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The Rewatchables ·

Training Day

year 2001decade 00sdirector Antoine Fuquagenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennesseyhost Shea Serrano
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 17:33

Diner scene (2-1 in studio) vs poker/table scene (Shea's pick makes it 2-2)

Four candidates are laid out: Denzel bullying Ethan Hawke into smoking pot that turns out to be PCP, an amazing mental chess match of challenging somebody's manhood; the nine-minute robbery of Scott Glenn, where the crew goes back to shoot him and take his money and the guy in the bulletproof vest really does get shot, which Jake refuses to join; the poker scene with the Latino gang at Smiley's house, which has no Denzel in it; and the final Denzel-versus-Hawke shootout in the house.

Their first meeting in the diner, the 'tell me a story' scene, is one host's favorite and makes it five candidates; the 'this is a newspaper' beat is recited.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 59:08

"King Kong ain't got shit on me"

Nominees recited: 'King Kong ain't got shit on me', noted as an ad lib, 'man the fuck up', 'finish that shit', 'all that jelly no toast', 'it ain't checkers' and about a hundred others; it has got to be the King Kong one.

The film

Training Day (2001)

Directed by Antoine Fuqua · Drama

122 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Denzel Washington Detective Alonzo Harris ( LAPD )
Ethan Hawke Officer Jake Hoyt (LAPD)
Scott Glenn Roger
Tom Berenger Stan Gursky ( LA County DA's Office )
Harris Yulin Detective Doug Rosselli (LAPD)
Raymond J. Barry Captain Lou Jacobs (LAPD)
Cliff Curtis Smiley
Jason Lopez Merit
Dr. Dre Paul (LAPD)
Snoop Dogg Blue
Macy Gray Sandman's wife
Eva Mendes Sara
Nick Chinlund Tim (LAPD)
Jaime P. Gomez Mark (LAPD)
Raymond Cruz Sniper
Noel Gugliemi Moreno
Kyjel N. Jolly Alonzo's son
Peter Greene Jeff (LAPD) (uncredited)
Terry Crews a gang member (uncredited)

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

17:33

Most Rewatchable Scene

Diner scene (2-1 in studio) vs poker/table scene (Shea's pick makes it 2-2)

Diner scene (2-1 in studio) vs poker/table scene (Shea's pick makes it 2-2)

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:33Read transcript
  • Four candidates are laid out: Denzel bullying Ethan Hawke into smoking pot that turns out to be PCP, an amazing mental chess match of challenging somebody's manhood; the nine-minute robbery of Scott Glenn, where the crew goes back to shoot him and take his money and the guy in the bulletproof vest really does get shot, which Jake refuses to join; the poker scene with the Latino gang at Smiley's house, which has no Denzel in it; and the final Denzel-versus-Hawke shootout in the house.
  • Their first meeting in the diner, the 'tell me a story' scene, is one host's favorite and makes it five candidates; the 'this is a newspaper' beat is recited.
  • Asked whether any character in a lifetime of watching movies resembles Alonzo, the answer is that he resembles older guys on a high school team: charismatic but terrifying, guys who could kick your ass but whom you might also die for, messing with you while trying to indoctrinate you, leaving a younger man completely confused; as a younger man this host thought that way about Dave Jacoby. — Chris Ryan
  • Another voice objects that Jacoby is not threatening and is told they did not know him back then; picks then split, with one host going diner scene alongside Sean and reciting the 'tell me a story' exchange, and another going poker scene for the Latino street gang's crude 'shit pushed in' question.
  • Revisiting it during the nitpicks, one host thinks the most rewatchable scene might be the one after the diner where Alonzo makes Jake take the drugs, with Alonzo pulling a gun on another motorist who just stays cool and stopping in the middle of intersections.
  • Asked for a favorite scene seventeen years later, the phoned-in answer is the table scene, the best scene in the movie even though it does not involve Denzel; another voice says that was their case too and that the boys picked the diner scene.
  • The diner scene is called good, but the poker scene is an incredible nine minutes that left one viewer tense, back knotted and stomach nervous, not knowing how Jake gets out; the escalation is laid out from gangsters taking your gun, to your ride leaving, to being asked a crude question, which is the end of the line.
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25:05

What’s Aged the Best?

