And speaking of Denzel....

Long before they paired in American Gangster, Russell Crowe co-starred with Denzel Washington in Brett Leonard's 1995 sci-fi thriller Virtuosity. Both Crowe and I look a lot younger in this clip.

Me and Denzel, Part I

Back in April 1995, The Houston Post, which had employed me as film critic since August 1982, shut down. And when I couldn't find another newspaper to pay me to watch movies for a living, I feared that I would actually have to find a real job.

Fortunately, I managed to avoid the inevitable for a while when I landed a part-time gig at KPRC-TV, Houston's NBC affiliate, as film critic for the station's weekend morning news show. Talk about earning while you're learning: This segment I did with Denzel Washington (during a junket for Virtuosity) was one of my very first efforts for KPRC as on-the-air interviewer. Fortunately, Washington was too gracious to make me look too green.