No matter how many years goes by, some movies manage to age gracefully and you never get tired of them. I could easily mention at least 20 films that you simply have to see, but let´s just talk about certain films that remain just as good as they were during their cinema releases. A perfect example of this is the 1996 black comedy crime thriller Fargo, directed by Joel Cohen. This film have everything you could wish for, brilliant dialogue, brilliant acting and characters that´s so effective on the big screen you will never forget them. This is one of those films that you should own on physical media, especially if you love odd films from the 90´s. There is also a TV series made out of Fargo that´s actually really good as well. My advice is that you should buy the TV series on physical media as well, put it next to the original Fargo movie. Let´s move on and talk about another film that you need to see. We are still sticking to the 90´s and let´s go back to the year of 1995 to a film that was actually a box office flop, but has since then become a cult classic for people who appreciate similar films to Quentin Tarantino. I am talking about the American crime drama film Things To Do In Denver When You´re Dead, directed by Gary Fleder ( who also directed the great Michael Douglas thriller Don´t Say A Word, worth checking out ). What made the film Things To Do In Denver When You´re Dead such a unique film was the characters of this film. It is not often you see perfect casting as you did in this specific film. You have really good performances from actors such as Andy Garcia, Christopher Walken, William Forsythe, Christopher Lloyd, Bill Nun and...one of my favourite acting performances ever from Treat Williams as the crazy Bill Dolittle. The editing is so smooth, the dialogue matchers perfect with each character, you simply have to see this film on physical media as well. I was recently going through a list of films released in the year of 2001, because there were some really good films released that specific year. I decided to do a 25 years anniversary review of one of the titles on this list and i picked a personal favourite of mine. It is the 2001 crime thriller film known as Training Day. I watched this film in cinema back in the day and at that time it was one of my favourite films of the entire year. I decided to rewatch the film on the DVD copy i still own ( bought in back in 2002 ). Is this film just as good as i remember it to be or have this film aged and lost some of it´s powerful impact along the way?
Jake Hoyt ( Ethan Hawke ), a young, ambitious LAPD officer, is assigned to work with Detective Alonzo Harris ( Denzel Washington ), a highly decorated narcotics officer for a one-day evaluation to determine if Jake will be invited to join his narcotics squad, Driving around the city in Alonzo´s Monte Carlo, Jake is about to experience the roughest day in his entire life.....
One of the biggest reasons why Training Day turned out to be so unique in the category of cop thrillers, is the potrait of the character known as Detective Alonzo Harris. Not only is he corrupted, he doesn´t care about following law and order in any way at all. This is of course a journey to complete disaster, because we all know that if you become completely corrupted you loose all credibity working for the police. Denzel Washington ( who actually won an Academy award for this role, which he definetely deserved ) as Detective Alonzo show you as an actor, how you really go all in for your character, you don´t see acting on such a powerful level that often. I love a lot of Denzel Washington acting performances in his career, but this might be one of his best acting performances ever. The way he portait this asshole Alonzo, how he manage to capture his selfish, macho image combined with his evil personality, this is what real acting is all about. I have to mention actor Ethan Hawk as well as Alonzo´s new partner Officer Jake. Ethan have always been a really good actor, and he proves his acting skills in this film very clearly by capturing the personality of a unsecure police officer just trying to follow orders. Their scenes together is delightful to witness, because you could not see two more different characters than this sitting insisde a car together. Of course you can tell Officer Jake want´s to be a good cop in society and follow the law, which is very difficult when you are out on the streets with Alonzo. Training Day capture very realistically how chaotic society can be, especially if you cause too much damage with criminals. When you sell your soul completely just to make money, and don´t care if you will end up dead in a body bag. What director Antoine Fuqua manage to do with Training Day is show two completely different sides of the police force, where you have honest people trying to do right while some can be bought for the right price. It shouldn´t be like this of course, but corruption have always been around in society and will never go away. Training Day is a very effective, smooth, yet pretty violent action thriller that looks really good, have many strong dialogue scenes and powerful acting included. Training Day is a future classic that should be in your physical movie collection.
Rating: DDDD
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