The Dr. Dre needle drop and the film's L.A. feel; the two lead performances; the anti-hero crime storytelling that an...

The Dr. Dre needle drop and the film's L.A. feel; the two lead performances; the anti-hero crime storytelling that anticipated The Shield; Fuqua's modern, propulsive direction; Ethan Hawke's career moment

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:05Read transcript
  • Hearing the Dr. Dre song takes one host straight back to 2001, the second decade of hip hop, with Dre then turning up in the movie later; the music and the legitimately L.A. feel are that host's pick.
  • The two performances discussed for thirty minutes still work perfectly; the film sits close to where TV was heading, the anti-hero era of The Shield that became consistent in cop and drug-dealer stories, and the Denzel performance splits the difference between that and the Sidney Lumet and French Connection documentary grit of the 70s, in a period with fewer crime movies than anyone in the room would like.
  • The direction is totally modern with nothing dated, like Fight Club; Fuqua is slick and bright, Hollywood dirty, with great pace and propulsive movies even when they are not good, a cross between Michael Bay and William Friedkin, and the locations are authentic even though parts of this movie do not hang together.
  • Ethan Hawke has aged nicely, this being the next step after Reality Bites, Before Sunrise and Gattaca; they will give him an Oscar at 70 for a grand old man performance even though he deserved one for six or seven movies, like a player who never won the MVP but could have.
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28:08

What’s Aged the Worst?

Dr. Dre's performance; Macy Gray's appearance; the opening scene with Jake's wife

Dr. Dre's performance; Macy Gray's appearance; the opening scene with Jake's wife

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:08Read transcript
  • Dr. Dre's performance was bad then and is worse now that there is more history with him; it was a miscast, in sharp relief against Snoop, who won that head-to-head.
  • Macy Gray's appearance was not bad but sticks out like a sore thumb because she is no longer part of the culture the way Snoop and Dre are.
  • The opening family scene with Jake's wife feels like something added after a test screening to get a strong female character, a weird, bad first five minutes with bad dialogue about bringing it and making the shield, though it may set up his return home at the end.
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32:26

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Snoop Dogg; Cliff Curtis as Smiley

Snoop Dogg; Cliff Curtis as Smiley

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:26Read transcript
  • Nominees are Snoop Dogg in a wheelchair, Eva Mendes in a rookie performance and Tom Berenger, with Smiley and Bone added as the other two heat check performances.
  • Tom Berenger looks exactly like this host's father, which is disorienting, so Berenger from Training Day to Inception is like watching that father in a movie; Berenger also plays a narcotics cop here, which the father is. — Sean Fennessey
  • Berenger was a massive star for about six years after The Big Chill and Platoon, shows up as the Marine recruiting Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July, and Someone to Watch Over Me, with Mimi Rogers, is slated for year seven of the show.
  • Scott Glenn is ruled out as a Dion Waiters candidate because he is coming up in a different category and one host is not allowed to talk about him yet, though when asked for a heat check a voice still answers Scott Glenn.
  • Snoop, by all accounts, should have been bad and Snoop in a wheelchair should have been one of the biggest movie disasters, but his crack-corner lines are recited admiringly as really good Snoop stuff; a nomination for Harris Ewan (as transcribed) is held for another new category.
  • Bone was played by Klee Shahid Sloan (as transcribed), an activist and documentary director who worked to reform gang culture from inside the Athens Park Bloods, part of how much Fuqua worked within L.A. gang culture to make the movie authentic.
  • One host gives it to Cliff Curtis for Smiley, now on Fear the Walking Dead and great in Danny Boyle's Sunshine: Smiley did not have to be so interesting, making you feel it will be okay with menace underneath and the tattoos; another concedes Smiley is great but gives it to Snoop Dogg because it was so unexpected.
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35:24

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Scott Glenn; Harris Ulan (as transcribed)

Scott Glenn; Harris Ulan (as transcribed)

