10/10

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2001)

I saw the trailer for Training Day last June and put it at the top of my must-see list for the Fall. Well, it's been in theaters for over a month now and I just got around to seeing it yesterday. What the hell took me so long? Anyway, I'm sure that most everyone bothering to read this knows the basic plot of this brilliant action movie (a rare breed) but I'm gonna do a quick rundown without spoiling anything.
Rookie cop Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) is starting his first day on the job with leather-clad, veteran, city-reknowned all around badass Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington). Things start off uneasy and the director does one hell of a job at making you feel the rookie's nervousness. In fact, you're sitting there wondering why in the hell this baby-faced nice guy wants to be a narc so bad. It's really simple; he wants to protect and serve and be one of the good guys. That's all. Needless to say, throughout the course of the day, Mr. Hoyt may very well decide that being a narc just isn't his cup of tea. But things aren't going to be that simple.
You see, Hoyt is about to get way more than he bargained for. Alonzo Harris is one badass, crooked, filthy and downright mean guy, but yet he has an irresistable charm that makes you want to like him. Through him, we learn along with Hoyt, that everything he previously learned about being a cop is wrong and "to catch the wolf, you must become the wolf". This is one of those parts that I SWEAR had to have been written with just one actor in mind. I say this because I can't think of anyone else who could've pulled the part off, except maybe for Samuel L. Jackson.
This is, in my mind, the best and most challenging role that Ethan Hawke has ever played. He does a damn fine job at showing all the right emotions and the transformation from vulnerable do-gooder, to hardened-vet over the course of 24 hours (!) is made wholly believable.
Denzel Washington plays TOTALLY against type and gives one hell of a knockout performance as the ruthless badass who may have once been a good cop. (I know I keep using that word a lot to describe him, just see the movie.) I really loved the wolf-metaphor that he kept using it was perfect.
I give Training Day A perfect 10 here and I will be getting the DVD. Let's see Mr. Washington in more roles like this. One more thing. I was really glad to see Scott Glenn. He's highly underrated.