Spike Lee hypes himself & Denzel Washington as “dynamic duo”

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Imagine it or not, it’s been practically 20 years since Spike Lee and Denzel Washington labored collectively. And whereas they've solely executed 5 movies – ‘Mo Higher Blues, Malcolm X, He Bought Recreation, Inside Man, and this month’s Highest 2 Lowest – Spike nonetheless considers himself and Denzel to be a “dynamic duo” regardless of the hole.

Talking with IndieWire forward of Highest 2 Lowest – a contemporary model of Akira Kurosawa’s Excessive and Low – Spike Lee stated of the reunion, “We had been each shocked that Inside Man was 18 years in the past. So the dynamic duo acquired again collectively. Denzel is the world’s biggest dwelling actor. My brother Martin Scorsese desires to say the identical factor about [Robert] De Niro. Kurosawa stated it about [Toshiro] Mifune. You had these relations the place a director and an actor construct a catalog of movies. And I’m simply blessed to have the ability to do these 5 movies collectively.”

Everyone knows Spike Lee has loads of ego, however let’s throw some numbers out simply to get an concept of why he and Denzel aren’t on that degree: Scorsese and De Niro have teamed up for 10 options, whereas Kurosawa and Mifune did 16 motion pictures. Added to this, Scorsese and De Niro started with 1973’s Imply Streets and most just lately did 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon, whereas Kurosawa and Mifune did their collabs in simply 17 years, simply barely beneath one per – earlier than splitting over a number of points between the 2.

That stated, there’s no denying that Spike Lee and Denzel Washington performed a major position in nurturing Black cinema within the ‘90s. Sadly for followers of the duo (and I contemplate myself one), Highest 2 Lowest looks like which may be it for Spike and Denzel. Whereas Denzel has since backtracked his retirement remarks and Spike has stated he hopes the actor works him in once more, contemplating the inconsistencies (we’re speaking an eight-year hole between He Bought Recreation and Inside Man after which one other 18 till Highest 2 Lowest), it appears unlikely we’ll get to #6 when all is alleged and executed.