A corrupt man in a corrupt world

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2009)

Ethan Hawke has a "Training Day" - from hell - and learns that his trainer (Denzel Washington) is way out there in this 2001 film directed by Antoine Fuqua. Featured in the film are Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Harris Yulin, Eva Mendes, and Snoop Dogg.
Hawke is a young family man, Jake, who is teamed up with a decorated narcotics detective, Alonzo, to see if Jake has what it takes to work the street and go undercover. Alonzo is a very unsettling guy - joking one minute, mean the next - and Jake doesn't know quite how to take him. He just knows the job means a lot to him.
Gradually it dawns on him that a) Alonzo is more corrupt than any of the perpetrators he says he's after; and b) he's setting Jake up so that he's part of some dirty work and therefore won't be able to talk.
Really top-notch, edgy performance from Denzel Washington, who is always full of surprises, here playing an unpredictable character. This was his Oscar winning role, and it was deserved, though there's no question that he deserved it in the past too. The film is full of action, violence, and really raw characters - one certainly gets a sense of the mean streets from watching this film. Ethan Hawke acts just as a man who doesn't know what's going on would - unsure, embarrassed, nervous, scared, but very determined and quick-thinking, as he realizes what he's gotten himself into.
Shocking, violent, bloody, and fast - that about sums it up. Some excellent performances along the way, too, from everyone involved.