"Training Day:" The Film Is A Powerhouse!

Rating: 10/10 (10 January 2005)

Denzel Washington's best acting performance since...."Glory." No haahahhaha! I was just kidding! You thought that I was going to fall into that Oscar trap, huh? No, really, "Glory" was an excellent film, but between the time span of "Glory" (1989) and "Training Day," (2001) twelve years if my mathematics are not failing me, Washington has done other top-notch films, namely "Devil In A Blue Dress," (1994) "He Got Game," (1998) "The Siege," (also 1998) and "The Hurricane" (1999). This film just happens to have Washington as a completely wicked cop. To me, this film contained one of Denzel Washington's top-notch performances as villain F.E.S. Detective-Sergeant Alonzo Harris. Washington is completely wicked as he double-crosses everybody he knows to get the job done and then some. He holds nothing back. This film has heart, emotion, and adrenaline. It has something, a majestic quality, that Tony Scott's mean, tough "Man on Fire" (2004) tried to capture, but not quite as successfully. An incredible Oscar-nominated performance also for Ethan Hawke, who unfortunately lost to Jim Broadbent in "Iris" (2001). Probably most people Antoine Fuqua's best film to date, edging out "Tears of the Sun" (2003) and "King Arthur" (2004). The storytelling never felt stiff in the joints and just moved freely pretty much the whole way through. By the way, was that Eva Mendez as Washington's wife in the film? JUST KIDDING! I knew that! The whole world would know that by now!