...an obsequious vehicle where Washington can strut his dastardly stuff in an otherwise penetrating but arbitrary streetwise adventure. Personally, this undercover movie reviewing narc finds Training Day a kind of tough pill to swallow.
Training Day (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:152
Fresh:109
Rotten:43
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: The ending may be less than satisfying, but Denzel Washington reminds us why he's such a great actor in this taut and brutal police drama.
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Every day, there is a war being waged on America’s inner city streets – a war between residents, drug dealers and the people sworn to protect one from the other. This war has its casualties, none... Every day, there is a war being waged on America’s inner city streets – a war between residents, drug dealers and the people sworn to protect one from the other. This war has its casualties, none greater than L.A.P.D. Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris (DENZEL WASHINGTON), a 13-year veteran narcotics officer whose questionable methodology blurs the line between legality and corruption. His optimism has long since been chipped away by his tour of duty in the streets, where fighting crime by the book can get you killed, and getting the job done often requires Alonzo and his colleagues to break the laws they are empowered to enforce. A gritty, realistic drama set in the morally ambiguous world of undercover police investigation, Training Day shadows Alonzo as he tests the resolve of idealistic rookie Jake Hoyt (ETHAN HAWKE), who has one day and one day only to prove himself to his fiercely charismatic superior. Over the next 24 hours, Jake will be pulled deeper and deeper into the ethical mire of Alonzo’s logic as both men put their lives and careers on the line to serve their conflicting notions of justice. Training Day is a blistering action drama that asks the audience to decide what is necessary, what is heroic and what crosses the line in the harrowing gray zone of fighting urban crime. Does law-abiding law enforcement come at the expense of justice and public safety? If so, do we demand safe streets at any cost? Or do we risk our security by insisting that those empowered to protect us do so within the boundaries of the law? At a time when police across the nation are battling a public image of rampant corruption, narcotics use, planting evidence and excess brutality while patrolling the meanest streets of America, Training Day paints a gripping and realistic portrait of the war taking place on the urban front lines – and just how high the costs of this battle can be. -- © Warner Bros. [More]
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Eva Mendes, Dr. Dre, Raymond J. Barry, Will Foster Stewart, Harris Yulin, Macy Gray
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriter: David Ayer
Producer: Jeffrey Silver, Robert Newmyer
Composer: Mark Mancina
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for Training Day
I don’t quite understand why screenwriters try to cram their more nuanced or interesting characters into something as conventional as the final act of Training Day.
A flair for tone and character, as well as capturing the look and feel of LA rather than that of Hollywood.
All of the action takes place during a single day, and there’s enough action in this one short period to fill the entire career of a normal cop.
Mostly insignificant (and overlong, clocking in at two hours when ninety minutes would have more than sufficed).
On a purely visceral level, Training Day is easily the most exciting movie out there right now, but as a morality tale with anything large on its mind, it's a cop-out.
Trama interesante llena de personajes tridimensionales y sustanciosos que seguramente harán pensar al espectador en los tiempos actuales que vivimos.
Todos los días, en las calles de las zonas urbanas, en el interior de unos Estados Unidos muy distintos a los que vemos usualmente, la guerra está presente...
There's strong stuff here, a good meal for the appetites of life-on-the-line, action-craving audiences, especially those who enjoy seeing bad cops portrayed for the world to see.
Begins as a surprisingly interesting exploration of corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement, and then it just gives up.
[Denzel Washington] towers above the film's petty failings, overwhelming them with his sheer presence and defying us to tear our eyes away.
A trivial, campy drama that obviously strives for dramatic respectability, yet is best suited as a "Sunday Afternoon Cable Movie" for undemanding fans of the cop genre.
It was just too much slime to take in for one day, as somewhere after the first half of the film the shock scenes simply wore off and the film lost any dramatic effect.
Washington is one of those rare artists who can, seemingly, transform his soul.
starts off very well, gets increasingly better as it goes along, and then suddenly deflates as it shoots itself in the foot in the final stretch
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