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Training Day (2001)
Denzel Washinton's Detective Alonzo Harris is like the antihero to end all antiheroes. He makes Dirty Harry into Undirty Harry. But unlike the traditional cool antihero, Alonzo Harris is dangerously volatile, going off in every direction. His character is so over-the-top that whatever realism the filmmakers were trying to convey here – which they no doubt did – is effectively thrown out of the window. It's not that the film doesn't make sense from a plot-logical point of view, it's just that Washington and writer David Ayer seem so worried that Harris won't be authentic or hard-hitting enough that they cannot curb themselves. The character is like a caricature of overblown movie characters. The fine performances of Ethan Hawke and Scott Glenn didn't deserve to end up in such a hyperbolic film. There are also a number of musicians making cameos here, and for the likes of Macy Gray and Dr. Dre it is quite evident why their film careers didn't take off. Snoop Dogg, on the other hand, shows he's got serious talent in his one scene – incidentally one of the film's best. Washington won the Best Actor award at the 74th Academy Awards. Ethan Hawke was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Jim Broadbent for Iris.
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