Lack of originality hinders
plot in 'Training Day'
 Quinn
Kirsch
Staff Writer
"Training Day" starts out as the cliché,
bad-cop-teaches-good-cop-the-ropes movie. However, this movie becomes
much more than that through Denzel Washington’s performance —
before it struggles to find an ending.
Washington plays Alonzo Harris, a leather jacket
and gold chain wearing dirty cop who drives a fully equipped black Monte
Carlo.
The character screams "Shaft." So when he meets
Jake Hoyt, played by a diminutive Ethan Hawke, you know that Hoyt will
soon succumb to Harris' machismo.
The setting for the movie is that Hoyt is on his
first day on the Narcotics Division of the L.A.P.D. His boss is Harris,
who from the beginning sets out to intimidate Hoyt.
He takes Hoyt on a cruise in his ride and before
long, the young Hoyt gets stoned and the Monte Carlo gets shot at.
During this time, we learn Harris’s philosophy
that you have to be a criminal to catch a criminal.
The beauty of this is that we cannot quite figure
out Harris’s motive. He seems to be a bad cop, but his record shows
otherwise.
But the viewer can't decide whether or not it wants
to latch onto this anti-hero because the entire story is told through
Hoyt’s narrow perspective.
On top of that, Hoyt knows that if he sticks with
Harris, he will be on the fast track to being promoted to detective.
Through a series of tests, Harris checks to see
if Hoyt is the type of cop he needs to play a part in his game.
After this, more would give away the plot entirely.
But I use the word plot loosely. A lot of the action
does not seem to make sense. In fact, the movie just drags on for about
half an hour and little more is revealed except a few plot holes, which
becomes frustrating.
For example, though we thought he was knocked out,
Hoyt comes flying out of nowhere to land on Harris' car's hood in one
scene. The car gets banged up in a series of wrecks to get Hoyt off
of the car. However, minutes later, the car shows barely a scratch.
The director, Antoine Fuqua ("Bait") and writer,
David Ayer ("The Fast and the Furious," "U-571") seemed to forget this.
One benefit that Fuqua brings to the table is his
connections from his experience in directing music videos. This movie
has its share of rapper cameos.
Snoop Dogg and Macy Gray pull off their roles as
a drug dealer and a crack addict, but Dr. Dre stutters through his lines
as one of Harris’s narcotics cops. On the whole though, I can never
really have enough cameos by rappers.
The ending to this movie really just spoils all
the work that had been done in the previous hour and a half.
If you want to watch a complete movie about the
harshness of drug life, rent "Traffic." Or you can just go
see "Training Day," leave early and make up your own ending.
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