Undermined by its hype

Rating: 6/10 (19 September 2002)

Its the rookies first day with the specialist street crime squad. He is spending his training day (no complexity in the title) following the leader about on his "average" daily duties. Ethan Hawk plays the new guy who is all dreams and ideals, Denzel Washington plays the hardened street cop who is all realism and street vibes. If he were retiring in a week the cliché would be complete.
We learn very early on that the only way to police the street is to become the street. Essentially by being less of a cop, and more like a teacher to the hoods and gangsters. While you may take them out for selling drugs to kids, stealing from the rich to feed you family is ok. Why break up a rape in progress when all you are going to get is a lot of paper work at the end of the day? Slowly Washington removes hawks' ideals, breaking him down to be one of the team. This starts with hawk being tricked into smoking a PCP laced joint, which inevitably leads him on a downwards spiral as things get more and more surreal throughout the day.
The story is nothing particularly new. There is the buddy element, the cop turned crook element and the will he/won't he element of doing the right thing. The script has already dictated who should come out on top by navigating your sympathies in the direction of Hawk's plight. Hawk himself carries himself very well in what is essentially a stock role picked from the Hollywood book of stock roles. And if you turned to the next page you would see Denzel Washington's character. Washington was very good in the role, but it was certainly no Oscar performance. This is an average film with above average performances.
Wait until the video comes out in Blockbusters.