Dark and intriguing

Rating: 8/10 (13 October 2001)

I've always thought that Denzel Washington was/is a wonderful actor. He's proven it time and time again but he has always played morally true characters or the typical Hollywood `good guy' so when the `Training Day' trailers first came out I was really looking forward to seeing Washington portray a completely opposing character.
Training Day literally takes place over the span of one day. A young patrol cop, Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) gets his big chance to further his career goal of becoming Detective by working with the legendary Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington). This man's reputation precedes him and has been responsible for over 15,000 man years of incarceration based on his investigations and Hoyt is now getting his chance to work in Harris's squad. Hoyt finds out that Harris is as tougher than his reputation and quickly begins learning the ropes of street justice but to the contrary of everything he's learned and devoted his life to. `To Serve and Protect' now takes on an entirely new meaning.
You know I really hope that Denzel Washington does more of these types of roles. I'm always amazed at his acting skills but he always plays the same type of character. Whether that was a career choice or not, it was very refreshing to see him finally play a more `evil' character per say. In this case, the role was even more amazing in that Harris isn't so much evil but that he has his own outlook on how justice should be handled. In some instances you actually begin to agree with his outlook and root for him. I have never seen Washington give a poor performance. He acts with an intensity that very few other actors have and dives into his character with reckless abandon.
What surprised me even more was Ethan Hawke. I've never been a huge fan of his and I sometimes find his characters hard to believe because of his boyish looks. But in this movie they seem to work. He comes across as a young ethical patrol cop trying to make his way to Detective. Throughout the movie he has his morals and ethics challenged by Washington's character and frequently he caves into Washington's dominance. This worked very well and made the movie interesting but more importantly Hawke make his character believable. I was impressed by his performance in this movie.
There was a nice little scene with Cliff Curtis (Smiley). I saw this actor in `Blow' and really like his performance there. Hopefully he doesn't get typecast but he was very good in the character he played here. I guess if there's on thing to get picky about was the storyline. It seems a little extreme to have only one day to make or break making a new squad but in the context of the story, this works. Especially when you know the motives behind Washington's character.
Overall, this was a dark entertaining movie. If for nothing else, see this movie to see Denzel Washington play a bad character. You'll be surprised and impressed.