BLU-RAY REVIEW

Training Day

Featured In Issue 110, July 2006

Picture5
Sound5
WSR Score5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Warner Home Video
(Catalog Number):
80945
(MPAA Rating):
R
(Rating Reason):
Strong brutal violence, pervasive language, drug content and brief nudity
(Retail Price):
$28.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (HD-30)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
122
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
1
(Theatrical Year):
2001
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
05/09/06
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Antoine Fuqua
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Dolby Digital+ 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Ethan Hawke stars as Jake Hoyt, a motivated rookie cop who faces the next 24 hours of his Training Day under the watchful eye of veteran undercover narcotics officer Alonzo Harris (Washington). Before the day turns to night, Hoyt discovers that Harris has managed to blur the line between cop and criminal. And trying to do the right thing on his first day on the job is more challenging and life-threatening than Hoyt would have ever dreamed. In his own words: "I should have been a fireman." This is a very well-scripted psychological thriller, with superb Oscar®-nominated performances by Hawke and Washington (Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor, respectively). (Suzanne Hodges)

As with the DVD, director Antoine Fuqua provides audio commentary, and additional features include 15-minute Making Of Training Day featurette, includes 13-minutes worth of additional scenes, a five-minute alternate ending, Nelly's "#1" music video, Pharoahe Monch's "Got You" music video, and the high-definition theatrical trailer.

The high-definition 2.35:1 HD DVD exhibits crisp images with excellent detail and fine textures, like vinyl restaurant seating, cigarette smoke, clothing fibers, and fine facial details on even slightly wider shots breathe life into the picture. The DVD simply cannot touch the quality of this HD DVD. Makeup on the actors' faces is apparent at times. Contrast and shadow delineation are also excellent. Colors are well balanced, with accurate fleshtones and deep blacks. Finicky viewers are going to be hard-pressed to find any VC-1 compression problems with this title. There also are no signs of edge enhancement, as was a problem with the DVD. (Suzanne Hodges)

Both the Dolby® Digital•Plus and two-channel Dolby TrueHD soundtracks feature pristine fidelity and impressive dialogue tonality. Even though the TrueHD track provides even more refinement than the Digital•Plus encoding due to it being a lossless encoding format, (as of now), there aren't any players available that can decode the full multichannel mix, and as such, the multichannel Digital•Plus encoding is favored. The TrueHD track does provide a slight refinement in overall articulation, which is surprising after hearing the excellent Digital•Plus encoding, but the expansiveness and excitement of the multichannel mix is difficult to ignore. Dialogue is incredibly detailed and natural sounding, and the entire presentation is very natural and realistic. This is a fantastic HD DVD soundtrack. (Danny Richelieu)