Rampart (2011) User Reviews

He hates everyone equally, so it's OK

[ferguson-6 · 6/10 · 8 February 2012]

Greetings again from the darkness. Dirty cops happen in real life sometimes and in the movies quite often. It can be an intriguing subject to explore ... psychological demons, ego, power-mongering, etc. Typically we see it presented as a cop torn between doing the right thing and feeling like he is owed something. Rarely do we see a cop portrayed as beyond hope ... so far gone morally that redemption is no longer even a possibility.

Writer James Ellroy (LA Confidential) and director Oren Moverman (The Messenger) present to us Officer Dave Brown, known to his fellow cops (and even his daughter) as "Date Rape" Dave. The moniker stems from a vice incident where Brown dished out street justice to a serial date rapist. With no proof of his guilt, Brown remained on the force and his rogue manner has escalated to the point where he is a constant danger to himself and others. This guy has no moral filter for everyday living.

Officer Brown is played with searing intensity by a Woody Harrelson you have never before seen. As loathsome a character as you will ever find, you cannot take your eyes off of him. He is hated by EVERYONE! Somehow he has daughters by two sisters and they all live together in a messed up commune where hate is the secret word of the day, every day. Most of the time no one speaks to Dave except to tell him to "get out". He spends his off hours drinking, smoking, doing drugs and having meaningless sex. Heck, that's just about how he spends his time while on duty as well.

The supporting cast is phenomenal, though most aren't given but a scene or two. This includes Robin Wright (who nearly matches Dave in the tortured soul department), Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Ice Cube, and Steve Buscemi. The first hour feels like an Actor's Retreat as most every scene introduces another familiar face.

Still, as terrific as Harrelson is, and as deep as the cast is, the film is just too one note and downbeat and hopeless to captivate a viewer. I also found some of Moverman's camera work to be quite distracting and the sex club scene was pure overkill. Downward spiral is much too neutral a term to describe this character and ultimately, that prevents the film from delivering any type of message.

'Bear in mind that I am not a racist. Fact is, I hate all people equally.'

[gradyharp · 5/10 · 16 May 2012]

This film would be almost intolerable were it not for the fact that it is based on incidents that happened in 1999 in the Rampart Division of the LAPD, incidents still unresolved. Writer James Ellroy examined the corruption of the police force and came up with this quasi-true story. According to Ellroy, 'I am a master of fiction. I am also the greatest crime writer who ever lived. I am to the crime novel in specific what Leo Tolstoy is to the Russian novel and what Ludwig van Beethoven is to music.' What happens on the screen in this film is best viewed with a bit of Xanax on board along with an anti-nausea medication. Oren Moverman co-wrote the screenplay and directs.

David Douglas Brown (Woody Harrelson in a one man powerhouse of a performance) is a veteran Los Angeles police officer, one of the last of the renegade cops who works out of the Rampart Division. Dave is misogynistic, racist, brutally violent, egotistical womanizer, yet he defends himself against many of these accusations as he says that his hate is equal opportunity. Though unlawful, he uses intimidation and brutal force to defend his worldview. The most notorious of his actions is his purportedly murdering a suspected serial date rapist, which is why he has been given the nickname "Date Rape Dave". He lives with two of his ex- wives - sisters Barbara (Cynthia Nixon) and Catherine (Anne Heche) - in an effort to keep family together, namely his two daughters, Helen and Margaret, who each have a different sister as their mother. Dave still maintains a sexual relationship with both sisters - whenever the mood suits any of them - while he openly has other sexual relationships with the likes of Sarah (Audra McDonald) and Linda (Robin Wright). His informer is retired officer Hartshorn (Ned Beatty) and street person General Terry (Ben Foster). His boss is Joan Confrey (Sigourney Weaver) who attempts to cover Dave's past deeds but ultimately must face the true rascallion he is. When Dave is caught on video brutally beating a man who accidentally ran into his police car he is faced with decisions that uncover not only his misdeeds but those of his fellow workers.

The cast is filled with fine support (Jon Foster, Ice Cube, Steve Buscemi, et al) who have very little to do, but Harrelson is in every frame obnoxiously smoking cigarettes in a chain smoker fashion. There is not real storyline to follow; we just are forced to watch the wretched life of a disgustingly bad cop with just enough slightly good virtues to keep us with him. As Catherine states, 'You know what I think? I think you were a dirty cop from day one. You were a dirty cop with a dirty mind and you dirtied all of us up by default.' And that includes the audience.

Grady Harp

Harrelson Good...Wish Movie Were Better.

