Movies Which movie is better: Collateral or Training Day

[I Fusion I]

Collateral by a lot. Denzel being Denzel rules (though ironically he's not even in the best scene of the movie when he leaves Ethan Hawke behind with the Mexicans) but Cruise's performance is better than Denzel's, Foxx's performance is better than Hawke's, the script is WAY better, their relationship is WAY richer, the action set-pieces are WAY better. Collateral outpacing Training Day is no knock on Training Day, it's just an indication of HOW amazing Collateral is.

This. Collateral is way better

 

[pakimahi]

Training day is a master piece. No comparison. The Departed woud be better match

 

[KnightTemplar]

Collateral for me. I'm not going to claim it's a better film than Training Day. I'll leave that to @Bullitt68 and @Madmick who I believe have studied films at an academic level. My decision is based purely on which movie I enjoyed the more.

Denzel is, of course, awesome, and TD is rightly lauded as one of his best performances. But Cruise in Collateral is astonishing. The easy charm that is a part of so many characters he's played over the years is here morphed into something far darker. The manipulative techniques of an amoral psychopath.

 

[Prefect]

Collateral. Training Day is a little unhinged in that it strays way too far from anything realistic. Ethan Hawke has to work so hard to ground the movie and it still nearly floats off into cartoonish world. Denzel never should have won an award for that role, in my opinion.

 

[Severen]

Tom Cruise basically just played Tom Cruise with some greyed out hair. His cold hit man character had nowhere near the nuance and layers that the manipulative psychopath Denzel played. I thought it was quite one dimensional actually. Alonzo was a far more interesting character.