Training Day (Cinema: January 2002)

Training Day is that rarest of things nowadays: a good Hollywood film. A thriller untainted by ego's, free from boardroom interference & allowed to shine through on it's own strengths rather than rely on technical gimmicks, a star-laden soundtrack or pop-princesses turned actors.

Denzel Washington brings a certain legitimacy to the project as Alonzo, the mature narcotics cop cum player introducing & ultimately framing rookie cop Ethan Hawke on the mean streets of downtown LA. The film is impressively forboding in it's representation of a no hold's barred concrete jungle and the kind of violent hopelessness that pervades ghetto life. Hawke continues to prove himself as THE actor of his generation, picking projects like from Reality Bites to Gattaca with a skill outshining even Johnny Depp & deserves merit for keeping those crooked teeth in a town bullied by dentistry.

A simple formula & outstanding acting carries the film successfully to it's bloody conclusion. There is no place for intrepid camerawork, inexplicable plot twists or mindblowing action sequences, just a good old fashioned character-driven thriller. Not that the film is boring, on the contrary, it's edge of the seat entertainment with the two characters plunged into the thick of the action & the audience left to figure out which side of the fence Alonzo is on as Hawke's innocent moralizing butts heads with Washington's cynical hustler mentality (with perhaps rose-tinted results). Sure it reels in stereotypes, faux street culture & could even be considered racist but when you make a film about crooked cops, street gangs & the LAPD what do you expect?

Competent cameo's from Snoop Dogg and Macy Gray (& a less certain Dr Dre) bolster the films allure but are surprisingly unassuming & allow the film to stand on its own merit. Training Day is the kind of urban fairytale that Hollywood defunct on during the mid 90's - leaving behind a trail of great outings like House of Cards, State of Grace, Pacific Heights - content to replace them with a spate of violent ghetto-ploitation films like Juice, Menace2Society, The Principal, Judgement Night & more 'respectable' daliances like Colors & Lethal Weapon 3.

With big budget action movies stifled for the time being let's hope we are witnessing a return to this kind of classic noir hinted at by recent successes The Usual Suspects, Momentum, Unbreakable & now Training Day.

See this film.

RATING:

(c)Limer 2002