Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I thought it would be
Review: I don't know why this movie got as good reviews as it did. This movie was good but it wasn't great.
Rating: 
Summary: good cop, bad cop.
Review: As far as police/crime dramas go, this one's a bit of a twist feeturing the gritty realism of a Detective (Danzel Washington) who seems to play the streets with perfection. The story seems a little tired at times--classic good cop vs. bad cop appeal--but there's a subtle devious undertone that seems to force a closer look. Washington's young protege (Ethan Hawke) is taken by surprise as the seedy world of drugs, deception, and murder slowly unfolds and Washington's motives start to appear more sinister at every turn. Quality performances all around and a powerful social statment about the state of inner-city mentality.As far as the DVD goes, you get a couple extra features like pre-release trailers and commentary by Antoine Fuqua. The alternate ending is shown and it's editing explained which actually adds some furthur appriciation for the develpment of the story as a whole. The 'Behind-the-Scene' feature is just an HBO rehash and nothing spectacular but, if you really love the movie, you get some nice interviews with Washington and some confusing remarks by Hawke which might be appealing. Lastly there are a couple music-videos (slowly becoming a required feature, it seems, for any movie featuring original modern tracks), Nelly's "#1" and Pharoahe's "Munch's Got You". Niether song was greatly appealing to me, so I found this feature to be nothing but fluff, but the editing is clean and the videos are full release's in all thier glory (not an MTV re-cut) which someone might find interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Denzel is a monster but the film is (a tad) flawed
Review: When I read all of the bad reviews given to this film I just have to laugh. The society at large (trust me) has no idea of what inner city realities really are. So for those who are so uninformed and have no experience upon which to form a sound opinion they would do better just to remain silent. As much as i've marveled at Denzel's range I felt that this was BY FAR the best performance of his illustrious career. He was utterly transformed. I am more amazed that the Academy would give him the award for this obviously negative portrayal of a police officer. The film is filled with surprises. And I would agree that the film starts out spectacularly. The coffee shop scene really made me sit up and take notice. That and the card game to me were the best scenes in the film. However, some of it seemed a bit too improbable to be believed. Nonetheless, the film was (overall) brutally honest and raw. Throw in some great cameo appearances and pretty credible performances by those performers as well and you get a quality, if not perfect, film. And please keep in mind that just as Ethan Hawke's character has to really wake up to the realities of the streets so does most of the viewing public. It's not Disneyland out there. Despite what you may think. To me Hawke's performance really makes the film so honest. His naivete and broad optimism really contrasts Denzels cynicism and double dealing. Just because the Denzel's portrayal is in a negative light doesn't mean that it's untrue. Well worth the price of admission.
Rating: 
Summary: He did not deserve to win for this role
Review: Although Russell Crowe is a talented actor I was really hoping Denzel would take home the Oscar that he deserved. After watching this movie, I was saddened that it was for such a horrible role. This was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Russell Crowe did have a lot of controversary around him at the time of the votes, his performance as John Nash was far superior to Denzel in this movie. I realize Denzel got the award more for his body of work however, it's really sad that they gave him the Oscar for such a poor role.
Rating: 
Summary: Denzel is Dynamite!
Review: Well, Denzel's Oscar was no Hollywood "gimme", he earned it all the way with a powerful and disturbing portrayal. Beside being a consistently terrific actor, Denzel Washington is a true Movie Star. He commands the screen the way the young Brando or Newman did, with complete authority. And he was really on his game here. The 5 stars are for his performance! I have not been a fan of Ethan Hawke in some of his earlier, arsty-fartsy Mr. Sensitivo roles. So I was surprised at how well he held his own opposite the power of Washington in this film. Will reserve judgement on Mr. Hawke for the future. So, these two fine nominated & deserving performances are worth the trip alone. The film's main problem is it becomes a bit excessive & melodramatic toward the end. Will put some off, but by then, I was hooked into the flick and was willing to go wherever it went. Not just about a twisted cop who has completely lost his moral compass and bearings and has become the thing he started out to destroy, the Hawke character gets in deep because of his own ambition, the same type of desire for power that must have fed Washington's young Alonzo, before his complete corruption. So we have a two character waltz, of the seducer (the Devil assumes a pleasing shape) and the honest, naive, but flawed seducee. We watch Alonzo tempt and belittle and flatter his young protege, bending him to his will. We watch Jake be shocked, resist and argue but give in to his own ambition. And there are surprises to come. The movie is tough & brutal, the dialogue fast & gritty, the direction fluid and restless, all pulsing to the beat of these hot LA streets. Not a perfect flick, but a riveting one. 4-1/2 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: "Some trippy-a-- s--t."
