An ethical chess game played out with fearsome, bloody pawns.
Training Day (2001)
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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
For its kinetic energy and acting zeal, I enjoyed the movie. I like it when actors go for broke.
Denzel Washington delivers his best work as a rogue cop on the streets.
Even when it falls back excessively on coincidence and contrived set pieces, even when it gushes irretrievably over the top in its final act, Washington makes Training Day sizzle.
With its unflinching style, Training Day can be hard to sit through at times. But it's worth the discomfort for the adrenaline rush of the plot and Washington's compelling performance.
There comes a point in every movie when it has to quit playing coy and let the audience know where it stands. Once Training Day takes that step, it begins to disintegrate before our eyes.
Less a police drama than a cinematic force-feed, Training Day is difficult to swallow and harder still to stomach.
This gripping police drama from director Antoine Fuqua is relentlessly hard-boiled, with a calculated (and welcome) change-of-pace performance from Denzel Washington.
Being bad brings out the best in Washington, and his performance elevates Training Day past its familiar street-cops scenario into something richer and far more engrossing.
[Washington] and Hawke have great chemistry together and the two of them together are riveting.
Isn't as good as it thinks it is, but it still has a lot going for it.
Those able to withstand the intensity and violence will be rewarded with solid acting by Ethan Hawke and a towering performance from Denzel Washington.
Even though Training Day collapses into a slew of implausibilities at the end, it's still one of the most continuously exciting of the recent big action movies.
Denzel gives a blisteringly brilliant performance in this good cop/bad cop drama.
A tantalizing chess match waged between morale adversaries claiming to be from the same team.
In Antoine Fuqua and Dominic Sena's race to become David Fincher, Fuqua, with his colour-bleached urban noir Training Day, pulls slightly ahead
Reverts pathetically into the tried and true formula of good cop versus bad cop.
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