Denzel's Great; Movie's not so Great

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2002)

Denzel Washington took home a well-deserved Oscar for this performance. He seemed to absolutely relish the part of the brutal, corrupt cop. Tremendous job. The movie, however, left some things to be desired. My first thought, early in the movie, when Denzel puts a gun to Ethan Hawke's head to force him to smoke a bowl of PCP-laced grass, would have been to get out of the car, hitch a ride back to my precinct, turn him in, and go back to my previous patrol job. I would not have found that particular experience very acceptable. Just not very believable for me. Well, okay, I was willing to put that aside. Ethan Hawke's character is very ambitious, and he wants to be part of this narcotics unit, so he probably accepts this act as something that may help him in the mean streets ahead. Later, Denzel leaves Hawke vulnerable with a bunch of thugs who decide to kill him. Just as they have him in a bathtub, and a shotgun in his face, ready to pull the trigger, they go through his pockets, and find a pink wallet, which Hawke had picked up earlier in the movie saving a girl about to be raped in an alley. Of course, the wallet belonged to the girl and, wouldn't you know, the girl just happened to be the niece of one of the guys about to kill him. Pretty convenient, huh? Again, not very believable.
A movie about a brutal, corrupt cop training a young rookie just going about the every day work of narcotics officers may have been enough to make this an outstanding movie, but there were far too many odd twists, convenient coincidences, and weird peripheral characters (Russian Mobsters, no less) that made this a rather disappointing movie overall. Nothing can take away from the performance of Washington, though. He nailed his character right down the line. He was frightening, charming, inspiring, repulsive, brutal and charismatic, sometimes all at once. An exceptional acting performance.