Review: Sort of the L.A., hip-hop version of *Bad Lieutenant*. In Antoine Fuqua's *Training Day*, we follow two narcs, one a corrupt veteran (Denzel Washington), the other an idealistic trainee (Ethan Hawke), as they cruise the mean (but prettily landscaped) L.A. streets during one endless day in an absurd, jacked-up muscle car. The adjectives I used to describe Denzel's car may be used to describe the plotting, as well: the veteran advertises his corruption so recklessly to his new greenhorn partner that it passes way beyond belief. And if Ethan Hawke is such a do-gooder, why doesn't he leap out of the car the second Denzel offers him some confiscated weed and run straight to Internal Affairs? But this is minor compared to the doozy that occurs late in the film, when, on a false pretext, Denzel takes Ethan to a nest of the hardest-core, scariest vatos you would ever be afraid of meeting, and then abandons him there: the plot-contrivance that enables the rookie to get free of these monsters depends on a coincidence that is quite simply pulled out of a rabbit's hat. On the upside, the scene is genuinely nerve-wracking . . . making its resolution seem all the more unacceptable. It should also be said that Ethan's pursuit of the villain, and their ultimate face-off, is sharply composed, well-performed, and just as nerve-wracking as the previous sequence. But a couple of well-done sequences don't compensate for all the contrivance. And the performances by the principals are unsatisfactory. Let's face it: it's hard to take Ethan Hawke seriously. And Denzel is too clearly "acting" (naturally, the Academy gave him the Oscar for this performance). Washington's uniqueness gets lost, here: it's easy to imagine Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, or anyone else, as "Alonzo Harris". Denzel's much better in roles that are less inherently flashy, such as Malcolm X, Rubin Carter, even the bed-bound detective in *Bone Collector* -- mediocre movies, to be sure, but they provided Washington the chance to showcase the commanding seriousness, the AUTHORITY, that are his real gifts.
Rating:
Summary: This is not entertainment,
Review: nor is it even enlightened social commentary. It's just another fantasy movie about a good guy (white rookie cop who lives in suburban LA - what was his last job? corporate CFO?) and a bad cop (black guy with Latino wife living in middle of gang infested jungle - I haven't been there, so can't comment). This movie is a downer from start to finish that left me wonder why I spent two hours with it. Denzel best actor? Not based on this film. The political tide of Hollywood finally turned his way. Sure, the character is scary and creepy, but he's ultimately just another Hollywood fantasy thug. I gave it two stars, because it at least inspired me to comment on the sad state of moviemaking these days.
Rating:
Summary: Good movie....RENT FIRST
Review: Its a good movie but the plot can get confusing sometimes. After you watch it a few times you kind of get tired of it. But it all depends on your taste in movies and how fast you get tired of watching movies over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Starts out Strong, then Steadily Declines
Review: I had high hopes for this movie after my brother and my friends all told me it was "great". And I gotta admit, for the beginning of the movie, I was really enjoying it. Unforunately, I felt this movie went downhill the whole time. Luckily, it starts out "great", so even though it declines, it still ends with at "good", making this a movie worth checking out. The best scene in the movie, in my opinion, is when the our two main characters meet at a coffee shop two minutes into the movie. Then, the next best scene is right after that -- them driving around in Denzel's car, and Denzel being a mysterious and charasmatic mofo, really screwing with the rookie's head. With a few exceptions, I felt like the whole movie went like this. It started off with incerdible promise, and then delivered a pretty good payoff. I don't think the second half of this movie did the first half justice. There's a certain mystery and confusion about Denzel's character in the first half, but I thought the movie let the cat out of the bag too early, and failed to secure a really high quality payoff for the mystery they spent the whole beginning establishing. After they messed that up, they just tagged some random action onto the end of the movie because they had nowhere left to go. They could have kept me guessing longer, and they could have made things a lot more psychologically interesting. It's not that the end of the movie is BAD - it's just that the beginning is so damn good that it's a real shame the second half couldn't do it justice. I can't help but think there was a better movie to be had here. As it is, there were one or two scenes from the second half that were really good, but overall I think 'Training Day' droops as it goes, and really falls short of its true potential. Check it out anyway though, becuase even if it falls short of it's potential, it's still a very entertaining and gritty movie, and for the first half at least, Denzel will hold you spellbound.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, what a day I had today
Review: "Training Day" is a very powerful and frightening movie of a rookie cop's first day on the job. Denzel Washingon plays a seasoned, but utterly corrupt, L.A. cop who is assigned as the mentor to Ethan Hawke, a naive, but eager rookie. Washington's character grabs you from the very first moment he is on the screen sharing a table in a coffee shop with Hawke. Washington plays this sleezy cop with such intensity that I could not believe it was the same Denzel Washington that I saw in "Malcolm X" and in "Philadelphia." What range this actor has! One has to see Ben Kingsley's in "Sexy Beast" for a comparable performance of such relentless evil. Ethan Hawke gives a creditable acting job as the new kid on the block and as Washington's foil. While I had some doubts at the end that anyone's initial day on the job could be as packed with incident as Hawke's character's day (not to speak of the myriad unresolved probable consequences resulting therefrom) this is relatively small cricicism for this exciting and tightly scripted film.
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