Rating: 
Summary: Denzels' best!
Review: I loved Denzel Washington in this movie. He is my favorite actor and the story line was extremely good. I hope to see more of his work in the future. There is not another African American actor or any male actor that can hold a candle to him. I cannot say enough to praise this marvelous performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Good directing is wasted by a confusing and boring plot
Review: I saw some good reviews for this movie so I got it on DVD and it was absolutely boring. The plot is too confusing. I wish the same effort was put in to a movie with a decent plot. Denzel Washington put in a good performance which also goes to waste. If you read the book...
Rating:
Summary: average
Review: i was looking foreward to this film but it was just so-so.Denzel Washington who is the best Actor in Hollywood today is rather average in this film.this is however a breakthrough for Don Cheadle.he stole the film from Washington.Jennifer Beals is to me pretty Wooden in this film.not much substance.the Direction was solid.
Rating: 
Summary: See it for the acting
Review: If you've read the book, you'll be disappointed in this. It's faithful to the plot, with one important exception: what happened to the sexual heat between Easy and Daphne that was so important to the book's story? Without it, you wonder why Easy would bother chasing down this woman once he doesn't have to. The general atmosphere is somewhat lacking. We know Easy has a hard time finding decent work due to racism, but we never get a sense of how desperate he is for money (and thus not lose his house) as we do in the book. Also, the screenwriter seems content to merely recycle typical (i.e. cliched) private eye/hard boiled/noir dialogue in place of using language as fresh as that found in the novel. Plus the first half of this film seriously drags. Why, then, do I give it three stars and insist that it's worth watching? Simply put, Denzel Washington is terrific. He really brings Easy to life. Don Cheadle is also excellent as his psycho buddy Mouse. Most of the supporting cast do superb jobs as well. Though Jennifer Beals isn't gonna win any Academy Awards with this kind of performance, she does fine. Worth renting and watching once. Not necessarily worth owning unless you're a big Denzel Washington fan.
Rating:
Summary: Denzel in Period Drama
Review: In the same way that Errol Flynn played in period dramas, Denzel Washington was now given the opportunity to play in period dramas as a leading character. In 'Devil in a Blue Dress', he did not need to bounce off other big names actors because just seeing him alone in a period drama was enough.
The film is set just after the Second World War, and Denzel returns back to his neighbourhood aiming to own his property and develop a lifestyle. Throughout the film, we follow him on his journey to independence, and enjoy the fruits of his labour with him. As all good stories end up, Denzel achieves his goal by the end of the film.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy Does It!
Review: It is the end of WWII. Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins(Denzel Washington) returns from the war to find segregation,discrimination, and a decent job hard to come by. He has used the little bit of money he had to buy a house and car, but he must find a way to keep up the payments. A job does come his way, it sounds shady, but it's seems to be easy cash, so he takes it. The job...To find a missing woman named Daphne Monet(Jennifer Beals)...seems easy enough.
Finding this mysterious woman, Easy, gets into trouble at every turn. Dead bodies start turning up all around him. The cops harass him,he uncovers political foul play, and a dark secret about the woman. Working with him is his old friend "Mouse" (Don Cheadle), who's answer to everything is shoot first and ask questions later. The "reward" for finding this woman and what she knows is growing as the answers start leading up the ladder of society. Is Easy's interest now for the money or the girl? If you like the old style of film noir in movies like "Laura" or the newer modern film noir like "L.A. Confidential" you'll love "Devil in a Blue Dress". It's gripping, edge of your seat stuff.Director Carl Franklin and director of photography Tak Fujimoto give us a great look at this steamy side of Los Angeles in the 1940's.The musical score by Elmer Bernstein is wonderfully atmospheric, and the old rhythm and blues or"Shout and Jump" music by such greats
as T-Bone Walker and Duke Ellington are a great addition to 1940's feel. The cast also features Tom Sizemore and Maury Chaykin. The DVD(Columbia Tri-Star) is a nice transfer. It is in widescreen, with a full screen version on the other side. Picture and colors are outstanding. The sound was good, dialouge a little low at times but still good. Features include Director's commentary during the film if you want, Don Cheadle's screen test and trailers. There are subtitles for those needing them. All that is needed now is another EASY RAWLINS story..how bout it Denzel?..........Enjoy........Laurie
Rating:
Summary: First-Rate Movie, Great Acting, Great Atmosphere
Review: It's 1948 in Los Angeles and Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) is out of work, short of cash and late with a couple of house payments. He's offered $100 to find a woman named Daphne Monet, who is the missing girl friend of a candidate for Los Angeles mayor, a candidate who has just withdrawn from the race. Then people start to die and Easy gets set up for the fall unless he can quickly find out what's going on. To help him, he calls on a long-time friend named Mouse Alexander (Don Cheadle). With Mouse around, the bodies really start piling up. "You told me not to shoot him. I didn't. I choked him. If you ain't want me to kill him, why'd you leave him with me?" Mouse asks reasonably at one point.
The movie is based on the book by Walter Mosely. It has a great noir look about it of black life in forties L.A. -- bars, after hours jazz clubs, motels, street life, family life. It also has violence, race and racism, police who'd just as soon convict a black man as look at him, politics and political corruption.
There's strong acting by all the members of the cast. Washington brings his typical integrity and likeability to Easy, and Don Cheadle almost steals the show. Mouse is quick to kill, basically a psycho, but a great friend to have. Also noteworthy is Tom Sizemore as a ruthless, cold-blooded bad guy.
