Sunday, March 8, 2009

Training day

is a movie made in 2oo1 played by Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Hawke (Jake Hoyt) plays a LA police officer who wants to enroll in as a Narcotics officer. He has to go through approximately 24 hours of training from a veteran Narcotics officer named Alonzo Harris (Washington) who has a nasty reputation. As the day unfolds, Jake gets to know the real sides of Alonzo's questionable work ethic and ...

The story itself is kind of ordinary and at times cheesy. Small time drug dealers (Blacks and Hispanics), crooked cops, ghettos in LA, street life, gun fights etc. However, the most outstanding element in the movie is the academy winning acting of Washington which carries all the load. He portrays the crooked cop with such brilliance that looking at him and listening to his every word makes his character unforgettable. He puts such a sensation in each and every word along with facial expressions and body language that I for one, am just addicted to seeing him and listen to his rants over and over again. His arguments, his judgments and his presence not only make the character so real (not surreal!) but is depiction of an excellent actor. This acting has overshadowed everything else heavily in the movie, the presence of Hawke and other ingredients such as music and etc are just pale in the background and consequently unimportant.

Tom Hanks said that working with Washington in "Philadelphia" was like going to film school, everyday you learned something about acting from him.

An absolutely great performance by Zel.

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