Denzel finally breaks image.

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2005)

"Training Day" (2002): The BEST "corrupt cop" movie since "Serpico", made decades back. Ethan Hawke plays a rookie police officer assigned to Denzel Washington, the savvy, intense, in-real-deep corrupt cop. The story covers just ONE day...a VERY LONG day. Both men do incredible jobs with their characters, and although the story got a little over-the-top on a couple of occasions, this is a sharp edged, superb drama with lots of insight, and action. Photography, pacing, scoring, dialogit ALL adds up to a high quality, tense experience. I would think that Washington was very glad to take on a role such as this, after so many "honorable downtrodden black men" roles. He was on the verge of being irretrievably typecast, at least with me. I cannot imagine any REAL actor wanting to be locked into a single image.