[mbs · 5/10 · 1 March 2012]

Always watchable largely thanks to Harrelson--he's really quite good---but never quite believable film tracks a couple days in the life of a not exactly dirty, but not exactly clean cop. To my mind, Harrelson's character isn't exactly dirty--we never witness him taking bribes, or stealing money, or looking the other way--he's just way overzealous in his pursuit of bad guys--actually scratch that--something happens at the mid-point that actually changes part of that last statement--but he still remains a clean(ish) cop trying to do right by society, even guys he claims to hate--he tries to give a fair shake to. Its that overzealousness that lands him in trouble tho---he beats 2 people in the first ten minutes of the movie--but in both cases i think they were both understandably beatings given the circumstances. Meh whatever, film starts piling things on for Harrelson--having been caught with a cell phone cam beating up the 2nd guy (who was running away from him!) he's then put on suspension, and then he gets put under investigation which leads to...not a whole lot honestly.

Film is a very shaggy dog story---Not much really happens throughout the movie other then just watching Woody Harrelson walk around and talk tough---he tries to bond with his teenage daughter, he tries to make it right with his ex wives, he tries to figure out what Internal Affairs wants to hear so he can get his job back, and yeah that's about it really. I feel like the events of the end don't really add up to much, and the big climactic scene at the ending is well again not much of anything really. Film is basically a 70's Esq character study of this guy and his life that seems to be arbitrarily falling apart around him. That said, the film's well shot, its nicely acted and not just by Harrelson, the actress playing his teenage daughter i feel scores just as many points as Woody does in their handful of scenes together. There's enough here that you wish it was better instead of the mish-mash stew we got going on here. still its worth a look on cable should you stumble on it.

Was expecting more

[tmp93828 · 6/10 · 23 January 2012]

Regarded in the trailer as "one of the most corrupt cops ever on screen," Woody Harrelson's character was honestly underwhelming. The actor did an exceptional job portraying a dirty cop, but was no where near the capacity of evil as Denzel in Training Day or Damon in The Departed. His portrayal was very real which is a characteristic that Oren Moverman appears to gravitate to in his films and while Moverman, in his second theatrical film, does a good job, it is no where near what he achieved in his amazing debut The Messenger. Harrelson did a fine job but he also failed to achieve the same greatness that he displayed in The Messanger as well. Some of the talented character actors in the film like Ben Foster and Sigourney Weaver deliver solid performances but aren't on screen enough make any impact overall to the film. It's a film that due to it's original limited release will likely struggle at the box office and moviegoers aren't missing too much in the process. I enjoy dramatic movies more than any other genre, but I found this film bland and the characters for the most part only OK at best. The actors did a good job but not good enough to make the film a success. There was just no wow factor in this film, which anticipated the wow factor being Harrelson's villainous performance. I'd give it a C in large part due to a broad and bland plot which could've been much better.

Possibly Woody Harrelson's best performance

[Arit · 17 September 2011]

This is another collaboration of Oren Moverman, Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster after their terrific direction and performances in The Messenger, but Woody is not a somewhat goofy foil to Ben Foster anymore. If you didn't think you saw the full potential of Woody in The Messenger, then you may have a redemption in Rampart, as he plays an all out brutal and uncompromising cop. Ben Foster, on the other hand, bows down to take a less stellar role here; I didn't realize who was playing his part until I saw a few close-ups of the character, but his chemistry with Woody is mostly intact and there is some important dialog between these two. It's just, this is clearly Woody's vehicle, and nobody even comes close to his driver's seat.

Woody's Dave Brown makes his relentless attitude apparent early, when he's bent on grilling a young female cop for ordering excess food that she has no intention to consume. It's only the beginning of his alienation from every woman in his life, though. He treads on a self-destructive route as he eats, vomits, and ruts like a complete beast under a little influence. Near the end we're reminded that he is only a human after all, and that's when we also realize he probably hasn't raised a hand against a woman once. A beast with a heart - an oxymoron only experienced actors can make believable.

Part "Dirty Harry" part "Training Day". Not a bad movie at all but nothing really original either. Worth seeing though. I say B+

[cosmo_tiger · 7/10 · 18 April 2012]

"I was under attack, I went after the suspect. End of story." Dave Brown (Harrelson) is an LAPD officer that who does things his own way. After he is caught on tape brutally beating someone after they hit his car his career is in jeopardy. While trying to defend himself against the charge an old alleged crime of his comes back up. This is a really good movie. The big problem is that it is again nothing really original. He acts the way "Dirty Harry" acts but has the morals of Denzel Washington in "Training Day". The movie has an all-star cast and the acting is fantastic. Harrelson especially is great in this in a very layered performance. He covers everything in this role; brutality, being a smart-ass, father in a very dysfunctional family as well as womanizer. This is a great role for him and the movie is very much worth watching. Again, though the only problem is that it seems like this movie has been done to death. Overall, nothing new but still good. I recommend this. I give it a B+.

