TRAINING DAY
Hes got one day to prove himself and hes a little anxious. He should be. Today is going to be the toughest of his life. Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) has been assigned to Detective Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington), the head of an elite narcotics team and hes got about 8 hours to prove his worth to him. Fresh faced and idealistic, Hoyt is keen to make an impression but it is Harris that will be doing all the impressing. After 13 years on the streets, Harris walks a blurred line between right and wrong. When he pushes Hoyt into trailing some of the drugs they have just seized, Hoyt discovers that the law according to Harris is not the same one he has been taught to uphold. As the day wears on and the assignments get more dangerous and less lawful, Hoyt starts to see his day as less of a test and more of a masterful, deadly set up

HARSH TIMES
Haunted by nightmares from his murderous military past, the honourably discharged Jim (Christian Bale) spends his time between his impoverished fiance in rural Mexico and cruising the streets of east L.A., with his buddy Mike (Freddy Rodriguez). They fool Mikes girlfriend (Eva Longoria) into thinking hes actually dropping off resumes. Homeland Security meanwhile wants to recruit Jim for some special ops, but first he has to pass a urine test. This is the directorial dbut of David Ayer, who wrote TRAINING DAY. Christian Bale delivers, as usual, a towering performance: growing progressively more disturbed as the film goes on, he weeps, roars, struts, shouts and flips out, maintaining audience sympathy all the while.