Cynical crime drama

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2004)

TRAINING DAY
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (J-D-C Scope)
Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS / SDDS
A rookie police officer (Ethan Hawke) joins an elite undercover drugs squad and is partnered with an older cop (Denzel Washington) who turns out to be just as corrupt and dangerous as any lowlife criminal.
Antoine Fuqua's cynical crime drama features an award-winning performance by Denzel ('Gimme an Oscar') Washington as the crooked cop who believes in breaking the law to enforce the law ("To protect sheep, you gotta catch the wolf - and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf!"), and whose methods are tacitly approved by his bloated, cynical superiors. Clearly inspired by recent events within the LAPD, TRAINING DAY is told from Hawke's point of view, allowing the audience to share in his escalating sense of outrage, until he's finally tipped over the edge by a monstrous betrayal of trust. But, like any number of exploitation movies before it (even those as polished and presentable as this one), TRAINING DAY is conservative in thought and deed: Washington is sexy, dynamic and evil to the bone, and the movie wallows in his decadence before concluding with an audience-pleasing showdown between Good and Evil. The movie is dramatic and watchable, but it's also trite and superficial, and it leaves a bitter aftertaste.