Training Day - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Training Day



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Antoine Fuqua is a personal favorite director for yours truly (outside of the forgettable Infinite from pandemic lockdown days) and I’ve watched pretty much everything the man has ever directed over the years. He’s made some great movie, some good movies, and some genuinely FUN (if not flawed) movies over the years, but probably his magnum opus was 2001’s Training Day. It was the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college and while Denzel had already been a household name, it wasn’t till this movie that he and Ethan Hawke literally blew up into overnight super stars. It’s smartly directed, full of nasty street stuff, and has a rousing hip hop and rock score that really pulls the audience along. Honestly, it’s one of the few movies I think of his that is as close to perfect as a movie, not just a genre like Antoine is known for.

Training Day is one day in the life of two cops. The first being Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke), a rookie who is riding along as partner for the day with Narcotics officer Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) as he tries to get out of being a lowly beat cop and move up the ranks at an accelerated pace. Harris isn’t your typical cop either. He’s a bit raw and rough, having lived on the streets for years as a Narcotics officer, and does his best to beat into Jake’s “by the books” skull that things are different on the streets. Sometimes you have to let the small fish go in order to catch the big fish. Sometimes you have to rough up a perp instead of throwing him in jail, and sometimes the streets actually get to you and you become one of them. As the day turns to night, Jake starts to suspect that his senior partner is more than just a lowly cop, and just may have gone a bit more native than he was expecting. An assertion that breeds a moral quandary as Jake is soon drawn into Harris’s schemes and double speak so quickly and so deeply that he may never get out in time.

Training Day is nothing short of a near masterpiece. It’s a smartly written script that plays Denzel as a hard line street thug with a badge, and Ethan Hawke as the starry eyed recruit who is shocked when he realizes that other people don’t play by the same straight laced rules that he was expecting when he signed up. It’s also an incredible game of switched roles, especially in the final act when we see that who we thought was on top is actually on bottom. Watching Jake turn from a nervous gun shy recruit into a hardened cop who must do what he must to get his man, and Harris turn from the power man in charge to a near infant at the end, begging for his life, is just mesmerizing.

The all star cast is not just relegated to our leads either. Scott Glenn, Macy Gray, and Eva Mendes turn in stunning performances, as does the entire cast in their own right. Training Day still stands some 22 years later as one of the best “dirty cop” movies of all times, and for good reason. Great writing, great scoring, great acting, and a superb director who was at the peak of his career back in the early 2000s (I still love The Replacement Killers as one of my favorites, even though it’s not his best).




Rating:

Rated R for strong brutal violence, pervasive language, drug content and brief nudity




4K Video: Video:

The 2006 Blu-ray of Training Day was legendary for being rather mediocre, even 14 years ago. The lifeless looking disc was given a mediocre VC-1 bitrate, and was pretty flat and generally smoothed out. This new 4K UHD disc is struck from a 4K remaster (and the Blu-ray included is also from the remaster, complete with the same Atmos track as found on the 4K UHD disc) and looks light years better. Details are stunning, with great outdoor shots and a nice, natural, layer of grain over the whole production. Darks are so much better with the HDR application, allowing for some really nice shadowy shots on the rooftop without crushing or marring the detail levels. The Framing is actually tweaked as well, back to the theatrical 2.35:1 framing than the slightly wonky one from 2006.

The one thing that will be controversial for some people is the regrading of the color palette. It’s not a completely new grading, but the heavy reliance on green and teal colors is a start change of pace from the warmer and redder Blu-ray and DVD from back in the day. Sadly I don’t really remember my summer time theatrical viewing of Training Day, and can only rely on my Blu-ray/DVD memory as a comparison, but I just can’t remember if this new master is more accurate to the source or if the old Blu-ray is. Either way, it’s not a horrible thing, as the teal and green tones were always present in the movie, they were just a bit more subdued and more warmth and redder tones were layered on top. This new HDR transfer looks amazing as is, but it IS visually different than what we’ve seen before.







Audio:

Not only did the video get a kick in the pants, but the lossy audio gets a massive upgrade in the form of a Dolby Atmos track that really captures the urban pressure felt on screen. It’s not the same 5.1 mix we had theatrically (and the 5.1 mix is nowhere to be seen on the disc sadly), but it’s a great sounding mix that really is more than impressive to my ears. Dialog is spot on perfect, and the use of atmos heights and surrounds is noticed immediately. Especially during the chaotic apartment shootout, and the screaming and shrieking car chases on the open highways. Bass is impressive as well, with punchy low end to accentuate shotgun blasts, helicopters flying overhead, and the roar of a muscle car as it surges to cut off a perp. All in all, this is an amazing upgrade for those of us who have suffered with the 2006 5.1 Dolby Digital track for the last 15 years.







Extras:

• Audio commentary by Antoine Fuqua
• Additional scenes
• Alternate ending
• Theatrical trailer
• Training Day: Crossing the Line
• Two music videos: Nelly's "#1" and Pharoahe Monch's "Got You"

Final Score: ​

Training Day is an awesome movie, and it’s just as awesome to see it finally get an upgrade over the mediocre Blu-ray from back in the format’s infancy. The new 4K UHD comes from a great remaster, and luckily they included the remastered Blu-ray in with the 4K UHD instead of packing in the aging VC-1 encoded disc from over a decade ago. Only strange thing in this release is that the set didn’t come with a black 4K case, but a blue Blu-ray one (probably a cost cutting method, or last minute supply chain issue), and while it’s not a deal breaker by any means, it IS strange. Luckily the remastered video and Atmos upgrade is well worth grabbing the set for. Highly reccomended as a great buy


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Macy Gray, Evan Mendes, Terry Crews, Dr. Dre., Snoop Dogg, Nick Chinlund
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Written by: David Ayer
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, German, Ittalian, Czech, Japanese DD 5.1, French, Spanish DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 122 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: February 28th 2023

Recommendation: Great Buy

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. This was a great movie. Well worth seeing over and over.

 

[Epoxy1]

Totally agree Michael. Great job.

 

[JBrax]

Thanks for the review! I’ll definitely be adding this to the collection!