Training Day

Antoine Fuqua wasn't the least bit surprised when he got a phone call last year summoning him to movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer's office. The two had wanted to work together for years, ever since Fuqua directed "Gangsta's Paradise," a music video starring Coolio, for Bruckheimer's 1995 film, "Dangerous Minds. " What caught Fuqua off guard was the type of project Bruckheimer wanted him to take on: a big-budget epic film about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table set in 400 A.D. Britain.

In life, as in law enforcement, the distinction between right and wrong isn't always sharply defined. There is neither black nor white but about a billion shades of gray in Training Day, starring Denzel Washington as a charismatically diabolical LAPD veteran who breaks in idealistic rookie Ethan Hawke. Splattered across this gray zone is an awful lot of blood. Less a police drama than a cinematic force-feed, Training Day is difficult to swallow and harder still to stomach.

The hard-boiled cop drama "Brooklyn's Finest" is a throwback - a Joseph Wambaugh-ish, warts-and-all look at police work on the front lines. It's directed by Antoine Fuqua, who made the brilliantly pulpy corruption thriller "Training Day," but who in this movie goes for a grittier, slice-of-life approach, one that looks with sympathy at its overstressed, underpaid characters, even as they make drastically bad choices. "Finest" is an ensemble piece that splits time among three main characters.

It's called an Academy Award, but sometimes Oscar is an Academy Reward, honoring an actor whose prior work has been undervalued. Tonight, in a nail-biter packing more suspense than any movie in contention, Denzel Washington's unnerving performance as the venal rogue cop in Training Day could make him the first African American in 38 years to win in a leading role. That Russell Crowe - vying for back-to-back Oscars as the schizophrenic mathematician in A Beautiful Mind - was heavily favored as recently as a month ago only adds to the tension.

Though the hobbits of Middle-earth snared the most Academy Award nominations yesterday - 13, including best picture and director, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - reality, not wands and wizards, prevailed in the major categories. A Beautiful Mind - the fact-inspired story of schizophrenic Princeton mathematician John Nash, who won a Nobel Prize in 1994 - garnered eight nominations, including best picture, actor for Russell Crowe (his third consecutive bid)

African American actors made their best showing in nearly 30 years in the Academy Award nominations announced yesterday in Beverly Hills. Will Smith, star of Ali; Denzel Washington, of Training Day, and Halle Berry of Monster's Ball were all nominated as leading actors - a dramatic turnaround from the so-called "blackout" of 1995, when only one of 166 nominees, the director of a short subject, was non-white. "African Americans make up 13 percent of the population and in the best-actor category we represent 40 percent of the nominees, and in [best]

Somewhere in the midst of the smog-shrouded, color-saturated orgy of retribution that is Man on Fire, Denzel Washington - playing a drunk, has-been mercenary hired to protect a rich girl from kidnappers - offers up the line, "Revenge is a meal best served cold. " This is, of course, the same sage maxim (with minor alterations) that appears onscreen at the outset of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Tony Scott - who directed a Tarantino script once, True Romance - is clearly on to something.

Color of the Cross . Directed by Jean-Claude LaMarre. With LaMarre, John Jean and Debbi Morgan. R (violence, adult themes). Running time: 1 hour, 28 mins. Playing at: UA Cheltenham Square. It's not The Passion of the Christ, and that's a good thing. Color of the Cross, written, directed, coproduced and starring Jean-Claude LaMarre as a black Jesus, cuts to the chase, or to Golgotha, actually: One minute the carpenter from Nazareth is being rounded up by Roman soldiers at the bidding of Jewish high priests, and the next he's nailed to wood, crowned in thorns, murmuring, "Forgive them for they know not what they do. " Audiences have been spared the blood, guts and projectile flesh that Mel Gibson reveled in. But LaMarre's film, which likewise chronicles the last two days of Jesus' life - and challenges the pervasive Western image of the son of God as a white man - has other problems: It would be one thing, and a fine thing, to present Jesus, Joseph, Mary and, yes, Judas, too, as people of color.

In his brief movie career, Snoop Dogg has played a tortured ghost ("Bones"), a paraplegic crack dealer ("Training Day") and a disco-era street informer ("Starsky and Hutch"). But it's his latest role as Captain Mack, the laid-back pilot of a metallic purple airplane with its own dance club, DJ, and bathroom attendant that the rapper-turned-actor believes he was born to play. "If I had a twin brother, that's who he would be," he says of his character in "Soul Plane," a comedy that opens tomorrow.

SHE'S NOT a girl, not yet a good credit risk. Everybody's favorite pop vixen Britney Spears may have lucrative deals totaling, like, gazillions of dollars, but girlfriend needs to employ a money manager. Somebody's got to actually pay the bills. The hip hugger-wearin' former Mouseketeer was at Barneys, the glam retail store in the Big Apple, recently with her mom, Lynne, and a bodyguard, according to New York magazine, gittin' herself some Prada handbags! "But when she went to pay, her credit card was declined," a source told New York magazine.

