Training Day                                                        

I have to admit that was dragged to this movie-- I wasn't looking to see this until it showed up on HBO or something. The previews didn't look stellar and Ethan Hawke looks like he is going to go trenchcoat mafia any day now. My gut told me that this was going to be a movie about cool cops and we were going to be force fed an image of good cop vs. bad cop that was going to be hard to swallow. I relented though, and I went, to pay back my friends for making them see "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back".

And boy, I should start listening to my gut a lot more often.

The movie starts off well enough, introducing us to the duality of the two main characters played by Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington. Hawke's character is the typical wet-behind-the-ears rookie cop, with a wife and newborn kid at home. Washington's character is all the way over to the other side of the spectrum, an 18-year veteran of the force with gambling problems and 4 kids by probably 4 different women.

The real problems I had with the movie is that Denzel Washington's performance just seemed a little too much like something Samuel L. Jackson or Ving Rhames would do, especially in "Pulp Fiction". Washington's character uses phrases like "My Niggah" and even does stupid shit like stop his car in the middle of an L.A. intersection to put a gun to Hawke's head to make him smoke PCP-laced marijuana. Bad cop or not, I wasn't buying it for some reason. I'd buy it in "Pulp Fiction", but then again "Pulp Fiction" is just that-- an over-the-top farce that works because all of the characters are screwed up emotionally in one way or another and no one is painted as the "good guy". "Training Day" just seems to use the beginning to show the duality of the two characters, but a bit too much and to be honest, a bit too unbelievable.

There are other scenes that I had some problems with also. At one point, we get an appearance by that magnate of acting, Dr. Dre. Dre is an ok rap artist, but an actor he is not and he has about as much on screen persona as an ingrown toenail. But since Snoop is in the movie also (playing a crack dealer-- what a surprise) I guess we need to get other rappers in it also. It's pretty much a gimmick to get the young black audience to come to see the movie too since most of them think Denzel is just a cracker anyway. At any rate, Ethan Hawke's scrawny ass actually clocks Dre right in the mouth. And of course Dre is held back by other people on the team and he does nothing. That's about as realistic as me flying to the moon and everyone knows that Dre would have beat this guy until he was a stain on the ground. We are also treated to Macy, another rap star that suddenly gives us such visceral lines like "what are you doing here" and "he's up there yo". The Oscars are beckoning.

Aside from that, we get other great scenes like Ethan Hawke turning down $250,000.00 because he doesn't "want it like that" and just wants to make it up the ladder to detective so that he can be OLD and broke, I suppose. Good cop or not, I don't think someone would turn down $250k based on morals. I'm sorry, that makes no sense to me and I have a hard time believing that this would happen in the real world. Want to know what happens when cops do that and turn money down and make everyone around them nervous? Watch "Serpico" for a real story on these things go down in a police department.

I won't spoil the ending for you save to say that this movie follows an old "good guys win" formula and you should be able to see the end coming from a mile away.

All in all, this movie's script and acting borrows way too much from other movies that are much better. I liked the first part of this movie a lot, but that's because it reminded me of characters I hadn't seen in a while. The end is laughable, though, and two good actors got suckered into doing a mediocre film, and I am not talking about Dre and Snoop.

Wait for this movie to hit the dollar movies or rent it or wait for it to come on USA Network or anything else. You're not missing much and there are much better cop movies out than this. If you want to see a movie about good cop and bad cop, check out "Serpico" with Al Pacino.

A lot of people are saying that Washington's performance is "blistering". Eleanor Gillespie gave it a B+ on this review which I just find a bit ridiculous. Again, just because an actor is suddenly playing a bad guy doesn't mean that it is time to stop the presses. It's just Denzel dressed in black and saying lines from other movies and looking like a piss poor version of Samuel L. Jackson. I have seen everything he has done before and there is nothing unique and original in this movie and you won't remember it 1 hour after seeing it.

Final grade: D+

-Cyber Christ has written for KungFu,with topics ranging from whimsy and those that ring with depth.  He is an old school hacker, flamer and fiercely honest in his opinions and theories.