Looking to redo your Kitchen?

Rating: 7/10 (8 October 2001)

SPOILERS HEREIN SPOILERS HEREIN
At first glance this movie is really good. Certainly the performances and cinematography are top shelf, the movie is well paced, and individual scenes are very well scripted. But then you start to notice everything seems to be taking place in the kitchen. There's a phone call in the kitchen, breakfast in a kitchen, money in the kitchen, a mistress cooking Salvadoran style in the kitchen, a poker hand and the Mexican mafia hanging in the kitchen, and the movie nearly ends during a shootout in the kitchen. Certainly the LA Kitchen genre has been played to death!
My biggest problem with this film is that the underlying premise makes no sense. Alanzo doesn't need the rookie cop to take the fall for anything, and even if he did he risks both the Rookie's life and the possibility of him not being lured into Alanzo's world way too much during "The Training Day". It is unrealistic too to think that even though Alanzo has just gotten in trouble in Vegas he could set up a transfer of a trainee to fill the role of..., the role of,...well I'm not sure what role he is supposed to fill. Renegade newbie who shouldn't have shot Scott Glen and then was killed mysteriously in east LA, allowing Alanzo to skate? If you think back, or try to outline some resolution other than Hawk escaping, I am sure you will get my point.
Something is definitely cooking in this film, but despite all the spice, it is really lacking a fundamental principle. Make sure it makes sense. I give it a Seven (7)