OK back to the movies, this review will cover the crime drama, Training Day, starring Denzel Washington as a rouge cop who takes in a rookie cop for a "training day". So let's get into it then....
So the film begins with rookie cop, Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) who is to be evaluated by a narcotics officer, Detective Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington). Alonzo is a highly decorated cop and he has a rather unorthodox way of doing things as Jake soon finds out after they carry out a drugs bust, they confiscate the drugs sold to some young kids, and Alonzo has Jake smoke the marijuana. When Jake initially refuses, Alonzo points a gun at his head and tells him if he turned down a drug dealer he would be dead, which forces Jake to smoke it, only to later find out from Alonzo that it was laced with PCP. Jake soon after notices a young girl being sexually assaulted by two crackheads as they drive by an alley way, Jake runs out and stops the attackers. However Alonzo is not interested in reporting the crime as he believes justice is better served on the streets and to let them lowlifes just wipe each other out. Along the way Alonzo pays a visit to a local drug dealer, Roger (Scott Glenn) who was a former police officer.
Later on Alonzo tries to follow the lead of another drug dealer called the Sandman, which eventually leads to the Sandman's house, but the dealer isn't there and Alonzo has to deal with the dealer's wife (Macy Gray) where he uses the excuse that he has a search warrant in order to search her apartment for drug money. Alonzo in the process steals money during the search and on leaving, the Sandman's wife realises she has been robbed and sets the local gangbangers on Alonzo and Jake, who barely make it out of there in one piece. Alonzo later pays a visit to his Salvadoran mistress, Sara (Eva Mendes) and their young son. Afterwards Alonzo meets with a group of high ranking police officials, dubbed the "three wise men" (Tom Berenger, Harris Yulin and Raymond J.Barry) who agree to give him an arrest warrant in exchange for the drug money he stole from the Sandman's wife. This is because Alonzo owes a debt of 1 million dollars to the Russian mafia and he uses the arrest warrant to arrest Roger and seize the dealer's millions stashed underneath the floor of Roger's kitchen. Alonzo along with Jake and a few other corrupt police officers takt their share of the money, but Jake refuses to take his. Alonzo tells Jake to shoot Roger, but Jake refuses and Alonzo kills Roger himself, leaving Jake shocked and angry at being used by him, and he angrily takes the gun off Alonzo as the other officers get involved in a stand off, which is soon diffused by Alonzo.
After this Alonzo convinces Jake to go along with their story that as they entered Roger's house, Roger shot first and Jake killed Roger in defence, to which Jake reluctantly agrees to go along with. Later on Alonzo takes Jake out to another gang neighbourhood where he runs a personal errand for a gangster named Smiley (Cliff Curtis). However as Jake awkwardly plays cards with Smiley and his gang members, Jake soon realises that Alonzo has abandoned him and that he has payed off Smiley to kill Jake. And this is where Jake's problems really begin.....
Training day to this day is still a very effective crime drama and its amusing how in the underworld of drugs that the cops are just as dirty as the dealers, something which is mirrored in Alonzo. And while the premise of police corruption is nothing new the set up of the story being told over the space of one day helps keep Training Day fresh as a film. The film also works well mainly because of Alonzo's character as he is a charismatic cop who uses his pizaz and smart talk to manipulate the naive and clean cut Jake into doing his dirty work. And its Alonzo's ability to use what Jake wants most and his ambition as a weapon against him when he needs to in order to see just how far Jake is willing to go.
Which brings me onto the performances which are great, starting with Denzel Washington who is simply superb in his role as the charismatic and manipulative Alonzo Harris, who toys with Jake and get's him to do what he wants (well to an extent). Washington himself won the Academy award for best actor and its easy to see why as it is easily one of his best performances and Washington has so many highlights in the film. Washington has some great dialogue from the word go, particularly in his first scene where he meets with Jake while he ignorantly tries to read his paper, until Jake get's his attention and he tells Jake to tell him a story. And Jake proceeds to tell Alonzo about an incident involving him and and a female assessment officer as they carried out a random drunk stop, and Alonzo listens and says "You mean to tell me that you were with a fine ass bitch for a year and the best story you can come up with is a drunk stop?!". And later on when they get in Alonzo's car, Jake asks him "Where is the office? Back at division?" and Alonzo smiles and says "You in the office baby!". Washington also has fun with the part as he parts his wisdom to Jake he says "To protect the sheep, you need to become a wolf" and he makes some wolf noises and insists that Jake do the same, except he does his more like a rooster and Alonzo laughs saying "I said a wolf not a rooster!". And the scene Alonzo finally turns and shoots Roger is also really good as we see the transformation in his character from a loose canon to a twisted bastard who is willing to steal money in order to save his own neck. Alonzo's final scene is also a real highlight where the local gangbangers in the neighbourhood all gather round as Jake confronts Alonzo. And Alonzo says to them "I'm putting cases on all you bitches! Shoe program, nigga! 23 hour lockdown! You don't own shit, I run this place, you just live here! King Kong ain't got shit on me!".
