Denzel

For a guy who's just seen the end of the world, Denzel Washington is surprisingly upbeat. The actor projects a studied, scowling quiet for much of his new post-Armageddon thriller "The Book of Eli," which makes it a little jarring to meet the actor and find him in an altogether different mode: gregarious, charismatic, Denzel-ish . As he talks about his new role while sipping camomile tea in the lobby bar of a Beverly Hills hotel, he stages a...

Flight Paramount, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99 Available on VOD beginning Feb. 5 "Flight" marks Robert Zemeckis' return to live-action filmmaking after a decade-plus of making motion-capture animated features, and it proves that Zemeckis still has the strongest visual storytelling chops of any blockbuster director not named Steven Spielberg and still knows how to elicit great performances from movie stars. Denzel Washington is stunningly heartbreaking as an alcoholic airline pilot who saves nearly 100 people when his jet malfunctions, then has to deal with the public scrutiny over whether he's a hero or a heel.

Call it a blessing. That's how 17-year-old Denzel Whitaker describes being cast alongside his namesake, Denzel Washington, in "The Great Debaters." "My dad and mom named me after Denzel," he explains. "They thought it was a unique name." Whitaker, for the record, is a pretty unique teenager.

Denzel Washington didn't have the highest-grossing movie at the box office this weekend. In fact, Denzel Washington hasn't had the highest-grossing movie at the box office in his previous three opening weekends. His adult drama this weekend was edged out by a title from a more popular genre -- the 3-D animated family film -- as “Wreck-it Ralph” handily took care of “Flight” by a near 2-to-1 box-office total. The numbers follow a trend that goes back nearly three years.

The 25 best L.A. films of the last 25 years "Los ANGELES isn't a real city," people have said, "it just plays one on camera." It was a clever line once upon a time, but all that has changed. Los Angeles is the most complicated community in America -- make no mistake, it is a community -- and over the last 25 years, it has been both celebrated and savaged on the big screen with amazing efficacy. Damaged souls and flawless weather, canyon love and beach city menace, homeboys and credit card girls, freeways and fedoras, power lines and palm trees . . . again and again, moviegoers all over the world have sat in the dark and stared up at our Los Angeles, even if it was one populated by corrupt cops or a jabbering cartoon rabbit.

Denzel Washington is standing on a public-housing playground in West London, where the film crew for "For Queen and Country" is soaking up some grimy working-class atmosphere: a soccer game on a small fenced-in patch of asphalt. Far from being bathed in a heroic halo as he was in "Cry Freedom" playing South African Steve Biko, Washington now looks rough and ready in black leather.

Denzel Washington didn't have the highest-grossing movie at the box office this weekend. In fact, Denzel Washington hasn't had the highest-grossing movie at the box office in his previous three opening weekends. His adult drama this weekend was edged out by a title from a more popular genre -- the 3-D animated family film -- as “Wreck-it Ralph” handily took care of “Flight” by a near 2-to-1 box-office total. The numbers follow a trend that goes back nearly three years.

Is there anything Denzel Washington can't do? As an actor, he's tackled such diverse roles as a level-headed submarine officer, a homophobic lawyer, a crooked narcotics cop and a number of real-life figures, including Malcolm X and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Now in "Flight," the first live-action film directed by Robert Zemeckis in more than a decade, Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a substance-abusing airline pilot who pulls off a miraculous crash-landing but faces dire consequences for flying drunk.

Thousands of people are hearing the voice of Maria Callas for the first time these days, not on CDs--although her discography on the EMI label is enormous--but in movie houses. In one of the most effective scenes in "Philadelphia," Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), who has AIDS, seeks consolation in his love of opera and explains what it's all about to his reluctant attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington).

Many directors have go-to actors: Tim Burton has Johnny Depp, and David O. Russell has Mark Wahlberg. In a three-decade career in Hollywood, Tony Scott had his own first choice: Denzel Washington. The action auteur, who died in an apparent suicide Sunday at the age of 68, worked with the Oscar- winner no fewer than five times, or nearly one-third of the movies he directed (“Crimson Tide,” Man on Fire,” “Déjà Vu,” “The Taking of Pelham 123” and “Unstoppable”)

Is there anything Denzel Washington can't do? As an actor, he's tackled such diverse roles as a level-headed submarine officer, a homophobic lawyer, a crooked narcotics cop and a number of real-life figures, including Malcolm X and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Now in "Flight," the first live-action film directed by Robert Zemeckis in more than a decade, Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a substance-abusing airline pilot who pulls off a miraculous crash-landing but faces dire consequences for flying drunk.