I've read somewhere that if the movie had done well Washington, Mosely and Franklin were planning to film another of the Easy Rawlins books. The movie didn't too well and the financing evaporated. Too bad; the movie is excellent and the sequels might have been. The books are excellent, too. The DVD looks great.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish Post-War Mystery
Review: It's summer in Los Angeles, 1948. Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins (Denzel Washington) returned from World War II a few years ago to a land of opportunity. He got a job, a mortgage and a home of his own. But now he has lost his job and is determined not to lose his house. A friend introduces Easy to a sleazy character named DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore) who ostensibly is trying to locate the former girlfriend of mayoral candidate Tom Carter (Terry Kinney) so that the couple may be reunited. Desperate to keep making his mortgage payments, Easy accepts the job of finding the girlfriend, a woman named Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals). His search causes him to be suspect in several murders and arouses the interest of the rival candidate for mayor, Matthew Teran (Maury Chaykin). Easy finds that he is not the only person looking for Daphne Monet and that no one is exactly who he, or she, appears to be. As motives become less clear and the trail becomes more murderous, Easy calls on a childhood friend named Mouse (Don Cheadle), who has more experience in the criminal underworld and is more than willing to use force, for help. With the police, Albright, and Daphne Monet all demanding his loyalty, Easy must buy time and use his wits to unravel the mystery of Daphne's identity and uncover the scandals that will make or break the careers of two of the city's prominent politicians. "Devil in a Blue Dress" is based on the detective novel of the same name by Walter Mosley. Screenwriter and director Carl Franklin has altered and simplified Mosley's novel for the screen and employed cinematographer Tak Fujimoto to create a stark and moody environment in sunny California. Fujimoto's cinematography looks great and is reminiscent of the film noirs of the 1940's, when the story takes place, and also does an excellent job of communicating the tone of the novel visually. The degree to which the film evokes the style of World War II era film noirs is striking considering that "Devil in a Blue Dress" is in color. This film isn't as sexy as the novel on which it is based, nor is it as effective in conveying Easy's desperation. It is, however, more tightly woven, more plausible, and more enmeshed in city politics. Don Cheedle's interpretation of "Mouse" couldn't be better. And the cinematography is a pleasure to watch. "Devil in a Blue Dress" a stylish and enjoyable neo-noir adaptation.
Rating:
Summary: Devil Made Easy
Review: Los Angeles, 1948. Ezekiel 'Easy' Rawlins is a mortgage-holding war veteran, newly down-at-heel thanks to aircraft industry lay-offs. In keeping with the pattern established by John Huston's Maltese Falcon (1941), he accepts a dodgy job for easy cash, taking him into the crevices where his mysterious patron Albright (Tom Sizemore) cannot go. Unlike the lantern-jawed heroes of forties low-life detective work, Rawlins is black. This is the source of the ambiguity that underwrites Carl Franklin's screen adaptation of Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress. Mosley and Franklin take us into the familiar territory of violent film noir, akin to Franklin's earlier One False Move (1993). What made the novel different from other pulp fictions was its evocation of race in postwar America. Searching out a missing woman may be the staple of countless private eye thrillers, but this time it is refracted through the prism of postwar racial tensions. Like the best fifties flicks, paranoia is ever present. In Devil in a Blue Dress, however, the uncertainties are not about reds under the bed, but about crossing the colour line. Denzel Washington, fresh from his Crimson Tide performance, is superb in the lead role, giving expression to the burning anxiety that lies beneath Easy's cool exterior. That anxiety is provoked in particular by Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beale), the eponymous femme fatale engulfed in the sordid underbelly of white Los Angeles. Unlike the classical hardboiled dick, such as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Rawlins has to think twice before pursuing her. If Hammett 'took murder out of the venetian vase and dropped it into the alley', then Mosley has populated the alley with redneck cops prepared to ensure that blacks know their place. But while the film version of Devil in a Blue Dress is clearly infused with racial tensions, Franklin seems to be unwilling to pursue the issue too hard. He seems somewhat torn between creating a straightforward period piece and pursuing the racial themes. The ambiguity of Rawlin's position is softened when, for example, in contrast to the novel, Franklin takes the stream out of Easy's relationship with Daphne. In Franklin's adaptation race works mainly as an unspoken assumption, so much so that police billy clubs are probably the only aspect of life in 1948 that is not lovingly created. Opening as it did during the OJ Simpson trial, Devil in a Blue Dress created a major stir in the USA. Entertainment Weekly described it as a sociologist's tour of urban Negro culture. But that is its real problem: its view of race from a safe distance, rather than from the inside as in Mosley's novel. Outside of flashes of fire from Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle (who plays Easy's wild associate Mouse), it is altogether too sedate, too fifties - in the Happy Days sense of that decade - to capture the ambiguity either of noir or of Mosley's novel. Walter Mosley achieved national fame when Bill Clinton declared him to be his favourite novelist. Franklin's version of Devil in a Blue Dress is Mosley as Bill Clinton might read him. The central dilemma of race remains largely unexplored and Mosley's compelling vision is lost in the nostalgia of a period piece.
Rating:
Summary: Great period piece and a fine film noir!
Review: This movie got pigeonholed as a "black interest movie" and never got adequate attention from the world at large. Denzel Washington is very good and the depiction of race relations in post WWII Los Angeles is fascinating. And for film noir lovers, this movie is true to the form. It is not quite LA Confidential or Chinatown, but it is a great modern addition to the noir cannon.
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