"training day" review

[Guest chirs3]

Training Day

 

Starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke

 

Plot: Jake is a police officer, and today is his first day on the Narc (Narcotics) squad. He's to be evaluated by Alonzo, to see if he's fit for the job. But Alonzo is not your typical by-the-book cop.

 

So begins the ole' "Badass cop with good cop rookie" routine...

 

... which lasts all of fifteen, twenty minutes. Then the movie begins to ramp up Alonzo's crazy, building up to quite a good "What the FUCK?!" moment.

 

Me keep mouth shut about plot.

 

The Good: This movie, much like all his others (except John Q, which I haven't seen), reinforce my belief that Denzel Washington is an acting God. And this is the first movie in a while to actually surprise me and keep me really interested all the way through. As in I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

 

The Bad: It reminded me a little bit of my sister's habits, and the people she hung out with. Not cool. And Hawke's performance occasionally wavers - like his "Not cool, not cool, that is not cool" repetition. It sounded forced and a tad out of character, but it doesn't happen too much.

 

Overall: An excellent movie. "Training Day" delivers Drama and Excitement like "Ghost World" delivers crap - it comes on fast and doesn't stop til the end.

 

Chirs3 gives "Training Day" 9.5 gratuitously used and completely unecessary "Motherfucker!"'s out of 10.

[Guest KOR420]

this movie is a 10 out of 10,I liked Denzel in Glory and remember the Titans,thos were other good movies with him,I saw training day in the theaters and couldn't wait for it to come on DVD,but everytime I go to the Video store to rent it its all out.Thought the scene where they bust the stoners and Denzel takes there pipe for his use was great,still can't believe Dr. Dre was in this movie though,at least he didn't have a big part

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

I loved this movie and watch it a lot. I liked Snoop as far as cameos go, but you can keep Dr Dre.

[Guest redbaron51]

Man this was a great movie. One of the best movies by Denzel Washington.

 

Snoop's appearance was good, and actually I see him on the streets in the next five years.

 

Dre though...they could have some one else in there, or if having him in, he should have gotten shot/killed

[Guest chirs3]

Dre was in there? I didn't even recognize him... I saw Snoop, but not Dre...

 

Who was he?

[Guest KOR420]

when they took the money out of that guy(Lance Henriksens house)dre was one of the guys in the flak jackets

[Guest razazteca]

great movie, there has not been a good cop/bad cop movie since Colors.

 

fav line "King Kong ain't got sh!t on me"

 

Mr Washington made the character Alonzo as real bad cop from the little things such as banging his guns to the car he drives to visiting his baby's mama.  Great character development by Washington proving he is a versitile actor.

[Guest Flyboy]

Dre was in there? I didn't even recognize him... I saw Snoop, but not Dre...

 

Who was he?

Dre was the other bad cop who had braids.  Nice braids I might say, too...

 

 

ANYHOW... I loved this movie.  A lot.  I really wanted to see Hawk and Washington becoming bad cops together, though.  

[Guest cabbageboy]

By the way that was Scott Glenn and not Lance Henriksen.

 

And yes, the movie was cool.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Dre's braids looked like shit. Almost made me want to cut mine off.

[Guest dreamer420]

The movie was pretty good and I liked seeing Denzel Washington play a role that we aren't so used to seeing.  Ethan Hawke gave the performance of the film IMO.

[Guest monkey]

I thought the film was good but did anyone else find the ending a little.......well...........just somehow not right.  Too me it didnt fit as the rest of the film did.  But I did think a lot of this film.

[Guest TUS_02]

The end was like it was straight out of the Hayes Code.  But it was a fun movie.  (insert previous comments here)

[Guest Flyboy]

I thought the film was good but did anyone else find the ending a little.......well...........just somehow not right.  Too me it didnt fit as the rest of the film did.  But I did think a lot of this film.

Well,  the ending came sort of from the motif of the movie.

 

Hawke and Denzel both say, "You wanna go to jail or you want to go home?"  a lot in the movie.  

 

And in the end... Hawke... goes home.  

[Guest godthedog]

what the hell did denzel do in that movie to warrant an oscar (well, not that i care about the oscars anyway)?  it was a 2-hour samuel l. jackson impression.  it was all style, i didn't see any real range of emotion, just a bunch of acting like a bad ass.  i think ethan hawke outdid him by miles.

[Guest TUS_02]

Can one expect to see a range of emotion when your character just doesn't give a shit about anything?  I thought Denzel did extremely well for a tired-out character, but I agree that it probably didn't warrent him an Oscar.

[Guest Black Lushus]

My own personal take on Denzel winning the Oscar for Training Day:

 

1.  The Acadamy was trying to set a precedence with a black male and a black female winning the lead role oscars...purely a political move...and his role was better than Will Smith's as Ali, based on him playing a fictional character as opposed to a real life human being...

 

or

 

 

2.  It was very different, darker than any role he had ever done and he played it to a T...we're all used to good guy Denzel, nice guy Denzel, law-abidding Denzel...bad mofo Denzel was a nice twist for him...