I loved it because I hated it

Rating: 7/10 (7 February 2006)

Let me try and explain my feelings about this film. First of all, Denzel Washington was excellent in this. He deserved the award for best actor, and rightly so, for his work in this film. I hated him in this movie because I hated his character. Which should tell you how good a job he did in the movie. When you hate someone's character in a movie, so much, that generally means we're talking Academy Award. However, I don't think I was meant to hate the movie, too.
A new rookie on his first day of Narcatics, meets with his unit leader at ten a.m. Already nervous, about making the team, he has no idea just how nervous he'll be by the end of the day. After only spending two hours with his leader, Hawke starts to become aware of what kind of cop he's dealing with, but only by the end of the film, do we really see what we the audience are given to deal with as well.
Ethan Hawke was great in this too, and in some ways I think that he's a better actor than Washington. But, to be fair, Denzel is the star of this movie, and you can't take your eyes off of him, because of his performance in it.
Again, it's hard for me to even understand how I felt about the film. I liked it and I thought it was well-written, but it just seemed like such a dark film, and I almost wanted to turn it off sometimes, because it was so frustrating. But, I liked it well enough to give it a seven. So, there we are. Definitely not a film for anyone under seventeen, and not only is there some substance abuse, nudity, language, adult subject matter, and violence, but there is also some scenes that are very heavy to handle.
Good performance though, and again...I loved it because I hated it.