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:35:24Read transcript
  • The segment is announced as 'New category. The Joe Pantoliano Award' and named for Joe Pantoliano, which is why it is recorded under the existing Joey Pants that-guy family.
  • The award is for a then-that-guy who became a that guy or never did: Joe Pantoliano was Guido the Killer Pimp and the guy from the Cruisers movie for five years, then Running Scared, The Matrix and The Sopranos made him Joey Pants; the two nominees are Scott Glenn and Harris Ulan (as transcribed).
  • Harris Ulan (as transcribed) is a flat-out that guy: a hundred movies, almost always evil, usually the lieutenant or someone in the DA's or mayor's office, an amazing theater actor; the two performances burned in are the judge in Ghostbusters 2 and Mel Burstead (as transcribed) in Scarface, a role he has essentially played for 35 years, including a version of it here.
  • Scott Glenn's recognition of Hoyt as a strong safety from North Hollywood High is recited, and his one-shot character in the Apocalypse Now director's cut, painted and surrounded by Montagnard Indians at Brando's compound, is imagined coming back to the States to become an L.A. drug dealer who scouts high school defensive backs.
  • Why does Roger wear a black tank top tucked into jeans with a green bathrobe, drinking scotch at 10 in the morning, with a photographic memory for a player from 10 or 15 years earlier, before YouTube mixtapes, like the invention of Pro Football Focus; weird little flourishes like this elevate the movie.
  • Roger is understood as an ex-cop turned dealer, and there is a brand of cop really into local athletics who goes to high school games for no reason and asks about the quarterback, a provincial type who probably has a Letterman jacket from 1957.
  • The script had been banging around since the mid-90s and is based on the Rampart scandal, drawing on the Raphael Perez (as transcribed) case of cops stealing and selling drugs, with Alonzo modeled on Perez down to the beard and look.
  • Wesley Morris's 'there can only be one' market-correction game: Tommy Lee Jones market-corrected Scott Glenn; Glenn was the rival who sleeps with Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy, a weird film that has not aged well, while Jones was in The Executioner's Song with Rosanna Arquette, and they ran parallel through the 80s until The Fugitive and Under Siege made Jones a top-tier star and left Glenn to play Roger.
  • Glenn belongs to the early-80s generation of The Right Stuff, Silverado and Terms of Endearment whose careers were derailed by the mid-to-late-80s action boom; he took second-in-command roles in The Hunt for Red October, Silence of the Lambs as Jack Crawford, The Player, Backdraft and Absolute Power, grouped with Kline, Costner and Dennis Quaid.
  • Personal Best, Robert Towns's (as transcribed) directorial debut, is a weird film that has aged badly and incredibly well at once, with Glenn's character crazy and the two-athletes-falling-for-one-another premise interesting; it will never be on the show.
  • One voice thinks it has to go to Scott Glenn; another argues for Harris Ulan (as transcribed) because Glenn was already Scott Glenn, Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff, a known quantity 20 years earlier; Roger is called his best part, three great scenes, though the other would take Personal Best and The Right Stuff over it, and no single pick is settled.
  • Roger's football recall is riffed on: the game against Crenshaw, picking off two passes, going nickel in the third quarter, the safety blitz, all offered with scotch and a bathrobe.
  • Earlier, during the heat check, a nomination for Harris Ewan (as transcribed) was held for this new category.
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47:53

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Smiley's a crazy poker buddy (as transcribed)

Smiley's a crazy poker buddy (as transcribed)

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:53Read transcript
  • The 'they knew' bit is skipped because there is really one person, 'Smiley's a crazy poker buddy' as the transcript has it, which reads as Smiley's crazy poker buddy, really feeling it and ratcheted up, as if Antoine told him to go up two more levels and passed him some of the PCP, out of control.
  • The white kid in the driver's seat of the Volkswagen Beetle, apologizing, was really solid and is thought to be Fran Kranz, Joss Whedon's guy.
  • Denzel has no chance of landing in the overacting category, even though he draws out the diner scene and the two-gun scene feels like an Oscar play; the diner is the only case to make, since the character was not fully figured out and he is doing the Jay Pharoah version of Denzel with all the tics rather than just being Alonzo.
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48:41

Apex Mountain

Antoine Fuqua; Denzel Washington (1 yes in room, 2 for Malcolm X; Shea splits acting vs cultural); Ethan Hawke (one y...

