Training Day Vs. Cop Land ( Ep. 0029)

Crooked-cop films are the ultimate twist on the cops and robbers genre. Denzel Washington put on one of the most memorable performances of his career while Sylvester Stallone transformed from his usual musclebound action hero to an overweight cop steeped in naivety. The protagonists are tasked with traversing the moral complexity of taking down their corrupt counterparts who don’t operate with a rulebook. Enjoy your training day with Kyle, Drew, and Phil. Click here to become an executive producer on Movie Wars by supporting us on Patreon! A measly $7 gets you access to Kyle’s new 15-minute show “Filmosophy”, interviews with legendary filmmakers, Host Q and A, and bonus content.

FIlm Summaries

Training Day

Police drama about a veteran officer who escorts a rookie on his first day with the LAPD's tough inner-city narcotics unit. "Training Day" is a blistering action drama that asks the audience to decide what is necessary, what is heroic and what crosses the line in the harrowing gray zone of fighting urban crime. Does law-abiding law enforcement come at the expense of justice and public safety? If so, do we demand safe streets at any cost?

• Rating:
• R (Drug Content|Brief Nudity|Pervasive Language|Strong Brutal Violence)
• Genre:
• Crime, Mystery & Thriller, Drama
• Original Language:
• English
• Director:
• Antoine Fuqua
• Producer:
• Jeffrey Silver, Bobby Newmyer
• Writer:
• David Ayer
• Release Date (Theaters):
• Oct 5, 2001 Wide
• Release Date (Streaming):
• Mar 19, 2002
• Box Office (Gross USA):
• $76.3M
• (courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/training_day)

Cop Land

When hotheaded Superboy (Michael Rapaport) accidentally gets involved in an ugly racially-motivated incident, his uncle Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel), a corrupt New York City cop, attempts to sweep it under the rug by helping fake his nephew's death. The bungled cover-up leads to investigations by idealistic Internal Affairs officer Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) and Freddy Heflin (Sylvester Stallone), sheriff of the suburban New Jersey town where Donlan and his fellow crooked policemen live.

• Rating:
• R (Strong Language|Brief Nudity|Violence)
• Genre:
• Crime, Mystery & Thriller, Drama
• Original Language:
• English
• Director:
• James Mangold
• Producer:
• Cary Woods, Ezra Swerdlow, Cathy Konrad
• Writer:
• James Mangold
• Release Date (Theaters):
• Aug 15, 1997 Original
• Release Date (Streaming):
• Jul 2, 2002
• Box Office (Gross USA):
• $44.9M
• Runtime:
• 1h 45m

(info courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cop_land)