Ethan Hawke also provides a fine performance here as well as the clean cut rookie cop, who is pretty much Alonzo's opposite in every way and throughout the film he is pushed and manipulated by him until Jake can no longer tolerate it. Hawke's best scene of course comes where he sits and plays cards with Smiley's gang and he soon twigs that they have been paid off by Alonzo to kill him and they drag him into a bathtub where he pleads with them to spare him and he suceeds when they realise that the girl Jake saved earlier was Smiley's cousin. Hawke also provides the film's important moral centre as he is counteraction to Alonzo's corruption and in the end he proves himself to be incorruptible. Hawke also get's a good line when he is stoned sitting in Roger's flat, who says to him if he works out his joke then he will figure out the streets, and Jake says "I've figured it out. Its all about smiles and cries".
In other performances, Scott Glenn is excellent as the drug dealer Roger, and his scenes are pretty good, especially in his first scene where he tells a stupid joke to Jake, who laughs at it in a drug induced stupour and later on where Alonzo raids his house to seize his money. Cliff Curtis is also great in his role as the gangster Smiley who is paid off to kill Jake, but unlike Alonzo, Smiley does have honour and he decides to spare Jake when he realises that he saved his young cousin. Curtis is also such a chaemeleonic character actor that there are times when you see him in a film you can scarcely believe it is him (although he is recognisible here!). Curtis also get's some good lines of dialogue as Smiley, especially where he tells Jake about how Alonzo owes money to the Russian mafia and he says "And if Alonzo doesn't appear up there with the cash by midnight tonight... your vato... he's dead!". Also in the next moment where one of Smiley's crew asks Jake if he ever had his "shit pushed in" and they ask Smiley who says "Sure! I always like a little love from the homies!".
The film also has some notable smaller roles such as the lovely Eva Mendes, who plays Alonzo's mistress, Sara, who is essentially a decent woman who tries to raise her young son in a rough neighbourhood. Harris Yulin is also really good in his small role as one of the three wise men, Detective Doug Roselli who tells a funny story how a criminal once went up in court and use peanut butter in court to pretend he wiped his ass and licked his fingers! Tom Berenger also does well with his brief role as another one of the three wise men, Stan Gursky, who warns Alonzo that "I do not want to see you end up dead on TV like those other assholes!" (i.e. cops that have died in the line of duty). And finally there are also some smaller performances from hip-hop stars, Macy Gray, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre, with Dre giving the best one of the three as one of corrupt cops. And Dre gets one of the film's best lines when he meets with Jake for the first time and says to him "You are a long way from Starbucks, homie!".
The director Antoine Fuqua does an excellent job here with Training Day as he keeps the pace of the film going at a good speed and he also cranks up the tension in the film as it moves along toward its dramatic climax. Fuqua (who sounds exactly like Denzel Washington!) also insisted on making the film in some of the most notorious neighbourhoods in Los Angeles where he even obtained permission to enter some of the LA street gangs housing projects, which marked the first time this had ever been allowed. And for more background info on the film it is well worth checking out Fuqua's director commentary on the DVD or Blu-ray as it is really good and informative. The film's soundtrack is also worthy of note as the original score which was written by Mark Macina is excellent and it has plenty of dark and dramatic passages that set the tone of the film perfectly. The film's soundtrack also includes some well known hip-hop tracks from artists such as Cyprus Hill, Dr Dre, Gang Starr and P. Diddy.
So flaws.... does Training Day have any or many????? Well it has the odd niggle or two. To start with while Fuqua set out to make a dramatic cop film about corruption and the LA gang neighbourhoods, it does feel at times with the inclusion of such hip-hop artists as Macy Gray and Snoop Dogg in the cast, that you have wandered into an MTV video rather than an actual crime drama. And this is reflected in certain scenes in the gang neighbourhoods and the extras stand around like they belong in a music video and you can almost expect to see Snoop Doggy Dogg come at you bustin some ryhmes! The film's climax is also pretty over the top and it does somewhat marr the credibility of what went before with Jake getting into a big fight scene with Alonzo by chasing him over rooftops and diving onto his car. It almost feels like at this point they had a copout (no pun intended!) and that for the sake of things they just had to have a chase sequence before Alonzo finally is taken down. Another flaw for me is in Jake's character that if he is so goody goody then why would he even consider going to work in narcotics when in the end he sees he is clearly not cut out for it. If being an undercover narc means having to dabble with drugs and get down and dirty among the dealers in order to expose them, then surely Jake is just too clean cut to get involved in it anyway. Its if Jake decides he must undergo a baptism of fire for something in the end he realises that he's not meant for, which means while it was one hellish day, it was in a way also a waste of his time!
Anyway despite those niggles Training Day remains a very effective, dramatic and involving film which is well worth watching for Denzel Washington's superb central performance alone. And if you ain't seen it, go and check it out.
So on that note thing, I will say good night!
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