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Review: Training Day 122

Posted by JonKatz from the great-acting-silly-movie dept.
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.
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Review: Training Day More

Review: Training Day

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  • Another great review, brought to you by the one and only Jon.
  • If you want to read a real movie review, Salon has a well done review of "Training Day" [salon.com] 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.

    • Ebert Sez: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Kaio ( 471336 )
      In that vein, here's Ebert's review [suntimes.com]. 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.
  • 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.


    Err .... the sad part was that it did not give me any further reason to read the review. It was a spoiler for a spoiler review.
  • 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.

  • Maaaaan, is there going to be anything worth going to the theaters for this year? This has been one of Hollywood's worst years yet. Here's hoping LOTR will make up for it.
    • Sorry, but that you can't find great movies out there doesn't mean there aren't any. There have been some great cinematic experiences this year.

      (Most of them not from hollywood though.)
    • 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.
  • It is like they have two scripts and just put them together. The first hour is great; just like you see in the trailers. Dark and powerful. Then the movie changes into some bad Lethal Weapon clone. Its odd and startling.
    • ...sounds just like Hollow Man. An hour into it I was like "hmm, neat idea, let's see where they take it!" and then, as if someone had swapped scripts half-way thru, the movie went south, FAST. At least I didn't pay to see it (lord love divx)...

    • It is prolly a marketing trick. If they can appeal to two vastly different marketing segments, then they have a larger overall market. It doesn't matter if you think it's a great movie or if you just liked one half of it. If the first half appeals to you and the second half appeals to somebody else, then two poeple are mildly satisfied rather than one person liking/one person hating it.

      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.

  • Filthy (Score:1)

    by ksw2 ( 520093 )

    The Filthy Critic is the only one I listen to now-a-days... he's the only one who's consistently right (they all suck.)

    And, oh yeah, I just wanted to add that Katz is the worst part of Slashdot :->

    (...going to check my slashdot config for "Katz Filter"...)

  • Jon, you kant recommend half a movie. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by motherhead ( 344331 ) on Sunday October 07, 2001 @11:20AM (#2397610)

    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.

    • With one small typo you have juxtaposed the two great thinkers of modern times: Jon Katz and Kant. (Just between you and me, I would have ordered Kant before Katz, however. The former's acumen was, albeit slightly, more powerful than that of our esteemed /. colleague).
    • Please Jon, you are suppost to be a real grown up movie reviewer guy...

      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.

      Now, I think it's time to introduce you to a new concept, so pay attention. It's called "satire", "wit", "wry humour", or any of its other various names. Basically, it involved obvious exaggeration to make a point. When you see exaggeration, you therefore don't comment on the lack of accuracy. You see, that's the point of this "exaggeration" thing.

      Got that? Any questions? Are you sure? It's a tough one, I know, so don't be afraid to ask...
    • Ever heard of The Phantom Edit?

  • An extension of Training Day movie reviews. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Discoteck ( 468081 ) <slashdot@nOSPaM.llbbl.com> on Sunday October 07, 2001 @11:28AM (#2397624) Homepage
    Movie Reviews

    Training Day

    Here is a link to Amazon's [amazon.com] review of the movie. Here is a link to Yahoo's [yahoo.com] review of the movie. [User Rating: (4.1/5) ]

    Chicago Tribune [zap2it.com] 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 [examiner.com]

    "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 [examiner.com]

    "A taut -- if violent -- police thriller."
    -- Ken Fox, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE [tvguide.com]

    "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 [sltrib.com]

    All Posters.com [allposters.com] as a poster of the show if you are looking for one.

    Here is the director Antoine Fuqua's filmography [yahoo.com]. 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 [yahoo.com], 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 [yahoo.com].

  • wow...that was WAY off (Score:3)

    by UM_Maverick ( 16890 ) on Sunday October 07, 2001 @11:30AM (#2397628) Homepage
    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...



