Training Day (2001)

Elevator Pitch: Jake is a rookie cop who gets the opportunity to work with Alonzo a prominent leader of a group of narcotics cops in LA., but soon after they meet, he realises that he is being recruited into a group of corrupt police officers and from the outset is in danger as they move about in the suburbs of the city, sometimes amongst the gangs and drug dealers. Alonzo himself is in danger and must pay off a Russian gang, using the proceeds of a robbery from another drug dealer. Jake is left in the hands of three gang members in the projects. Will he survive?

Content: There is a bit of female nudity and the implication thst sex has, or will, take place. Lots of drinking smoking and a bit of drug taking. Alonzo is a menacing presence throughout and there are a number of fire fights mostly with handguns and the occasional machine gun. Poor Jake has a job to stick to his principles since he is constantly under threat and is forced to take part in some drastic cover-ups. One fortunate co-incidence.

A View: You would lack some basic emotional response if this film did not have you on the edge of your seat throughout. It is alarming stuff, and enters a world which I know little about except through the movies, ganglands in America. Denzel Washington won the Oscar for Best Actor at the 2002 Awards, and Ethan Hawke was nominated for Best Support. Difficult to believe that it is now 18 years old. So well worth the cost of a download.

Additiona Info: I include this trivia item on IMDb complete. “T.Rogers, the founder of the Black P. Stones Bloods in Baldwin Village a.k.a. The Jungles in Los Angeles, was on-set for all of the filming in his neighborhood, and allowed the producers to use his neighborhood in exchange for casting gang members.”