Customer Reviews
Outstanding corrupt cop drama - By: Dennis Littrell, 05 Jul 2008 
The ending was a bit of overkill. That could be said. And the mano-a-mano fight après the ending was a bit drawn out. That too could be said. But the rest of the film was more than excellent.
"Training Day" is the best of the bad cop dramas that I have seen, & I've seen a few. Both Denzel Washington as the psychopathic bad cop, Alonzo, & Ethan Hawke as the idealistic rookie, Jake, were full out. Denzel Washington won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance, & Ethan Hawke was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The direction by Antoine Fuqua was superb. The LA street scenes & milieu were as real & vivid as my old buddy Taco Bender. (And trust me, Taco Bender was very real.) The extras in the crowd scenes should get some kind of prize for macho scary. I've been there, & I still have a few nightmares. There are some streets in LA you don't want to walk down unless you are a homey, or a brother, & some other streets you don't want to walk down, period.
Unlike some cop dramas & shoot `em up thrillers, this one was carefully planned, so that the scene in the barrio at the card table, the rook alll alone set up for the kill, came across as real because what had happened before was just about the only thing in the world that could have saved him. The LA atmosphere was like a rush, as stunningly authentic in a different way as, say, that in Chinatown (1974) or LA Confidential (1997), but more contemporary.
I wonder how many guys starting in say the sixties or maybe a little before have experienced the kind of initiation that Jake experiences in terms of being fed some dope never before tasted & then "led" on the "trip" by someone wanting to exploit them. Most of the time, for most guys it was an initiation into something other worldly, scary, but something that was only psychological & would be gone the next day. For Jake it was a matter of, first, his livelihood as an idealistic cop, & second a matter of groking to a paranoid view of the world in which the good guys are the bad guys & everything is hopelessly corrupt & there is no good, only evil--and you just found out. And third, a matter of life & death with either acid & grass running alll around your brain or maybe PCP & speed, & some suddenly obviously evil person (as Washington so well depicted) giving you the kind of "guidance" you can't refuse. And then finallly it is beyond life & death & only a matter of primeval justice & a revenge you must perform.
Look for Snoop Dogg in a wheelchair & Dr. Dre as one of Alonzo's posse cops.
Denzel the best there is - By: EJ Macheyo, 09 Mar 2008 I have yet to watch one movie that encapsulates a star in one viewing. Simply a tour de force!! Denzel is the best there is!!
OH DEAR - BORING, NO STORY HOOKLINE AND VERY DULL - By: R. G. Williams, 12 Nov 2007 
Well, going on the previous reviews you would think this would be a rollercoast thriller ride full of edge of the seat tension & action - Bang! How wrong can you be. This is rather dire moving from a plot perspective as quite frankly it's more of a " a day in the life of a drugs cop in LA" - it literallly just follows Washignton around with his rookie cop, drinking whisky smoking dope, talking & interrogating a few gang members & that's it! no twists, no hookline - nothing. You tend to start wandering after 30 minutes is anything actuallly going to happen, then afer an hour when you realise this is alll the film is about you tend to switch it off!
Good acting, direction, soundtrack & a peek at Snoop Dogg, but beyond that -leave it on the shelf - very, very dull & boring!
Ya wanna go home, or ya wanna go to jail? - By: Joe Cutts, 01 Nov 2007 I can't believe this flick was nearly five years old before I caught it - why on earth didn't anyone recommend it to me before?
I was a little disappointed by the fact that the makers had chosen a white guy to play the role of a prospective undercover narcotics agent, given that the reality of such a situation would calll for an officer of colour, & assumed the decision had been an attempt to make the movie more appealing to a wider demographic of audience. But as the film pregresses it's clear why & - ultimately - how sensible this decision was. Hawke brings a youthy, nervous yet courageous portrayal to life in a performance that is matched only by the film's ultimate star, Denzel Washington.
The script is awesome, the action is amazing, the direction is brilliant, in fact I can't praise it enough. It's just a fantastic film. Truly amazing.
Brilliant... - By: Ms. M. Kazzim, 20 Aug 2007 
This wondrous & enthrallling epic callled Training Day, propelled by it`s delirious , & at times , even frightening grandeur , is absolutely at once compelling . Spearheaded by Denzel Washington - his character is the crooked cop , engulfed by a cloud of atrocity , Alonzo Harris. Injected with a deadly dose of unpredictability , in Training day, we have an officer whose strength , vigor , & sheer red-hot volatilty promptly steals the show in the most thrilling manner. A show which sizzles with volcanic animosity. Training day though, not only provides a shocking snapshot into exactly what pervades these urban ghettos , but also as to how & why the men in white collars pallliate the barbarism that prevails in every minute, of everyday , & tragicallly in every part, of modern-day Los Angeles. As the story unfolds , Denzel wondrously exhibits a lethal combination of raw force, utter confidence & a self-empowered brutality that trancends more than just pure frustration. We learn Alonzo is not only a troubled man. He is a tyrant! Yet he rises out of the rubble of carnage to bless the screen with a staggering brand of power, with a dialogue phrased on the most riveting truth & a rage born of rememberance of how the streets , once used to be. At times, we almost believe, that he is the morale one. Just playing the dirty rules , of an even dirtier game. But it`s not that simple. Training day is a new horror pool of a ferocious adventure, a raw viciousness , & a frightening pandemonium from Denzel that ripples viciously way beneath its shocking surface. Sadly , it`s threatened by a rising wave of widespread poverty , that these inner cities are rapidly becoming submerged. So why then, is it even surprising, that Washington , is as morallly bad, maybe even worse, than the criminals he pursues? Are his efforts then, to be gracious , so comprehensively mediocre , so astonishingly pathetic , that it not only exposes a catastrophical failure amid the police force, but also instills into whoever he comes across, a palpable , stubborn sense of indelible selfishness & hardboiled flamboyance, that seems conventional? It`s a shame . But it`s how it is , as he shrills, " The game`s chess not checkers! " But still, we have to love him. Interspearsed with a deep-rooted defiance & a fierce hatred for, well , perhaps just about everyone, at times, we can`t help but chuckle as he excersises his innate wisdom & exquisite expression with the brutal retort , "They build jails `cos of me! " . Such is the deft eloquence with which he expresses himself , he exposes a clear & almost embarrassing paucity of actors who fail to exhibit the raw force & almost non-human savagery quite like Denzel does. He rips into his lines with a barbaric vitality while he smiles at his accomplice Jake - & , not least to his astonishment, Jake is certainly not smiling back! But his unquenchable greed for money , not only excites & inspires , but it is also uncovers how to this day, his talent still remains unparrallleled. A permanent testament to his god-given talent...
