Antoine Fuqua's crime thriller follows a chaotic 24 hours in the life of two Los Angeles narcotics officers, where things spiral wildly out of control as the untested Officer Hoyt is 'evaluated' by the decorated Alonzo Harris. Although the quality drops in the third act, the majority of Training Day provides a visceral morality tale elevated by two brilliant lead performances from Ethan Hawke and an Academy Award winning turn from Denzel Washington. Hawke conveys the mixed feelings of a rookie officer way out of his depth trying to comprehend his superior's warped sense of justice, while Washington's towering performance is one of the best of his distinguished career; grandiose and quotable without devolving into scenery-chewing. Providing a look at a side of Los Angeles that is rarely seen in a Hollywood movie, the overly-familiar good cop/bad cop routine is given a new lease of life thanks to a 24 hour narrative that keeps the plot rapidly moving along, dealing with themes of corruption and brutality and laced with plenty of character development. Training Day simply wouldn't be half as good if it took place over more than 24 hours. It gives the story a sense of propulsion and ratchets up the tension, as Hoyt begins to realize that he may just be a pawn in Harris' elaborate game. Besides, in the space of the movie the two leads end up busting a drug deal, thwarting a sexual assault, stealing from a drug dealer and become involved in several shootouts. They'd be dead twenty minutes in if it was set over a week!
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