Training Day
Training Day | |
| Director: | Antoine Fuqua |
| Cast: | Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke |
| Genre: | Film, Drama |
In Antoine Fuqua's noirish actioner Training Day, Denzel Washington is a droll rogue cop tricked out in black leather and platinum jewelry who glides through Los Angeles in a sleek, customized Monte Carlo . It's hard to resist the charms of such a blatant usurper of ghetto fabulousness; the entirety of the film's appeal rests on Washington's charismatic performance as ball-busting narc Alonzo Harris, who carts earnest rookie Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) around town during his first day on the job. Dazzled by the jaded veteran's endless prattle and intimidated by his authority, Hoyt fails to notice that what he and his partner are cruising around doing doesn't involve abiding the law, much less enforcing it--even when Alonzo forces him to smoke PCP-laced pot at gunpoint. Eventually, it dawns on the novice flatfoot that he's a patsy, and an unnecessarily bloody climax ensues. Aside from Washington's powerhouse performance (more show than substance, though), Training Day doesn't get much deeper than that.