Training Day isn't just one of the finest cops-and-robbers thrillers of recent years, full of devious twists and gut-grinding tension, but it also steers clear of convenient moral formulas.
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
Training Day is a tense, polished, well-made action thriller that suffers from bad timing.
Any issues with the material are made irrelevant by Denzel Washington's volcanic energy and fierce conviction.
The hype preceding "Training Day" makes expectations for the film high. It is, like Washington's performance, good not great.
Motivation is questionable, the script needed some more polish and some of the action is cartoonish.
An intense little movie with solid acting across the board, some ups, some downs and a thrilling ending, despite a couple of small flaws
Reminds me of the films of the 1970s that were gritty and violent but that also showcased stellar acting, back before blood and intelligence became mutually exclusive in movies.
A razor-wire-taut (and extremely violent) exploration of what happens when good guys go bad, badder, baddest.
It doesn't attend to its greatest asset -- the complications of this huge and ferocious character [Alonzo].
As usual Washington is astounding. He grabs the screen like a vise and never lets go.
In a film that introduces such potentially powerful situations, its level of predictability and its misuse of its talented cast is simply disappointing.
The powerful story also lends itself to a broader interpretation than a simple contest between good and evil. The film is a tour de force.
As a conventional police drama, this is as good as a Hollywood genre pic gets.
"Training Day" is a good film held back from greatness by the excesses of its script.
[Denzel] Washington and Ethan Hawke are so good that they easily stand out in a cop drama that is...merely adequate.
A rock-solid Hollywood thriller that showcases a corrupt cop's twisted abuse of innocence.
Part of the appeal of Training Day is, simply, watching Washington be bad.
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