their craft. Playing a bad guy for the first time, Washington gives what

Washington Post writer Megan Rosenfeld calls a "masterly performance"

and what Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal calls "the

performance of the year." "He's positively riveting," comments Lou Lumenick

in the New York Post. Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times

writes that Washington's "powerhouse virtuosity will almost guarantee

him an Oscar nomination." Only Geoff Pevere in the Toronto Star

differs from his colleagues. Washington, he maintains, "no longer acts

with other performers, he acts at them," and his character in the movie

"feels about as 'street' as a Beverly Hills ghetto." While most of the

reviews are filled with praise for the movie on almost every level, there

are a number of other dissents. Carey Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer

writes: "Training Day is difficult to swallow and harder still to

stomach. It emphasizes the sensational rather than the ethical aspects of

police corruption." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times tags the

following "footnote" onto his mostly positive review of the movie: "Will

audiences accept this movie in the current climate, when cops and firemen

are hailed as heroes? I think maybe so; I think by delaying the movie's

opening two weeks, Warner Bros. sidestepped a potential backlash. And

Denzel's performance is sure to generate strong word-of-mouth. Second

question: It's been asked if violent movies will become rare in these sad

days after the terrorism. The box-office performance of Training Day

may provide the answer."