Training Day

Denzel Washington is sensational in this, the plot might not quite match his performance but <em>'Training Day'</em> is still a great watch. It's a riveting 122 minutes, I'm just not in love with how the premise is played out. Washington's character, Alonzo, never really changes throughout, despite a supposed problem of his. I kept waiting for a reason to change the opinion that the first act puts to you regarding him but it never came, there's never a point I cared for him and I assume I was supposed to... at least to some degree? Also, his issue is thrown at you in one scene and isn't really mentioned again until the end. I get the character, just not his arc. Ethan Hawke is very good, too, in this, even if I kept hearing Tom Cruise when he spoke... You also have a load of now familiar faces involved, including Eva Mendes, Raymond Cruz, Cliff Curtis, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Terry Crews. Quite an interesting cast list, that. Loved all of this, except the (still good) plot execution. Maybe that's just me though. From what I've seen, Washington's best performance so far. He's the main takeaway from this whatever way you look at it.

This movie is meh at best. The plot is so-so. This isn't anything to write home about. You could make it into a B-Movie and no one would care. No one likes Training Day for Training Day... they all just love Denzel Washington's performance in Training Day, and that is just an honest fact. The movie wouldn't be anything if he didn't deliver and what he delivered was so sensational that people are going to be talking about it decades after we pass. And that is what people like. They like how deliciously evil Denzel was in the role. They like that he had free reign, as a villain, to make the role as memorable as possible. And he did, he knocked it out of the park. So now, people watch Training Day, but let's be honest, they are only watching it for Denzel Washington, and that is as it should be, he was stellar in this, he deserves the recognition, and it's one of those movies that is otherwise so meh that his performance just shines out as the only thing really great about it. Even this rating, 10 out of 10 stars? It's not because the movie was good, it's 100% based on Denzel Washington.

Ethan Hawke is on great form here as the rookie "Jake" assigned to the street-wise "Alonzo" (Denzel Washington) so he can learn the ropes on the highly dangerous streets of Los Angeles. Unsure as to whether not he is the one being tested, he finds himself being placed in a series of increasingly dubious scenarios by his new partner - each one testing how far he will go; how far he might "bend" the rules - just how ruthless can he be? What is soon clear is that "Alonzo" has few, if any, boundaries - and we are fairly rapidly immersed in a tale of police corruption and brutality. Will "Jake" join that lucrative club, or will he remain steadfast? I am not sure I remember Washington in such an ambiguous role before, and he plays it really well. The dynamic between the two men goes full circle from that of one dependant and slightly awe-inspired to one that puts lives, quite literally, on the line. Antoine Fuqua uses a combination of tautly played-out scenarios, spiky dialogue and plenty of attitude to deliver this solid and superior crime thriller. Well worth seeing on a big screen if you can find it.