Training Day
Year: | 2001 |
Director: | Antioine Fuqua |
Cast: | Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Cliff Curtis, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Macy Gray, Eva Mendes |
The only film I've seen where Denzel Washington plays a gangsta-style black man.
He's a streetwise cop showing his newly promoted recruit (Hawke) around for the day, getting him into more and more trouble with hoods, drugs and what his young assistant increasingly starts to think of as illegal.
Things turn nastier and the story really goes in one direction, but the charisma and talent of both leads carry it all the way and then some. The controversy over Washington winning the Best Actor Oscar over Russell Crowe (for A Beautiful Mind) was unjustified - Washington owns the screen with his face and voice in a way Crowe never has.
He's a streetwise cop showing his newly promoted recruit (Hawke) around for the day, getting him into more and more trouble with hoods, drugs and what his young assistant increasingly starts to think of as illegal.
Things turn nastier and the story really goes in one direction, but the charisma and talent of both leads carry it all the way and then some. The controversy over Washington winning the Best Actor Oscar over Russell Crowe (for A Beautiful Mind) was unjustified - Washington owns the screen with his face and voice in a way Crowe never has.