Training Day

By EWAN McDONALD

Denzel Washington plays someone unexpected: Alonzo Harris, the meanest narcotics cop in LA, cruising the mean streets in his Caddy, shaking down the locals because "if you don't intimidate the street, it will kill you".

Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke), a young cop who dreams of being promoted to the elite narc squad, has been placed in Alonzo's tender care.

Washington's Oscar-winning role is dressed up as "a blistering action drama that asks the audience to decide what is necessary, what is heroic and what crosses the line in the harrowing grey zone of fighting urban crime" but it's really just a good old-fashioned bash'em and shoot'em.