Denzel Washington is inarguably one of the greatest actors ever to grace the silver screen. His career has spanned nearly five decades. It started in the 1980s with the ill-received comedy-drama "Carbon Copy" in 1981 and is still going strong today, with his most recent movie, "Highest 2 Lowest," released last year.
But it's that first part of Denzel's career I want to examine here. I've been watching a Denzel movie a week in 2026 as part of my ongoing Denzel Watchathon, and following last week's watch of 1989's "Glory," I've now seen every Denzel Washington movie of the 1980s. There are some genuinely great films in that early run of his career, but there are also some true duds.
