The Movie: Training Day has got to be one of the most over-hyped movies of recent memory. Though Denzel Washington certainly played his "bad cop" role well, it did not seem deserving of the Oscar he won for his performance. I must agree with my friend who thinks that maybe the Academy gave him the award because they had screwed him out of it on so many other, superior performances, and decided it was time to let him have it for once.

I was surprised to see Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in this movie, but between the two, I would have to say that Snoop is clearly the better actor, looking much more natural in his role than Dr. Dre who delivered an awkward, uncomfortable performance. I also thought it was kind of funny how Dr. Dre was wearing exactly the same clothes he wears on every other day.

So what about the movie? The movie was alright. It managed to keep me interested in what was going to happen next, with plot twists that kept me on my toes without seeming too contrived. It was overall a fairly well made film, but probably not one that I will remember too much about in the months and years to come.

The DVD: The video transfer on this disc exhibited compression artifacts in the form of gradient stepping in many parts of the movie, but overall remained a decent transfer with good clarity, and strong color. The 5.1 surround mix was unspectacular, but not lacking in any particular ways either, with a few subtle ambient surround effects thrown in.

There are a number of special features on this disc, including a director's audio commentary track, some deleted footage (that really did not reveal too much), an alternate ending (that also did not reveal a whole lot more), a making-of featurette, a fully produced anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer, and two music videos.