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Sam Jackson can do dramatic roles, badass roles, and comedy roles. Denzel is great with the dramatic roles, but I think Sam can handle the badass and comedy roles better.
The problem with Samuel L Jackson is that he can only play one type of character successfully, the badass angry mofo character. Denzel has played a wider range of characters, and I'll take him over Will Smith also. I would compare Denzel to someone like Liam Neeson, and Will Smith to someone like Brad Pitt. Sam Jack and Joe Pesci would be a good comparison, 2 actors typecasted to certain characters.
Snipes was doing action earlier than Washington and Denzel can't (or won't) do comedy; so presumably until Ricochet, or maybe a little after that, Snipes was actually more bankable than Denzel. Washington's most sophisticated stuff was earlier in his career but I doubt 80% of his current fan base could or would sit through it. I think older white people are actually somewhat obsessed with Denzel.
You could have a more credible debate asking who is more enjoyable, but even that would rely on subjective tastes for certain types of movies. I think Jackson deserves a boat load of credit for being the most flexible black actor between dramatic, action and comedic genres. I can only imagine Poitier having done those different types of work, but he benefited from a first mover advantage that Jackson didn't have.
I think Smith deserves all the money and fame he has, but I can't call him a great actor just yet. And I think as he gets older, some of that charisma and sex appeal goes away.
Denzel and it's no contest. Sam Jackson seems to only give good performances when has a good director to lead him. My theory anyway. Better debate would be Denzel vs. Don Cheedle.
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nDOPJawut4Y?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nDOPJawut4Y?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Denzel can cry on cue. Samuel L. Jackson is good, but he's ruined his image by doing any movie people offer him money to do.
I just watched Denzel in "The book of Eli" on cable. That movie sucked. It even had Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman in it, and it still sucked.
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Denzel Washington was sooo good in Glory. In Glooooory, with Matthew Broderick (He was Ferris BUELLER!)
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