A wonderful exercise in excess.

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 2001)

TRAINING DAY goes for broke. Everything about it is over the top, and that's why I loved it so much. It's not a gritty, realistic portrayal of a corrupt police officer, but a story of a man so far over his head that there is no way he'll ever get out. It reminded me of Brian DePalma's SCARFACE, about drug dealer Tony Montana. Realistic? No, but tremendous movie making. Denzel Washington outdoes himself here. He goes over the top so far, but still within the limits of the movie. Director Antoine Fuqua (THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS and BAIT) is not exactly known for his subtley, and TRAINING DAY is anything but subtle. It's like a freight train of a movie. The violence is strong, persistant and off putting, but then again it's supposed to be. (WARNING SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD). The final scenes with Denzel in the street screaming at all the people he thought loved him so much, are great. Denzel's fate was sealed from the beginning of the movie, it just took him some time to realize it.