Rewatchables Reference

• The diner scene – Denzel bullying Ethan Hawke, 'tell me a story Hoyt.' Sean's pick.
• The poker scene at Smiley's house with the Latino street gang – an incredible nine minutes of tension. Bill and Shea's pick. The best scene in the movie and it doesn't even involve Denzel.
• Denzel making Hawke smoke PCP-laced weed in the car – an amazing mental chess match of challenging somebody's manhood.
• The robbery of Scott Glenn's character Roger – incredible nine-minute action sequence where Denzel shoots him with a bulletproof vest.
• The final Denzel vs. Hawke confrontation and the 'King Kong ain't got shit on me' speech.

• The Dr. Dre 'Still D.R.E.' needle drop in the opening – takes you right back to 2001.
• The performances – watching Denzel and Ethan Hawke together still works perfectly.
• The anti-hero quality of the storytelling – it predicted where TV was headed with The Shield and other shows about morally compromised cops.
• The direction – Fuqua directed it in a totally modern way. Nothing feels dated. Like 'Fight Club', you wouldn't know it came out 20 years ago.
• The music and the LA-ness of it – it's a legitimately LA movie that feels authentic.

• Dr. Dre's acting performance – it was bad then and it's even worse now. Lost the head-to-head with Snoop Dogg.
• Macy Gray's cameo – not bad, but sticks out because she's not part of the culture anymore the way Snoop and Dre are.
• The very first scene with Jake's wife – feels like it was added after test screenings to establish his family. The dialogue is really bad.

• Davis Guggenheim was set to direct with Samuel L. Jackson and Matt Damon as the leads – interesting but definitely not winning an Oscar.
• Sam Jackson as Alonzo would have been more of a parody/red meat version. With Denzel it feels more real and cinematic.
• Eminem and Christian Bale turned down the Jake Hoyt role. Eminem could have Will Smith'd his way into a movie career.
• Mickey Rourke was Antoine Fuqua's first choice for Roger but the studio turned it down.
• Bruce Willis allegedly turned down Alonzo. Gary Sinise and Tom Sizemore were also attached at one point.

• Nominees: Snoop Dogg in a wheelchair, Eva Mendes in a rookie performance, Tom Berenger, Smiley (Cliff Curtis), and Bone.
• Snoop Dogg wins because it was so unexpected – he should have been one of the biggest movie disasters ever but somehow it works.
• Cliff Curtis as Smiley is great – doesn't have to be that interesting but gives you a feeling like maybe it'll be okay, then there's menace right underneath.

• Smiley (Cliff Curtis) in the poker scene – Fuqua kept telling him to go up two more levels, just a little crazier.
• They debate whether Denzel is overacting in the diner scene – the Jay Pharoah Denzel impression – but conclude he hadn't fully figured out the character yet, so it's not quite overacting.

• Denzel Washington – Bill says yes, this is his Apex Mountain. The body of work, plus winning the Oscar he should have gotten for Malcolm X, in a movie that shouldn't have worked. Sean says Malcolm X for pure acting, but 'Training Day' for the cultural Denzel moment. Shea agrees it's the cultural apex.
• Ethan Hawke – No. 'Before Sunset' is his Apex Mountain, though you could argue 'Reality Bites' for movie-star apex.
• Antoine Fuqua – Yes. Directing Denzel at his peak performance is what you tell your grandkids about.
• Eva Mendes – No.
• Scott Glenn – Debated. Bill thinks this might be it because in the 80s he was thinking he'd be an A-list actor. Chris and Sean aren't sure – he was Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff 20 years earlier.

Danny Trejo – the easiest 'yes' in the history of this category. He could have played all five parts in the poker scene. Every role except the Three Wise Men, Jake, and Alonzo. David Ayer LA crime movie is where Danny Trejo eats. Bill actually Googled why he wasn't in it and found nothing definitive.

• The entire premise – Denzel's plan to break in this kid he's eventually going to frame for murder is pretty flimsy and only becomes clear after the Three Wise Men lunch.
• The wallet from the near-rape scene that randomly saves Hawke's life later is a huge coincidence.
• Denzel gets four million dollars and decides to stay instead of leaving the country – does he really care about his five kids that much?
• We never see what happened in Vegas with Denzel killing the Russian, which is the biggest plot driver.
• The first five minutes with Ethan Hawke and his wife should have been cut and replaced with the Vegas scene.
• Denzel discovered a new character type here and then became 'that guy' in seven more movies – a tiny bit of 'Scent of a Woman' syndrome.

• Fuqua gave the poker scene actors instructions without telling Hawke to make him genuinely confused.
• The word 'fuck' is used 211 times in the movie.
• The coffee shop/diner on West Seventh Street is also the same diner used in 'Se7en' for the Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow scene.
• Denzel ad-libbed the 'King Kong ain't got shit on me' line.
• The studio wanted to cut the Three Wise Men scene but Fuqua fought to keep it.

• What is Jake's tomorrow? What does his career look like after this day?
• Did Ethan Hawke know that Denzel was going to slam the table in the diner scene?
• How long does PCP last if you smoke laced weed? (About five hours apparently.)

Denzel Washington. Unanimous. Shea: 'This is my favorite Denzel movie. I'm a big fan of bad guy Denzel.'

LA Confidential – same story of corrupt cops in LA. The Guy Pearce character (Edmund Exley) is very similar to Jake Hoyt: a straight arrow who wants to do good but sees the dark side.

• An Alonzo prequel could be an awesome 10-episode Netflix series – the Three Wise Men, the corruption, the backstory.
• They actually made 'Training Day' into a TV show and switched the races because you can't try to make another Denzel.