Slashdot Mirror
Review: Training Day
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.
If you want to read a real movie review, Salon has a well done review of "Training Day" that actually discusses the merits of the film and will be much more useful in deciding whether you want to see the movie or not. Jon's reviews always sound like he didn't see the movie, but had someone else tell him the plot.
Robotiq.com is heavily tested on animals
but what's happening, those reviews portray you more like a rookie writer who uses the old and trusted writing techniques learned in school. Where's the creativity, the magic, the uniqueness, the "je ne sais quoi" that sets you apart from the others? On the other hand, I guess doing a review of that kind of movie can't be too inspiring.
In that vein, here's Ebert's review. I'm sorry to say that I trust Ebert's opinions more than Katz's, as they more often reflect my own. He (Ebert) gave it his fairly common three-star rating, so I think it's probably worth watching as a rental.
Please Jon, you are suppost to be a real grown up movie reviewer guy...
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.
i do not know anyone that would want to spend $10.00 per ticket and subject themselves to half a movie, knowing full well they have been promised a disappointing second half/ending.
I authorize you to use the phrase: "wait for it on cable"... and enjoy Denzel's acting while you do something productive.
I appreciate the heads up but you should express yourself when you've been robbed.
Training Day
Here is a link to Amazon's review of the movie. Here is a link to Yahoo's review of the movie. [User Rating: (4.1/5) ]
Chicago Tribune said this about Training Day.
"Training Day," for most of its length, is genuinely thrilling, explosively cynical about life on the streets and in the squad cars. More strikingly, it lets Washington play a really juicy heavy: hard driving, acid-tongued Detective Sgt. Alonzo Harris. Harris is Washington's meanest, most brutal and dangerous character in years -- an L.A. cop who's adjusted so completely to life among the wolves that he's become a wolf himself. Washington is magnificently vicious and wily in the role."
"Dares to be a cop movie based on character and not on pyrotechnics."
-- Jeffrey M. Anderson, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
"The film works a bit better as a vehicle for Washington, and it often gets by on his devilish charm. But it loses all its punch as he becomes more hissable."
-- William Arnold, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
"A taut -- if violent -- police thriller."
-- Ken Fox, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
"Washington's performance is so good, in fact, that it may temporarily blind you from seeing that the movie has obscured its message."
-- Sean Means, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
All Posters.com as a poster of the show if you are looking for one.
Here is the director Antoine Fuqua's filmography. I was interested to see if he was an action director that is continuing his specialization or if he directed mainly heart felt drama's and was crossing genre's. With a limited filmography that includes previous B+ rated action flicks as The Replacement Killers, it seems that he has the background to provide us with an entertaining medium grade action flick. I would definately see this movie over The Musketeer.
/.................../ \\
This isn't katz-bashing, but more a different opinion.
With regards to the borderline-racism: These scenes are supposed to be the very gang-infested neighborhoods of LA. Everyone in those neighborhoods was packing - black, white, latino, polka-dotted, whatever. Do you really think that Denzel Washington would be a part of a movie that was borderline racist?
Russian Mafia: This wasn't a plot "twist" at all...it was the basis of the movie. (Don't worry...i'm not going to throw out spoilers) At the beginning of the film, Denzel's character Alonzo becomes *very* endebted to the russian mafia. The movie very intelligently shows his efforts to pay them back. If you just look for the action, you'll miss the sub-plots, but this is a great movie, with some very, very well done plot twists
Remember, IANAMC (I am not a movie critic), so your opinions may differ, but I thought the movie was good...
Juiced? Or Not?
50 Karma is 50 Karma, it doesn't get any better, so why not burn some of it and keep myself warm?
Jon Katz - Now not only qualified to discuss geek angst as an expert, and not only the leading authority of zeitgeist of our times, he can also do movie reviews.
Seriously though, if slashdot is going to do movie reviews, presumably based on the idea that "geeks like movies", how long is it until we see Katz degenerate into reviewing takeout pizza, video games, or acne cream, all things the stereotypical geek would like to know about?
Why not stick to "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." You can't be all things to everyone. The usefulness of the majority of websites is specialization. If you try to do everything, you generally end up doing a shallow pass of all subjects, which benefits no one but the most casual of users.
Just my $.02
If you have a problem with the man, TURN OFF HIS ARTICLES in your user's settings. God.
Denzel Washington (Det. Alonzo Harris) is amazing as a rogue LAPD narc who's turning his new rookie partner Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke)...
Parallel construction please. To someone who's not aware that Ethan Hawke is an actor, he'd think that Ethan Hawke was the character's name.
Shoulda been:
For that matter, character names in reviews are usually just noise and show that the reviewer lives inside his press kit. A cleaner intro would have been:Of course we have seen this in other areas, such as coding.
Think of it as the movie equivalent of Feature Creep. Like all things, sometime you get away with it, and sometimes you don't. Alot depends on your taste.
But it sounds like the original idea was in the first hour of the flick and the rest was added in the infamous studio writing process.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
we should have a "everyone ranting about how horrible he is" filter.
;)
:) Lay off Katz and go see Bobby :)
I am glad that you people don't care to listen to his poor writing style and his crap reviews but I certainly would rather hear his crap than yours. Please try and refrain from it.
As far as that comment goes, why not try and give us a decent review yourselves. That would be a billion times more beneficial than whining when you can just block his stories.
The movie was definitly crappy. It was NOT worth the 5.25 I paid for it, and I don't recommend it to anyone.
I went to see Ratdog last night in Toledo. That was a smokin' show. If any of you audiophiles out there have a copy of it it would be much appreciated
Bobby Weir is getting older (bald spot) but he looks like he is in decent shape for his age. The Sax player is a fucking pain in the ass that needs to understand that he is NOT the lead in the band. Sax solos might be cool for Clinton 10 years ago but they aren't cool every 20s of a song.
I miss the Dead and Ratdog's show last night was like seeing my last shows all over again. They played a smoking Corrina, One More Saturday Night, and my personal favorite... the rocking US Blues.
Have a good day everyone
Remember, if you *really* liked the movie or if you just thought it was okay, the MPAA still made $7 dollars off of you. They may as well market it to every possible segment.
Keeping
..From Dusk till Dawn, which must be the ultimate example of this kind of directorial mistake. Granted, Tarantino did it with style, but I was still left feeling cheated and violated when the "splatter" part began.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
And hopefully Harry Potter. Although the marketing crap for HP has started already (HP dolls, trading cards, even _shoes_ for crissakes!) which makes me worried. Last heavily-marketed film was "Jar-Jar's Big Adventure"... :-(
Check out "Enigma" though - that's pretty good, although fairly lightweight. Not Hollywood either, so you can feel good about spending your money on something not linked to huge corrupt organisations.
Grab.