Adequate

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2009)

With two very engaging actors taking lead roles, in the form of Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, this movie seemed to promise a great deal. Yet somehow it never live up to its pretensions.
The beginning was almost a cliché of the genre, in which Hawke as naive rookie gets treated with cynical contempt by his street-wise bad-ass mentor, Washington. The whole thing has a slightly de-ja-vu look about it, as other equally good movies resonate in one's memory.
But just as it begins shuffling towards Boredom Street, the plot quickens and undergoes a dramatic and unexpected shift. A likable bad guy, played by reliable Scott Glenn is ruthlessly slain by the mentor (who has clearly crossed the line) in punctuation for stealing his $4million stash. The whole thing is rigged to look like a shake-down that went wrong. It certainly gets your attention.
Needless to say; the rookie wants no part of it and declines his share in the pay-off. You know from that point on that a collision course is inevitable.
Later this rookie is left in the hands of a bunch of homicidal Hispanics who have evidently been paid by his mentor to whack him. He survives this experience by a coincidence that borders upon the supernatural and is rather hard to take seriously. Still; he does, and now goes after his 'villain' mentor.
After that we are back to formulaic again. The ending is as weak as the beginning. Our rookie survives, the mentor gets wasted (by Russian mafia types) there's a brief off-camera newscast voice-over explaining that he's a 'hero' cop who died in the line of duty, blah,blah, blah.
A group of shady senior law officers referred to as the Three Wise Men and who are also evidently rotten as hell - of which Tom Berenger is wasted in a cameo role - are never seen or heard from again. It's a very incomplete and unsatisfactory denouement. I'm left thinking that the money or the celluloid just ran out before the story could be wound up.
You can see hints of 'Serpico' - which is more believable, 'The Rookie' - which is more fun, 'Deep Cover' which is more gripping, and one or two others. This work is adequate. The script is decent; acting is mostly good; location, lighting and sound do the business. Editing seems a bit choppy at times. It lights up predictably, shines brightly for a while, but fades without much flair.
Worth a watch if you get the chance, but not recommended for any particular quality.