One of my favorite Denzel characters of all time....great movie!

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2002)

I loved Denzel's character in this movie at first. It wasn't until near the end that he started to become tiresome. This movie just adds to the huge resume of Denzel that shows his versatility to play so many different characters. It is unbelievable that he is the same guy who played in The Hurricane and Remember the Titans. This guy can act, and this movie is no exception.
Ethan Hawke did an excellent job as well, but Denzel is who made this movie so good. Together though, they were superb!
My only gripe about this movie is that everything happens in one day. Jake (Hawke) meets with Alonzo (Washington) one morning on a "training day" to see if Jake is cut out to handle his new job as an undercover narcotics officer. Jake has a laid back, shy and almost sheltered personality while Alonzo is completely over the top and in your face. The things that happen in this one day are things that probably wouldn't happen in an entire career for most people. However it is Hollywood, so what do ya expect?

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the movie. There were many scenes which made you laugh, others which made you say wow, and then there were the ones which made you say "yea right". However, even my girlfriend (who was expecting it to totally bomb) said she enjoyed it.
For a cop movie, it is very original and realistic in that it takes place right in L.A., no fabricated neighborhoods were used here. However, it does start to stray from the realistic aspect as the movie draws on, which is why I only gave it a 9 out of 10. But if you can get by that, then you'll really like this movie.