen this a good three times so far and while I’m not a fan of the sport, I always enjoy it. So take that into consideration if you are thinking about watching it.

1. American Gangster (2007) $130.1 million – And here we are at the highest grossing movie in Denzel Washington’s career. Directed by Ridley Scott and also starring Russell Crowe, American Gangster follows the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, a heroin dealer and organized crime boss who operated in Harlem during the 60′s and 70′s. Needless to say, this is a must see.

Finally I’m supposed to mention here a few other great Denzel Washington flicks that didn’t make this top 10. Unfortunately with him there are so many, it’s hard to choose one or two so I’ll pick a bunch instead. Here they go in no particular order: Glory (first Oscar for him), Malcom X, Devil in Blue Dress, The Great Debaters, The Hurricane, John Q (I liked it), Out of Time, Courage Under Fire, Much Ado About Nothing, and others since I most certainly forgot some.

So what is your top Denzel Washington movie?

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There should be more thrillers like Safe House: smart, engaging movies made for adults. With a propulsive score and breakneck pacing to match, the movie tears through a series of double-crosses, shootouts, and narrow escapes usually reserved for summer blockbusters. Lucky for us, it looks like summer’s come early this year.

Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a low-level CIA babysitter for a safe house in South Africa. He’s paid his dues for a year, and now he wants nothing more than to move to Paris with his girlfriend and take on a position with more responsibilities. When agent-turned-traitor Tobin Frost (Washington) appears after years off the grid, Weston gets an unexpected house guest. But Frost has information that men are willing to kill for, so the safe house is compromised and Weston’s the only one who can get Frost to the nearest extraction point. But not only is he dodging bullets from trained mercenaries, he also has to contend with Frost himself, a master manipulator super-agent who has his own plans for escape.

Safe House is a great example of how a fresh vision can elevate a tried-and-true concept. Espinosa takes a familiar story and deftly applies his signature to it: the blown-out color palette seems to mirror Weston’s heightened experiences, and the disjointed editing – transitions oftentimes bleed audio from one sequence into visuals from the next – reflect both Weston’s increasingly taxed mental state and Frost’s commanding ability to slip through the proverbial cracks. The South African setting also sets the film apart from others in the genre, with a nice set piece at a crowded football (soccer) stadium and an action-heavy shootout in a tiny shanty town. For Espinosa’s American filmmaking debut, working with a comparatively huge budget and acting superstars for the first time, Safe House is quite an accomplishment.

Washington delivers yet another strong performance, devoting himself to his character so much that he actually endured a brief session of waterboard torture during filming. He’s always been a captivating person to watch, and his natural charisma shines through even in a “bad guy” role. Reynolds is good, too; naive but always believable, he carries the film dramatically and holds his own during some ferocious fight scenes. Vera Farmiga and Brendan Gleeson both have fine supporting turns, and it seems Farmiga is carving out a nice little niche for herself as the authoritative woman on the other end of the phone (she played a similar role in last year’s Source Code).

The script, by first-time screenwriter and former Us Weekly editor David Guggenheim, tears along at an incredible pace, quickly setting up the action and leaving the exposition to be revealed further down the line. It’s a conventional premise, but he sprinkles in just enough unique moments to give the film a life of its own. The action beats are fun to watch, and the film’s denouement touches on some meaningful points about government transparency. Safe House is the type of movie I hope for when I go to the movies: well-acted, stylish entertainment that gives me something to chew on besides popcorn. Until next time…

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For a project that was once slated to be a buddy comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, 2 Guns has come a long way. Contraband director Baltasar Kormakur is now directing, and though Mark Wahlberg has been attached for a long time, it looks like an even bigger star will be teaming up with him.

Deadline reports that Denzel Washington is in talks to star. Washington next appears in Safe House this weekend and recently wrapped filming on Flight, Robert Zemeckis’ return to live action filmmaking for Paramount.

2 Guns is based on a comic book written by Steven Grant. From the comic’s official website:

In the vein of Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job, Two Guns is a pulp story about cops and thieves and the men that are something in between. Trench has targeted a local bank to rob, and asked Steadman in on the job. Trench figures it’s a great way to score – considering it’s a cover for mob money. They’ll be thieves ripping off thieves. But what Steadman doesn’t know is that Trench is a DEA agent. And what Trench doesn’t know is that Steadman’s got his own secret and isn’t who he appears to be… Classic two gun safe-robbing action delivered with wit and charm from the writer-creator of Whisper!

