Denzel Washington got an Oscar for this? Not so much...

Rating: 3/10 (1 April 2010)

This movie is about the worst first day at work ever. Must have been a bad year for Best Actor for DW to get Best Actor by giving a "Jack Nicholsonesque" over the top performance as a crooked narco cop who trains his new partner, Ethan Hawke, on his first day on the job. Ethan Hawke is a serious cop (and he plays the role well). Even so, his trainer, Denzel Washinton, manages to get him to, or I should say the "script" manages to get him to, on their first day together as partners, smoke PCP, take responsibility for a murder, release two rapists, shake down a drug dealer in a wheelchair, drink beer and hard liquor on the job, conduct an illegal search, and more. It defies believability. The core of the movie seems to be a vehicle for DW to be the big angry, over the top bossy, black guy, and call his new rookie "nigger" for the first fifteen minutes of the movie. There was no suspense, no tension, just an angry black man yelling at his new white rookie for two hours. Nothing here for me. Why this rates as anything Oscar worthy for anyone is a mystery, more of a mystery than anything in this film... If you have two hours of your life you don't know what to do with don't waste them here. Take Defensive Driving or something...