A commanding performance elevates a film, but it can expose it as well, underlining that the surrounding material is not up to the standard it sets. That's the case with "Flight," a solid, often engrossing film that doesn't engage us overall the way Denzel Washington's work does. Unquestionably one of America's best actors, Washington has increasingly relished playing morally ambivalent characters, and in this film, "Forrest Gump" director Robert Zemeckis' first live-action effort in a dozen years, he gets to play one of the most intriguing, Whip Whitaker.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Oct. 28 - Nov. 3 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning Darrell Hammond; Pauley Perrette; Kevin Systrom. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Meredith Vieira and Richard Cohen; Ina Garten; Jennie Garth; Anita Baker performs. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America Denzel Washington; Billy Ray Cyrus performs; J.R. Martinez. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Rachael Ray Regis Philbin. (N) 8 a.m. KCAL Live With Kelly and Michael Jimmy Kimmel.

People who obsess about airline safety will doubtlessly be drawn to “Flight,” Nov. 2's drama about the culpability of alcoholic pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) in an aviation disaster.  But there's one place you likely will never be able to see the movie: on an airplane. The fees that airlines pay for movies are but a small slice of a film's overall income, but in some cases can add up to several million dollars, which can benefit a risky drama like “Flight.” But Paramount Pictures, the film's financier and distributor, concedes “Flight” will be a tough sell to any airline, even though the carrier and the plane in the film are  fictional creations, and Whitaker's heroic flying may have saved countless lives.

As an experienced pilot who has logged about 1,600 hours in the cockpit, director Robert Zemeckis understands stalls, turbulence and dead stick landings. But when it came to making "Flight," his new movie about an alcoholic commercial airline pilot, the "Forrest Gump" filmmaker had to contend with a different set of aerodynamics: Hollywood's reluctance to clear difficult dramas for takeoff. More than a decade in the making, "Flight" marks Zemeckis' first live-action film since 2000's "Cast Away" and an atypical wager for Paramount Pictures, which financed the film's $31-million budget.

In the new film "Middle of Nowhere," Emayatzy Corinealdi plays Ruby, an aspiring doctor who puts medical school on hold to spend hours commuting to and from the prison where her husband is serving an eight-year sentence, five with good behavior for his involvement in a nonviolent crime. It's an aspect of the incarceration story that's rarely told - what happens to the loved ones of the convicted, the people existing in a state of suspended animation waiting for their lives to resume.

People who obsess about airline safety will doubtlessly be drawn to “Flight,” Nov. 2's drama about the culpability of alcoholic pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) in an aviation disaster.  But there's one place you likely will never be able to see the movie: on an airplane. The fees that airlines pay for movies are but a small slice of a film's overall income, but in some cases can add up to several million dollars, which can benefit a risky drama like “Flight.” But Paramount Pictures, the film's financier and distributor, concedes “Flight” will be a tough sell to any airline, even though the carrier and the plane in the film are  fictional creations, and Whitaker's heroic flying may have saved countless lives.

Kate Vernon is a fan of Spike Lee's films. "They stimulate people," said the Canadian-born actress, who appeared in "Pretty in Pink" and the TV series "Falcon Crest." "I think he is helping people wake up to their own prejudices. I think that's important," she said. But Vernon found working with Lee to be a different matter. In Lee's "Malcolm X," Vernon plays Sophia, Malcolm's white girlfriend during his hustler days in Boston in the 1940s.

In the aftermath of director Tony Scott's death, much has been made of the machines he filmed - the planes, trains and automobiles so sleek in his lens they became sex symbols or exploded magnificently before our eyes. What I remember are the men. Even when I didn't love his movies, I loved his men. Scott made them matter. The filmmaker had an uncanny ability to capture the machismo without the misogyny, and that was no small feat. Scott's movies were populated by strong male figures searching for a way to survive - and even evolve a little, rather than merely ride out - the feminist wave.

Many directors have go-to actors: Tim Burton has Johnny Depp, and David O. Russell has Mark Wahlberg. In a three-decade career in Hollywood, Tony Scott had his own first choice: Denzel Washington. The action auteur, who died in an apparent suicide Sunday at the age of 68, worked with the Oscar- winner no fewer than five times, or nearly one-third of the movies he directed (“Crimson Tide,” Man on Fire,” “Déjà Vu,” “The Taking of Pelham 123” and “Unstoppable”)