HTF REVIEW: "Training Day" - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (1 Viewer)

[Darrel McBane]

I also just got around to seeing "Training Day". Went and saw "Beautiful Mind" Saturday and my buddy loaned me "Training Day".

Sorry, but this movie was nothing more to me than a police trash running street trash movie. And the street trash ended up having more morals than the police trash!

This was obvious to me a make-up Oscar to Denzel for not getting the Oscar for "Hurricane". Which like "Beautiful Mind" made you feel for the character.

I'm glad I didn't have to pay to see "Training Day". I would have felt cheated.

 

[Paul_D]

This was obvious to me a make-up Oscar to Denzel for not getting the Oscar for "Hurricane". Which like "Beautiful Mind" made you feel for the character.

Why on earth does the Best Actor Oscar have to go to a performance that made you 'feel' for the character. Too many touching performances win awards. I'm glad Denzel won for this performance.

 

[Martice]

I liken Denzel's performance in Training Day to Meg Ryan playing a "Bitch" role that you grow to hate in a given movie. If that were to happen, Hollywood would see to it that Meg was the toast of the town because it would be totally out of character for her especially if she was very good in her role. Denzel (like Meg)always plays the "moral good guy/gal" role and for him to be able to switch up and play a role that was believable and make you hate his character and throw all of your past perceptions of his movie roles out the window is a testiment to his ability and his acting job in this movie. Some actors can't break away from being type cast and Denzel proved that he can act out of the box that we once thought he was trapped in. We must not confuse Best Actor and Best Film although it's obvious that seems to be the case.

I liked Gladiator as well, how ever Russell Crowe's acting job was heavily aided by the script and the supporting cast. I think he probably had about 20 mins of actual spoken lines in the whole movie when he wasn't busting the heads of his opponents and enemies. Tom Hanks was robbed for Castaway. Denzel was robbed for Malcolm X and The Hurricane. I still don't see what Kevin Spacey did that was so wonderful in American Beauty that warranted an Oscar Nod. Infact, Steve Martin could have played that particular role just as well if not better. However, I do think that American Beauty was a wonderful movie and quite deserving of all of it's awards..as a movie!!

The last true Best movie award race was between Forrest Gump and the Shawkshank redemption!! There are loyal supporters on both sides of that one but it seems in my opinion that the Shawshank Redemption is the better of the two.

One side note is that Denzel is able to draw crowds of movie goers without one thing that many other actors have the luxury of and that's a highly marketable leading lady. It would seem to be very hard to be consistent on such a high level without a significant love interest to boost sales nowadays.

 

[Dean DeMass]

Sorry for the ludicrous statement, next time I will try not to express my opinion on how ludicrous I feel the Academy is.
-Dean-

 

[Paul_D]

Sorry for the ludicrous statement, next time I will try not to express my opinion on how ludicrous I feel the Academy is.

The ludicrous statement I was referring to was that somehow "we all know he will never win another Oscar, just like Spielberg will never win another Best Picture Oscar." I didn't realise that people could see into the future. Opinions are one thing. KNOWING that someone isn't gonna win another Oscar is quite another.

 

[Darrel McBane]

A dozen actors could have pulled off Denzels part in Training Day. It was not that demanding of a role. How many could pull off Beautiful Mind?

Denzel got a hand out from the Academy this year.

 

[Paul_D]

A dozen actors could have pulled off Denzels part in Training Day.

Who?

 

[Michael Reuben]

Who?

More importantly, so what?

Any part in any film could be played by a dozen other actors (or even a hundred). The question is what the actor who did play the role made of the part. Lots of people could have played John Nash or Alonzo -- just not like Russell Crowe or Denzel Washington.

M.

 

[Martice]

A dozen actors could have pulled off Denzels part in Training Day. It was not that demanding of a role. How many could pull off Beautiful Mind?

I agree that many other actors could've pulled off Denzel's part in Training Day. However, how many could've come from the type cast that Denzel did and played it so well? Richard gear had Internal Affairs and although there are a lot of variables that play a part in movie going over well, you have to recognize what Denzel brought to the part of Alonzo.

As far as A Beautiful Mind goes, Russell Crowe also did very well in his role and deserved all of the awards that he received for his work in the film. However, if we must get technical, Russell was never type cast and him playing the role of a warped genius is more easily believable then Denzel playing a bad cop due to the type of films that each actor has played in the past. Would I understand if Russell Crowe won for ABM? Yes. I think he could've won for this picture. However, I think Denzel did a better job in Training Day then Russell did in ABM as an actor. Once again, this is not saying which film was better but the acting job to me was better with Denzel.

 

[Dean DeMass]

I didn't realise that people could see into the future. Opinions are one thing. KNOWING that someone isn't gonna win another Oscar is quite another.

You Brits obviously don't have Magic 8-balls over there in the UK.
Paul, I think you need to see the wink in my last post. It is my opinion that the Academy will not award Mr. Hanks with another Best Actor statue and Mr. Spielberg with another Best Picture statue. I feel like there is a bit of animosity towards these two because of their successes. Now this is all my opinion and could be a bunch of crap, but the Academy rarely ever gives out the awards that are most deserving to the proper people. For example, Julia Roberts, Russell Crowe, Shakespere in Love, Benicio Del Toro, Titanic, etc..
The Oscars are a big bunch of BS most of the time and rarely do they get things right, IMHO of course.
-Dean-

 

[Martice]

I agree with the above poster in regards to the Academy Awards. However, I do think that what makes most people tune in is the "upset" factor. The possibility of the least likely to win being a real threat. Hey the Academy Awards thrives on playing out just like something out of Hollywood. Wait a minute.. It is out of Hollywood.

 

[Darrel McBane]

Any part in any film could be played by a dozen other actors (or even a hundred). The question is what the actor who did play the role made of the part. Lots of people could have played John Nash or Alonzo -- just not like Russell Crowe or Denzel Washington.

I agree in with this statement to a point. But, were talking about Best performance on a major motion picture by an Actor. Now, it you think Denzel pulled off the best performance...fine. I didn't see that way for two reasons.
1. His character had no redeeming qualities what so ever. I'm not saying every winner should be a Forrest Gump. But, who was the last person to win "Best Actor" for playing a character with no character?
2. Alonzo was just too One Dimensional. Sure he had his street smart-ass face on throughout the movie. But, that's all he carried through the role.
I'll sum up the movie like this. King Kong meets Bambi........Bambi ( 1 ) King Kong ( 0 ) movie over.

 

[Michael Reuben]

His character had no redeeming qualities what so ever. I'm not saying every winner should be a Forrest Gump. But, who was the last person to win "Best Actor" for playing a character with no character?

Anthony Hopkins for Hannibal Lecter. Before that, it was probably F. Murray Abraham as Salieri (I may be leaving someone out; I'm going by memory).
Both film and theater have a long tradition of great villain roles. Actors frequently say that it's more interesting to play the villian (ironically, Denzel Washington said it about Virtuosity, where the villain was played by . . . Russell Crowe).
W/r/t Washington's portrayal of Alonzo, my comments are on a previous page of this thread. As I said there, I'm not a big fan of the film as a whole, but I find Washington's work to be amazing.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...013#post563013
M.