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Jan 29, 2008

Build 'em up...Tear 'em down: Terrence Howard

Though he's been acting for over 15 years, Terrence Howard didn't burst onto the mainstream scene until 2004-5 with the one-two punch of Crash and Hustle & Flow. With his tremendous acting and bright green eyes, the man who had played "Customer" in 1993's Who's the Man had earned his time to shine. And shine he did, earning an Oscar nomination for his performance in Hustle & Flow as well a winning a number of other awards between the two films.

With all this newfound attention, Terrence was most likely flooded with scripts - directors and producers all eager to work with this shining star. Apparently, Terrence was pretty eager, too - for paychecks, anyway. Howard starred or co-starred in six (6!) movies that were released in 2007, and has another three on tap for release in '08 (amongst them: Iron Man). Let's reflect on his '07 output:


















Well, that was a fun trip down memory lane, right? Of course, I didn't see a single one of the above movies, so I can't (or at least, shouldn't) comment too much on their respective qualities, but I can let IMDb voters talk for me:

Pride: 3.7/10
The Hunting Party: 7.2/10
The Brave One: 7.0/10
August Rush: 7.3/10
Awake: 6.5/10
The Perfect Holiday: 2.1/10

Overall, a 5.6/10 average, which, to be honest, is higher than I thought it would be. Still, would it hurt to say no every now and then, Terrence? Even John Travolta thinks you should ease up a bit.


5 people have chosen wisely: on "Build 'em up...Tear 'em down: Terrence Howard"

Nick said...

The only one of those I've seen is August Rush, and he was pretty good in that. And I thought it was a great movie, too (as long as you realize it's a fairy tale and things aren't exactly logical).

Jess said...

I actually liked Pride. But I like sports movie. It wasn't well written, and any movie where your nemesis is Tom Arnold should be viewed with suspicion, but his performance was terrific. And Bernie Mac was funny and an excellent side kick. It was uplifting, but definitely failed on the overall quality front.

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

Howard is amazing and I'm excited to see him in more stuff.

joen05 said...

Excellent commentary. I didn't see any of those movies either, but I am really looking foward to Iron Man.

I remember wanting to see Pride, but I never saw it.

Daniel said...

If you missed it in March, Pride actually came out again recently - they just changed the title to The Great Debaters. Actually I saw both, and Pride wasn't as good. Terence Howard was bored in his role. It had some good music and some rising stars (interestingly, Nate Parker also played a main character role in The Great Debaters), but was otherwise a predictable - albeit occasionally enjoyable - sports movie like Jess said.

Oh my, I'm just remembering some scenes, and especially the ending. EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE GREAT DEBATERS. Somebody see both and tell me I'm not going crazy.

You know what you just made me remember, Fletch, was seeing "The Jacksons: An American Dream" on TV awhile ago and literally having to do a quadruple take to see if it was truly "Terrence Dashon Howard" - indeed, in his first ever role. Great TV miniseries, by the way.