Film Review: Training Day

Director: Antione Fuqua

*spoiler alerts throughout* Twenty-Four hours an as LAPD narcotics detective in South and East Los Angeles is what Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) signed up for when he meets Alonzo Harris (the excellent Denzel Washington) at a cafe (which was also used in the films Old School and Seven to name a few). In the end he doesn't quite realise what he's let himself in for when he becomes entangled in robbery, murder and abuse of police duty. Like the old cliché it is very much good cop, bad cop.

Alonzo (Denzel Washington) and Jake (Ethan Hawke)

Denzel Washington is excellent as Detective Alonzo who has become so involved in policing narcotics that he is now breaking the law himself to suit his own needs. Ethan Hawke is also impressive as the good cop who is always going to try and do the right thing but is also thinking about how to further his career in the police force. The research done into their characters and how the real police and gangs operate out in LA was obviously thorough as the film felt very real from the outset and then gradually lost grip on reality.

Alonzo involved in a shootout after stealing drug money with a phony warrant.

The ending is what spoils the film as a whole is the ending that defies general logic really as there is no chance that Alonzo leaves Jake without killing him after paying Smiley to do it. He would finish it himself and then go to pay the Russians without having to deal with him again in front of his neighbourhood. I was sure that the ending would see them get involved in a shootout with the gang from early who they had a battle with that would see Alonzo killed and Jake carrying on in narcotics but in a different manner from how he was taught, turned out I was very wrong.

2.5/4 superb movie tainted by an implausible last 20mins