Review: Training Day

The first hour of Training Day showcases a great actor strutting his stuff in a surprising film with an original premise. Denzel Washington (Det. Alonzo Harris) is amazing as a rogue LAPD narc who's turning his new rookie partner Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) to the dark side. But, inexplicably and sadly, the movie suddenly falls right off the cliff, degenerating into a dumb, improbable, almost cartoonishly violent mess. Spoilage warning: plot is discussed, but not ending.

It's great to see Denzel Washington playing a bad guy, and especially impressive to see him as messes with the mind of his eager young partner Jake. Washington is dazzling -- alternately charming, surprising, angry, powerful and savvy. He laughs, cajoles, taunts, tempts and psyches out his younger prey. He's electric, keeping the audience continuously off guard. Jake Hoyt is along for his first day's training to work as an undercover cop, a job he hopes will lead to promotions and more money for his wife and new baby. Set against the backdrop of the ugly and real-life corruption scandals still wracking the Los Angeles Police Department (already battered by years of racial tensions and accusations of brutality), he and Alonzo set out in a souped-up Monte Carlo to ride the mean streets of LA.

Hawke is also great as the eager but savvy rookie who is shocked, then horrified, as he realizes just how out-of-control, brutal and corrupt his new partner is, and how insistent Alonzo is on drawing him into the quagmire of corruption and brutality that underlie the older cop's world. Even though Hoyt knows better from the first, Alonzo is so powerful he can't quite walk away. The movie would have been so much better off if they'd just left the main story line at that, but that no longer seems possible in the looney-tunes world of big-profit studio marketing ambitions.

Training Day quickly degenerates. The "ghetto" scenes are garish, crude, nearly racist stereotypes of life in the big city. Every black or Hispanic kid under 40 is packing and shooting. The elaborate white-men police corruption conspiracies driving the plot were done much better in Chinatown and L.A. Confidential. Hoyt's answer to his increasingly nightmarish predicament is as unsatisfying as it is puzzling and unclear. And a silly plot twist featuring a Russian mafia with enough firepower to take ot the Taliban is inane. I'd highly recommend seeing this movie to anyone who wants to see a great actor strut his stuff for a good hour. Mid-way through, though, you might want to do yourself a favor, finish your popcorn and just go home.