I actually read the first issue of the comic a few years ago, and to be honest, it seemed pretty run-of-the-mill. I’m mixed about a movie version, though: Denzel and Wahlberg could make for an explosive combination, but Kormakur didn’t impress me at all with Contraband. What do you all think? Does 2 Guns sound good to you, especially with this cast?

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Universal Studios has released the official trailer for Daniel Espinosa’s spy thriller Safe House. From the looks of the trailer, this is going to be quite the twisted dark thrill ride we’ve desperately needed, with the Award winning Denzel Washington and charismatic Ryan Reynolds as our guides.

With CIA cover-ups, a deadly escort mission, an extremely solid cast, and an everything-isn’t-as-it-seems vibe, what’s not to like? Safe House also has a killer supporting cast including Vera Farmiga, Robert Patrick, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Cunningham, and Sam Shepard among others.

Check out the trailer below:

When a CIA-operated safe house is targeted by a group of bad guys, the facility’s house-sitter is tasked with the dangerous job of moving the criminal who is being hidden there to another secure location.

It’s great to Washington back as a silently psychotic bad guy/good guy/anti-hero that he executed so well in Training Day, but honestly it’s a relief to see him in a modern day action film not involving trains! He’s just one of those actors that gets completely lost in his character, often giving us a intensely memorable performance, and it looks like his character in Safe House is no exception. Reynolds’ role is thankfully far away from his typical “funny guy” and, dare I say it, charming “superhero” (last summer’s Green Lantern, but don’t get me started on that), and brings him back to the occasional gritty thriller territory. Reynolds’ character is your typical “wrong place at the wrong time” type of hero, a role that he’s done before, with the outrageous Smokin’ Aces and the unfortunately underrated Buried being his most recent roles of that archetype.

From the looks of the trailer, Washington and Reynolds have an explosive chemistry that really escalates the amount of tension towards the end of the trailer, something we can expect in intensely high doses in the film. I’m glad that these type of spy thrillers still exist, because honestly, when we have the CIA as a plot device nowadays, it ends up turning into to a wannabe Bourne movie and they’re becoming unnecessarily repetitive. If you’re looking for a comeback of the gritty, tension and twist-filled spy thriller, look no further than Safe House.

Safe House hits theatres on February 10, 2012.

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After more than a decade directing performance capture movies such as The Polar Express and Beowulf, Robert Zemeckis will return to live-action with Flight for Universal.

Denzel Washington is leading the film, which…

“…tells the redemption story of “Whip” (Washington), a commercial airline pilot who pulls off a heroic feat of flying in a damaged plane, saving 98 lives on a flight carrying 106 people. While the world begs to embrace him as a true American Hero, the everyman struggles with this label as he is forced to hold up to the scrutiny of an investigation that brings into question his behavior the night before the doomed flight.”

The film is set to shoot next month in Atlanta, so more names will be added to the cast soon. John Gatins (Real Steel) wrote the script, and a release date will probably be set for sometime in late 2012

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20th Century Fox has announced that Tony Scott’s Unstoppable which starred Denzel Washington and Chris Pine will become available on DVD and Blu-ray on February 15th.

The movie managed to take $146 million at the worldwide box office, which is a decent amount for a $100 million movie but a bit lower than your typical Denzel flick (Book of Eli made $157 million and DeJa Vu made $180 million). Unstoppable also had great reviews and currently stands at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, so it might be worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Check out the specifications below:

UNSTOPPABLE Blu-ray Extras:

Disc One:

- Derailed: Anatomy of a Scene
- Hanging Off the Train: Stunt Work ?
- On the Rails with the Director and Cast
- The Fastest Track: Unleashing Unstoppable
- Director Commentary Track
- Tracking the Story: Unstoppable Script Development

Disc Two:
- Digital Copy

UNSTOPPABLE DVD Extras:

- Director Commentary Track
- Tracking the Story: Unstoppable Script Development

Unstoppable will be available to pre-order on January 19th.

