Training Day

The Fast and the Furious (2001) screenwriter David Ayer follows up that fast-paced action hit with this gritty cop drama from director Antoine Fuqua. Ethan Hawke stars as Jake Hoyt, a fresh-faced Los Angeles Police Department rookie anxious to join the elite narcotics squad headed up by 13-year ...more

In his most nefarious film role yet, Denzel Washington keeps the audience stumbling off balance, forcing them to ponder whether his unorthodox crime-fighting methods are justifiable radicalism or a deviant abuse of power. With bawdy humor and grudging praise providing counterpoint to his fierce stares and verbal intimidation, it's difficult to determine whether he's toughening a protégé through trial by fire, or laughing at a patsy he despises. Antoine Fuqua's Training Day is a violent, vigorous ...more