Review of Training Day (2001) by Jason D — 15 Jul 2010

On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, rookie cop Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke in an excellent role) gets way more than he bargained for when he's paired up with boss detective Denzel Washington (in one of his greatest roles), whose in-your-face, rule-breaking cop skills continually come into question throughout this very long day, and not in a funny way either.

It's clear that Washington is putting Hawke through all sorts of hell, that is constantly causing him to question his morals and ethics. While Hoyt thinks their going through the routines of sniffing out drug sellers and kingpins, in all actuality, Washington is trying to pull off the perfect plan of quickly gathering all the money he can through various outlets, while covering his ass and utilizing a wide assortment of other corrupted cops in order to pay off the Russian mob for his mistakes.

This would ultimately lead towards Hawke being his biggest tool of all. This movie more than lives up to its praise as it manages to be very thrilling and entertaining. There's also an impressive supporting cast that includes appearances by the likes of Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Harris Yulin, rappers Dr.

Dre and Snoop Dogg, Cliff Curtis, Macy Gray, Raymond J. Barry, and especially Eva Mendes (who we see ALL of top to bottom and boy is it glorious!) in her breakthrough role. Kudos to writer David Ayer who at that point that an impressive resume with established screenplays of U-571 and The Fast and the Furious, as well as director Antoine Fuqua who established himself as a serious director with Training Day after only doing music videos, wacky action flicks The Replacement Killers and Bait.

Overall, a great movie!