Antoine Fuqua; Denzel Washington (1 yes in room, 2 for Malcolm X; Shea splits acting vs cultural); Ethan Hawke (one yes, one switched to 2001, one for Before Sunset)

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:41Read transcript
  • Ethan Hawke gets an initial no; the alternative apex offered is Before Sunset, the second one, which came after Training Day, with Before Midnight and Before Sunrise also liked, Reality Bites arguable as his movie-star apex, and Boyhood, where he is amazing but not on screen much.
  • Whether who you are married to counts prompts the ruling, deferred to the person who invented the show and the category, that it is only about performance, not life; still, the case for 2001 is made, a hot celebrity couple and a respected actor newly proven in action, and one host switches their pick to 01 while another stays with Before Sunset.
  • Hawke's turn in Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest, basically playing Alonzo, gets a shout-out as an idea hatched at 2:30 in the morning after eight beers.
  • Antoine Fuqua is a yes: a good career, but how do you top directing Denzel at his peak performance, something to tell your grandkids; The Equalizer 2 is the most anticipated movie of the year for one host's father, Dr. Bill, who loves Denzel and The Equalizer and should have been on the episode, and of the four Denzel-Fuqua movies this is by far the best.
  • Eva Mendes and the other supporting people are not at their peaks here; Scott Glenn's apex is The Right Stuff, when in the 80s he looked like a potential top-tier actor.
  • Denzel gets a yes from one host; others answer Malcolm X, a movie about one man featuring three primary characters played by the same actor, a 19-year-old gangster, a 25-year-old militant and a 30-year-old spiritual leader; the Training Day case is that Denzel, already America's most beloved actor with a unanimous approval rating, lacked an Oscar and a Michael Jordan 1992 Finals moment and then played a part nobody else could in a movie that should not have worked; it is called neck and neck, a total coin flip.
  • Favorite recent Denzel: Flight is growing on one host, the two Travolta movies are liked and Unstoppable is called better with a fun Chris Pine; Denzel inhabits characters for better and worse, probably smoking for three months here and drinking through Flight, and he struggles only when he tries something smaller that recesses from essential Denzel-ness, as with Roman J. Israel.
  • On the phone, the acting apex is Malcolm X for a single performance, but the cultural apex, the Denzel moment, is Training Day for sure: everyone followed along waiting for the Oscar, Halle won the same year right before him, and his two-birds-with-one-stone comment played out perfectly.
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54:30

Is This Movie Better With…?

Yes: any of the poker-scene gangsters, any of the dirty cops, Alonzo or Jake Hoyt

Yes: any of the poker-scene gangsters, any of the dirty cops, Alonzo or Jake Hoyt

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:30Read transcript
  • Called the easiest category: Trejo could have played all five guys in the poker scene, with CGI, any of the dirty cops, Alonzo or Jake Hoyt, everyone except the three wise men; a David Ayer L.A. crime movie is where Danny Trejo eats.
  • A Google search for why Danny Trejo was not in Training Day found nothing definitive; it is called a slight, he must have seen it and wondered, and he could have been Dr. Dre's partner or the waiter in the diner.
  • The phoned-in take: Trejo cannot be in every movie, but of all movies this one would have made too much sense, a scene with Mexican gangsters where you would ask how many lines he has; he probably took another movie where his head gets cut off, since this was too arty, and a CGI version of him playing everybody at the poker table is floated.
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1:03:44

Who Won the Movie?

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:44Read transcript
  • The who-won-the-movie take is saved for a phone call to Shea; a suggestion that maybe Ethan Hawke won is met with a no, followed by the garbled line 'Ethan Hawke's Denzel Washington won this week' (as transcribed), and a joke that Shea might come in with a Scott Glenn take.
  • On the call, the in-studio hosts say they saved who won the movie but already think they know the answer; the first question instead is whether this is the guest's favorite Denzel movie, and it is.
  • Shea is told this is Denzel's finest achievement and that he has written about it; no formal declaration or vote on who won is ever made, so Denzel is implied rather than declared.
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