Rating of
3/4
"Training Day" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/18/12
Ethan Hawke plays a rookie cop looking to make detective by becoming part of Denzel Washington's narcotics task force. But is he teaching the rules of survival on the dog eat dog streets, or is he a psychotic and corrupt loose cannon using Hawke's inexperience for his own ends? The biggest appeal in this glossy cop thriller is seeing Denzel playing totally against his usual holier than holy type and if he'd taken more of these parts, I'd like him a whole lot more. Unfortunately it's the reliance on surface gloss that is the film's Achilles heel. If you asked a middle class 15 year old white boy what it's like to live in the "hood", this is exactly what he'd describe; basically a living hip-hop video, complete with rappers, lowriders and hot and gratuitously naked Puerto Rican babes. The story and direction is effective but it chugs along with little pause for suspense and it lacks the grittiness and believability of the similar Narc. It is clearly a quality action thriller that's fuelled by Washington's powerhouse performance but the female demographic may be put off by the constant macho posturing that makes it positively reek of testosterone.
Recent Comments
MovieAddict - wrote on 04/18/12 at 08:55 PM CT
Training Day Review comment
Nice Review! Coincidently Denzel won an Oscar for best actor in this movie. Being deliciously bad is always so much fun and he is most definitely reveling in the flesh of Alonzo Harris. The irony here is that after playing the Good Guy for all those years, he finally won it for his Bad Guy role!
