Trashy cop-thriller entertainment of the highest quality: well-made and superbly acted, with Washington in line for a possible Oscar nomination.
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.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for brutal violence, pervasive language, drug content and brief nudity
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Oct 5, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $76,074,739
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.
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Reviews for Training Day
Washington's swaggering, larger-than-life portrayal dominates the film in a towering performance that may well win him another Oscar nomination.
For those of us who rank Denzel Washington among the best actors America has ever produced, it is more a thrill than a shock to see him take on the showy, villainous role he plays in Training Day.
A bristling, cocksure... exploration of vigilantiasm and the morally dubious world we plunge our officers of law into.
It aims to be a contemporary L.A. Confidential but crumples with a simplistic, unbelievable climax.
All of the buzz is true! Denzel Washington's performance in this movie is amazing.
There's an edgy, authentic rhythm to this gritty undercover cop drama that's boosted by strong performances ... and then undermined by an appalling ending.
The camera is frequently pushed in for extreme close-ups of the characters, sometimes as they're just about to explode. It's as if Fuqua wants the viewer to feel the heat radiating from these people, to face them unguarded at point blank range.
There are a few rather unfortunate plot coincidences that undermine the tension the first half of the film, and with the proper conclusion already wasted, we wait impatiently for the standard movie-ish plot conventions to wind down to the end.
The loping 1970s meanderings of the film's first acts reveal themselves as an insidious stupid plan so dependent on chance, even Bond villains wouldn't risk such a ploy.
A direçăo de Antoine Fuqua jamais perde o dinamismo, mergulhando o espectador em um incrível estado de tensăo.
Abruptly shifts gears, switching from character-driven issue-oriented thriller to formula action-driven cop flick.
When the characters start taking obscene amounts of physical abuse and coming back for more, it manages to help you take the film’s events less seriously… something that would have helped from the start.
...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.
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.
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