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Director Tony Scott returns to the world of high speed pursuits in Unstoppable, his fifth collaboration with star Denzel Washington. Inspired by true events, the film follows an out-of-control train as it tears through the Pennsylvania countryside and the two mismatched railroad employees who take it upon themselves to stop it.

I must admit: while Tony Scott’s filmography is fairly populist and mostly enjoyable to me, I’m beginning to tire of his frenetic style and predictable storylines. Never has this been more apparent than in Unstoppable, a movie that – by the very nature of its plot – almost demands that you sit on the edge of your seat but never actually does anything to earn that demand.

Most of the reason I didn’t particularly care for the film is due to the lackluster script by Mark Bomback. It’s exactly the type of movie you think it’s going to be, and the movie takes absolutely no risks in telling this story. Every character is a walking cliche, from the hard working but under-appreciated Connie Hooper (Dawson) to her buffoonish boss (Dunn), and the movie somehow manages to make the main characters almost totally uninteresting. There are the standard family issues – Washington’s Frank Barnes is losing touch with his teenage daughters, Pine’s Will Colson has a strained relationship with his wife and son – but there is so little time spent building those relationships that we don’t particularly care if the issues are resolved.

Sometimes a movie can be so mediocre that it angers me more than a truly awful film. I feel bad ragging on a movie like this because A) I’m not a screenwriter, nor do I know to what degree the studio altered the script and B) it’s actually a competent movie and I’m sure a lot of people will like it. It’s comfort food for your eyes on the big screen, with serviceable performances from everyone involved but nothing fresh about the presentation. Many of Scott’s films tell stories that have been told before, but usually he brings something new to the table that at least makes it interesting (Top Gun‘s dogfighting sequences, for example). In Unstoppable, even the action is predictable and without consequence. (Small spoiler alert – even the one railroad worker we think dies in an action scene is revealed to have miraculously survived in a cheesy end-credits explanation scene.)

Nearly everything about this movie seems uninspired or too on the nose, even down to Scott’s fetishistic portrayal of machines as villains and the John Henry-esque human spirit triumphing over it. This film also had trouble gaining speed (so to speak) in preproduction; Washington dropped in and out of involvement and rampant budget cuts came down from the studio, and those problems seemed to translate into the final product. There’s no life in this film, and everything is frustratingly average. The only patch of brightness belongs to Ethan Suplee, who sells the guilt of causing this whole thing with ease but – again – doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

I was thoroughly unimpressed with Unstoppable, but what did you think about it? Did the Apollo 13 ending seem endearing to you or more like an inadequate imitation? Sound off in the comment section. And shouldn’t this movie have been called Stoppable? Until next time…

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Last week it was reported that Ryan Reynolds, Shia LaBeouf, Taylor Kitsch, Chris Pine, Sam Worthington, Garrett Hedlund, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, Chris Hemsworth and Jake Gyllenhaal (all the upcoming actors on the planet, basically) where in talks to star alongside Denzel Washington in Safe House.

The actors mentioned above were after the role of a young CIA agent who must transport a dangerous criminal (Washington) to safety after both are attacked at a safe house. Well according to Deadline Ryan Reynolds is now in negotiations for the role and is trying to fit it into his schedule which includes Green Lantern promotion and the filming of 20th Century Fox’s Deadpool spin-off.

Reynolds is becoming one of the busiest working actors around, and even though he has two potential superhero franchises in the pipeline he still has time to battle his fellow actors for roles.

One of the main attractions of Safe House is Daniel Espinosa, a Swedish director whose latest film Snabba Cash became the talk of the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. He was in talks to direct X-Men: First Class at one point and Benicio Del Toro and Leonardo DiCaprio are keen to get him to direct their upcoming movies.

No word on when Safe House will begin filming, although it will have to be when both Denzel and Reynolds are free.

Here’s the trailer for Snabba Cash so you can see what all the buzz is about:

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Speaking of Tony Scott, here’s the first trailer for his new film Unstoppable. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine star in the real life story of a runaway train towing toxic chemicals and the engineers responsible for preventing a massive catastrophe. Hit the jump to see the trailer, and let us know what you think about it in the comments section.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC6QM8y0ejo

Unstoppable also stars Rosario Dawson and will be released in November.

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