All aboard as Amtrak celebrates the 5th annual National Train Day on Saturday at 30th Street Station. The Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale will perform at 11 a.m. During the celebration, kids can rock out at the celebration's Ernie and Neal concert and also visit the AmtraKids Depot, where there will be giveaways and prizes. Visitors can take tours of private trains and Amtrak equipment. Amtrak ambassadors will discuss their experiences working with the trains. French chef Michael Richard will give cooking demonstrations.

The hard-boiled cop drama "Brooklyn's Finest" is a throwback - a Joseph Wambaugh-ish, warts-and-all look at police work on the front lines. It's directed by Antoine Fuqua, who made the brilliantly pulpy corruption thriller "Training Day," but who in this movie goes for a grittier, slice-of-life approach, one that looks with sympathy at its overstressed, underpaid characters, even as they make drastically bad choices. "Finest" is an ensemble piece that splits time among three main characters.

As a little girl in the 1950s, Barbara Knight implored Santa Claus to give her not some girly-girl present, but a model-train layout. "Santa - er, my mother - was a little bit into real trains, too, so she got that other Santa, my dad, to buy me a Lionel layout when I was 7," said Knight, a member of the Schuylkill Valley Model Railroad Club in Phoenixville. "He put it on a 4-by-8-foot layout on the enclosed porch and I got some green felt for grass. Each year, we would go to Philadelphia at Christmastime and, for 79 cents or so, we would buy another building.

Color of the Cross . Directed by Jean-Claude LaMarre. With LaMarre, John Jean and Debbi Morgan. R (violence, adult themes). Running time: 1 hour, 28 mins. Playing at: UA Cheltenham Square. It's not The Passion of the Christ, and that's a good thing. Color of the Cross, written, directed, coproduced and starring Jean-Claude LaMarre as a black Jesus, cuts to the chase, or to Golgotha, actually: One minute the carpenter from Nazareth is being rounded up by Roman soldiers at the bidding of Jewish high priests, and the next he's nailed to wood, crowned in thorns, murmuring, "Forgive them for they know not what they do. " Audiences have been spared the blood, guts and projectile flesh that Mel Gibson reveled in. But LaMarre's film, which likewise chronicles the last two days of Jesus' life - and challenges the pervasive Western image of the son of God as a white man - has other problems: It would be one thing, and a fine thing, to present Jesus, Joseph, Mary and, yes, Judas, too, as people of color.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good. - W.H. Auden, "Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone" So cataclysmic were the Sept. 11 attacks that some Americans believed the culture would change on a genetic level - that society would halt silliness and outlaw laughter as people carried the burden of all that death throughout their days.

The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's big-budget Howard Hughes biopic, soared skyward with 11 nominations, including best picture, to lead the pack as the 77th annual Academy Award contenders were announced yesterday in Beverly Hills. The recipient of mixed reviews, The Aviator clearly wowed the academy membership, scoring in three of the four acting categories: Leonardo DiCaprio for best actor, as Hughes; Cate Blanchett for supporting actress, for her dead-on impersonation of Katharine Hepburn; and Alan Alda for supporting actor, as Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster.

Antoine Fuqua wasn't the least bit surprised when he got a phone call last year summoning him to movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer's office. The two had wanted to work together for years, ever since Fuqua directed "Gangsta's Paradise," a music video starring Coolio, for Bruckheimer's 1995 film, "Dangerous Minds. " What caught Fuqua off guard was the type of project Bruckheimer wanted him to take on: a big-budget epic film about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table set in 400 A.D. Britain.

In his brief movie career, Snoop Dogg has played a tortured ghost ("Bones"), a paraplegic crack dealer ("Training Day") and a disco-era street informer ("Starsky and Hutch"). But it's his latest role as Captain Mack, the laid-back pilot of a metallic purple airplane with its own dance club, DJ, and bathroom attendant that the rapper-turned-actor believes he was born to play. "If I had a twin brother, that's who he would be," he says of his character in "Soul Plane," a comedy that opens tomorrow.

Somewhere in the midst of the smog-shrouded, color-saturated orgy of retribution that is Man on Fire, Denzel Washington - playing a drunk, has-been mercenary hired to protect a rich girl from kidnappers - offers up the line, "Revenge is a meal best served cold. " This is, of course, the same sage maxim (with minor alterations) that appears onscreen at the outset of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Tony Scott - who directed a Tarantino script once, True Romance - is clearly on to something.

He is the funny man, cracking jokes and playfully picking on younger teammates. And now that his broken foot finally has healed, Hollis Thomas is back with a vengeance, on and off the field. The 29-year-old will rotate at defensive tackle with Darwin Walker tomorrow when the 1-2 Eagles host the 3-1 Redskins at Lincoln Financial Field. Thomas is 55 pounds lighter than in 2001, when he first got injured, and defensive coordinator Jim Johnson said this week that Thomas' leaner build has helped him become a better run-stopper.