Denzel, Crowe: A Brief History of Trash

there any doubt Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe would slaughter all comers at the box office this weekend with the crime epic American Gangster? But unless you've seen Virtuosity, the sci-fi crapfest that teamed the two up for the first time in 1995, you may want to reconsider where you drop your $11.

So what was it like when these two acting behemoths first teamed up? Was it the "acting showdown" or the "showdown for the ages" that American Gangster has been called? Hardly.

In the rarely viewed futuristic thriller, "a virtual reality serial killer (Crowe) escapes into the real world and is tracked by a detective (Washington)." Sound bad? It is. Along with not attracting enough movie-goers to break even, Virtuosity was largely panned by the critics. One reviewer called it "The worst movie that could possibly be made starring Crowe and Washington." And if any further proof was needed, not even Peter Travers liked it, and Peter Travers .