Spoiler Warning: This discussion contains some spoilers. It could be an entire gag from a comedy or in-depth conversation concerning events in the second act.
"Go on and walk away because I'm going to burn this motherfucker down. King Kong ain't got shit on me."
Training Day, the early 2000s career kickstarter for writer David Ayer and director Antoine Fuqua is a genuinely impressive, if at times, ill-aged cop-crime-thriller. It is most emphatically known for Denzel Washington's electrifying lead performance, which is, without doubt, the film's grandest asset. I thoroughly enjoyed the film as a precursor and mentor to the now countless cop movies out there - even something like End of Watch by Ayer himself a decade later.
This has its twists and turns, as any solid crime movie should, but this all revolves around a twenty-four-hour period where Ethan Hawke's naive, ambitious Jake Hoyt is manipulated, tormented and tested by one rogue narcotics detective bent on breaking in the rookie - Denzel's Alonzo Harris. The two have irresistible chemistry; immediately, there seems to be shared respect, an earned trust, but with a constant underlying conflict on almost every issue that Harris attempts to address in the driver's seat of his Monte Carlo. There's no argument that Washington has the showcase performance, with the funniest lines, the crucifying heartbreak, and the most pleasing narrative thread. However, Hawke is a legend in his own right, and his more reserved, nuanced take is just as essential to the final text.
Training Day is an impressive 2000s cop movie that bolsters two mega performances from its A-list leads. It is certainly Antoine Fuqua's most meaningful output with a youthful, exciting visual stamp (excluding that absurd PCP trip, thank you very much). In the bigger picture, I'd say this is better than most, particularly in that G-Funk Y2K period of pumping out crime thrillers with hip-hop soundtracks. Training Day feels intentional, and though it's hardly going to fall into anyone's top ten of all time, there's plenty of merit in its hard-hitting action and tense character dynamics to make it memorable.
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