  • 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

    • Why not stick to "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." You can't be all things to everyone.

      From the lack of hundreds of posts like yours, the interesting (and interested) discussion in the forum, and the fact that this has been happening on slashdot for quite a while without severe negative feedback / user falloff, I would conclude that most people on the site regard movies as "stuff that matters". Besides, it's not as if it gives you lasting psychological distress to skip over a story when scrolling down the homepage. I appreciate that you're burning karma for the hell of it, but still, this could be mistaken for a meaningful comment, and that would be terrible...

  • Does anyone edit these? (Score:4, Informative)

    by andy@petdance.com ( 114827 ) <andy@petdance.com> on Sunday October 07, 2001 @11:43AM (#2397648) Homepage
    Does anyone edit these?

    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:

    Denzel Washington (Det. Alonzo Harris) is amazing as a rogue LAPD narc who's turning his new rookie partner Ethan Hawke (Jake Hoyt)...
    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:
    Denzel Washington is amazing as a rogue LAPD narc who's turning his new rookie partner Ethan Hawke...
    • Yes that would have made more sense, but it's Katz we're talking about here, and he just wants to appear like he can do movie "reviews" like the guys who write the stuff on the back of rental boxes.
    • Shoulda been:
      Denzel Washington (Det. Alonzo Harris) is amazing as a rogue LAPD narc who's turning his new rookie partner Ethan Hawke (Jake Hoyt)...

      No, it shouldn't have been. This reads to me like Alonzo's partner is Ethan Hawke, played by Jake Hoyt. Katz's wording is actually better. If you're gong to pick nits, it should brobably read more like this:

      • Denzel Washington is amazing as Det. Alonzo Harris, a rogue LAPS narc who is turning his new rookie partner, Jake Hoyt (played by Ethan Hawke) to the dark side.
      You can't make it much clearer than that.

  • Katz maybe ought to spend some time in East LA before he characterizes the movie as racist.

    Actually, what I found really interesting was that in the Training Day I just saw, not all the black and Hispanic characters were "packing heat." In fact, in one particular climatic scene, there was a distinct lack of firearms.

    One aspect of racism is seeing only what you expect. (Remember geek profiling? Didn't Katz do a couple of articles about that?) Apparently, Katz expects to see guns on black people in the projects.

  • Tweaking Movies (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 )
    What we seem to have here is the result of constantly wanting to add just one more thing to a script.

    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.

  • we should have a "everyone ranting about how horrible he is" filter.

    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 :) Lay off Katz and go see Bobby :)
    • we should have a "everyone ranting about how horrible he is" filter.

      I couldn't agree more. All you Katz-bashers, you DO know that if you go into your /. settings, you can exclude Katz stories, right? If you hate him that much, don't read what he writes. Simple. CmdrTaco has said he likes what Katz produces, and seeing it's Tacos site (kinda), respect that or turn off Katz. If it REALLY bothers you that Katz has anything to do with /., then write Taco about it (or even - flame Katz directly).

      Don't spam me about it in every fucking article Katz writes.
    • Damn Right!

      Normally I'd say that you shouldn't turn off a group of articles based on the author. Since everytime Jon Katz posts something he invariably gets torn to shreds by slashdot readers, it is obviuous that some very vocal people hate everything he writes. If you fall into that category, and can't stand Jon Katz's writing, and you're not some kind of masochist, turn off JonKatz articles. If you don't have an account, get one, or...don't click on the link to his story!!

      How hard is that!

    • the 5.25 I paid

      Is that U.S. Dollars??

      Last time I went to the movies it was $8.50 each, and that's before hitting the snack bar.

  • This movie sounds AMAZINGLY like The Corruptor with Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun Fat except with a bit of role reversal.

    Come on, Hollywood! Let's be a little more creative, eh???
    • Yeah, _The Corruptor_ came to mind. But don't forget _The Bad Lieutenant_. While _The Bad Lieutenant_ didn't involve seducing a good cop into evil, there were still a lot of parallels between it and _Training Day._ Especially the ending. ("Hey, Cop!" ).

