Training Day (2001)

Let me be straight with you: Denzel Washington is one of the greatest screen actors who ever lived, and his work in Training Day is the most compelling argument for that claim I can think of. From the moment Detective Alonzo Harris leans back in that car seat and fixes Jake Hoyt with that smile, you know you're in the presence of something special. Charismatic, unpredictable, genuinely terrifying. He plays a man who stopped pretending to be on the side of justice so long ago he's practically forgotten what justice looks like, and every single scene he's in crackles with danger. That performance won him the Oscar, and for once the Academy got it completely right.

The trouble is, the film wrapped around that performance is good rather than great. And given how often Training Day gets spoken about in hushed, reverential tones, I think it's worth being honest about where it falls short.

For the first two acts, though, it earns every bit of the praise. Antoine Fuqua shoots the whole thing with a handheld, naturalistic energy that puts you right in the passenger seat of that Monte Carlo. You feel the heat coming off the streets of South Central, the constant low-level menace of a world where every interaction could tip sideways without warning. Ethan Hawke does solid work as the rookie Hoyt, that particular brand of wide-eyed idealism slowly curdling over the course of a single long day. The dynamic between the two leads is the engine of the film, and it runs beautifully for most of the runtime. There's real paranoia baked into every scene, a genuine sense that you can't trust what you're seeing or who you're watching.

Then the third act arrives, and something goes wrong. The plot threads that have been carefully wound up over the first hour or so start collapsing into each other, and what had felt gritty and grounded tips suddenly into something close to parody. The climax in particular is deeply clichéd, the kind of big Hollywood ending that sits badly against everything the film seemed to be building towards. And for a story that's supposedly about the weight of corruption, about consequence and moral rot, the resolution is shockingly thin. Loose ends aren't resolved or subverted or deliberately left open for effect. They're just... ignored. That's a significant problem when your whole premise promises some kind of reckoning.

It also doesn't help that I keep measuring it against films doing similar things with considerably more rigour. Narc, Serpico, L.A. Confidential: all three manage to weave character, theme and narrative together in ways Training Day never quite manages. It's a film that knows how to generate atmosphere and tension but isn't entirely sure what to do with them once it has your attention.

I've seen Denzel in pictures where the whole film matches what he's bringing, and this isn't one of them. I'd point you towards Virtuosity as an interesting contrast: a messier film in some ways, but one that leans into its own excess rather than pretending to be something weightier than it is. Training Day wants to be a serious meditation on institutional corruption and ends up being a very stylish thriller with one extraordinary performance at its centre.

And look, there's nothing wrong with that. It's absolutely worth your time. The first half genuinely grips, Hawke is better than he gets credit for, and Denzel alone justifies sitting down with it. Three and a half stars. Just go in knowing you're watching a strong vehicle for a bravura turn rather than the classic some people would have you believe it is. The style is real. The substance is thinner than it looks.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2001  | Watched: 2025-10-11

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Antoine Fuqua: Shooter (2007)
More with Denzel Washington: Virtuosity (1995)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)