      Don't get me wrong, _Training Day_ basically sucked (in spite of good acting by both principals), and _The Bad Lieutenant_ had a much better script (although it was unbearably depressing) but I still think that _Training Day_ borrowed a lot from the _Bad Lieutenant_.

      MM
      --
  • The "silly plot twist featuring a Russian mafia" WAS the point of the movie. The whole movie is about Alonzo covering his ass for something he did to a member of the Russian mafia. Katz obviously failed to grasp that. Hoyt discovers Alonzo's duplicity after Alonzo's failed attempt to set him up, and goes on a rampage to bring him to justice.

    This film also highlights how easy it is for a one-time good cop (Alonzo) to get sucked into the corruption and greed that breeds drug dealers, when you're exposed to them on a daily basis (much like many other cop corruption flicks, so nothing new there).

    This movie was excellent. The premise of the film isn't exactly ground-breaking territory, but it was treated well. There were only a few small logical inconsistencies near the end of the film, which I think can easily be overlooked in the shadow of an overall great effort by a great cast in a well-written flick.

    John Katz should find something better to do with his spare time...
  • My favouritest part in the movie was that scene where Denzel Washington is in the really really bad ghetto house with the drug people, and he's all sweating, and has his pants around his ankles staring dead in the eyes of Sandra Bullock. She tries to tell him that his whole history is being erased by an evil multi-national corporation known only as "Pi". And then after like 10 or 15 minutes of her telling this story, while Washington just kinda nods his head once in a while and goes, "uh huh... oh yeah.... oh yeah... ya, I heard a that somewhere I think.... oh? oh really?"... and then she mentions they may even go after his "mama" and he gets up, penis flaying wildly and shouts, "I'm the Poe Leece! KING KONG ain't got NUTHHIIIN ONNN ME!", and Sandra's all weirded out for a while so she tells him, "I said they're going after your family", and he's like, "Ohhhhhhh........ I thought you said something else"....

    That was funny, it really added realism to the scene.

    Eggplants! [eggforge.net]
  • John Kats and his bashers, admirers, and those who could care less. Why? Because it makes a *well rounded review*.

    You see I've seen reviews/previews/trailers that hype a movie to death. Some live up, some don't.

    So, what I rely on is many different opinions and this movie is no different.

    Take Reindeer Games, for instance...from the reviews and trailers, well, it looked stupid as hell, but, I saw it on a recommendation from a few people at work...that was a *good* movie.

    The Matrix, The usual suspects, long kiss goodnite and the 6th day were all along the same vein and IMO/IMR(eviews) are good flics.

    Training day may be more like the Long Kiss Goodnite in that it is an excellent flic, with damn good acting but LKG got a little "soft" (for lack of a better word/thesaurs) for the last 15mins tword the end.
    Did that ruin the movie? Nope. Forgivable? Yep.

    I dunno, maybe critics are too critical. Heck, when I took my son to see shrek, I damn near busted a gut laughing...and I was the only one in the theatre that said "YEAH" real loud when the lady dragon ate the king...heh, I guess I'm a big kid :)

    Thanks for reading.

    Moose.

    Be good, or don't get caught being otherwise.
  • "degenerating into a dumb, improbable, almost cartoonishly violent mess".
    Cool, I guess the movie is not all bad.
  • Mr. Katz, have you ever been to the ghetto? I have! Cabbage Town in Atlanta, is pretty frigen dangerous, they don't like white people and every male and some females, under 40 are packing and shooting, and dealing. Here in Douglasville (Atlanta suburb) the nearest ghetto is not quite that bad, but let's just say our Papa John's doesn't do deliveries there. Just because something is a stereo type, doesn't mean it isn't true, no matter what you'd like to think.
  • only make sense to me when the movie has a technological aspect. One of this movies most admirable qualities is that it does not.

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