Never takes off.

[buypluto · 4/10 · 29 November 2011]

This star studded movie just never takes off. It is slow and never builds up to anything. When you think it is going to get good it falls flat and just drags on. There are scenes, like the sex club, that just make no sense and you have to wonder why it was put in the movie. Sex is a theme and that can only be my guess as to why.

Would have been great to develop more of the characters instead of having them in the movie to just have them. Ice Cube was great, but only has a few scenes. You wont realize who Ben Foster is until you read the credits.

Spoiler The ending is horrible. If I was at the screening I would have booed. After an hour the movie could have ended and I was like are they ever gonna wrap this up. The story is horrible, though the actors are great and that is what the other reviews touch on. GREAT actors, horrible movie.

Sympathy for a dirty cop?

[KineticSeoul · 7/10 · 28 January 2013]

Usually when it comes to dirty cops, most people end up detesting them. But this goes in another direction where it sorta builds a slight sympathy for the dirty cop named Dave Brown(Woody Harrelson). Maybe because he only tries to hurt the bad guys and isn't in it for the dirty money nor does he physically hurts women. Even if he is a "power tripping, racist, sexist, arrogant schemer, and chauvinistic cop". He even probably cheated on his wife and he cheats on his taxes. In fact he is such a prick that even the LAPD force wants nothing to do with him and wants him buried. The thing is the whole direction and dialogue is mesmerizing, especially seeing how a dirty cop that isn't all sadistic and evil struggle to keep his family and his badge. Woody Harrelson is just great in this and his performance is captivating to watch. He does a great job of playing the detestable and hypocritical cop that is also methodical and yet his acting makes me have slight sympathy for his character. When he starts to fall apart after his brutality is caught on tape. If you enjoy dirty cop movies this is one of the good ones.

7.8/10

Good Start To a TV Drama - Waste Of Time As a Film

[jwhimster · 4/10 · 20 March 2012]

All four stars are for the cast. It's not their fault this movie is awful.

Harrelson is great. He's an engaging actor, totally believable. It's a shame the script isn't.

Harrelson plays a brutal, murderous cop who is caught beating down a black guy in the street. Yet his home life is ultra liberal, he lives with two sisters, with whom he's had two kids during separate relationships. One of his daughters is pushing boundaries yet Woody doesn't seem to challenge this, one of the sisters is an artist, again not exactly fitting in with the hard-line discipline Harrelson is dishing out on the street. He's immediately defined as a sexist, racist homophobe, yet we're asked to believe that he's knocked up two intelligent, lefty sisters, who are still willing to accommodate him in their lives, and indeed home, despite his lifetime of indiscretions and violence and that he's managed to split this work and home life without a significant issue developing through the life of the girls (the eldest of who is mid teens at least). The family dynamic could have been interesting but it wasn't explored at all really, it just got crammed in and thus didn't fit with the character at all.

The supporting cast is really strong and the acting is solid throughout but not one of the plots get developed and not one aspect reaches a conclusion. Obviously, this was done on purpose but if I pay to see a film, I want to see the whole ****ing film, not just half a story! Buscemi has about three lines. Ice Cube, who I rate highly, has a handful of scenes as an internal investigator, all of which are well enough constructed but end without any resolution. Robin Wright is great, foxy as ****, but again, other than to identify Harrelson as a paranoid womaniser, we get nothing back. Anne Henche and Cynthia Nixon play his former partners and both are well played again but they're just sketches of characters, as is Sigourney Weaver, also restricted to about 3 minutes of screen time.

Basically, it feels like the first, long, episode in a made for TV series. If that was the case, I'd certainly watch more because there is a lot there and the on screen talent is superb but as a stand alone film it's a massive let down and it goes absolutely nowhere at the end of 2 hours.

Oh, and the sex club scene is particularly pointless, if any such scene can be. It just seems like a random bit of editing that has shoved a half idea into an already over-stretched concept.

Dirty Harry Unplugged.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 14 December 2015]

It doesn't sound too promising -- Woody Harrelson as a veteran of the LAPD who once shot a date rapist and now, years later, seems to be scapegoated by the division because of an unfolding scandal. Somebody has to go and Internal Affairs is out to see that somebody does.

It sounds like another LAPD shoot-'em-up with a bloodbath every ten minutes but it's not. No shots have been fired, and no explosions have occurred. There's not even a high speed pursuit by cars, planes, boats, trains, or bicycles.

Instead Harrelson, in a very nicely textured performance, his head stylishly shaved bald, is presented as a tough and embittered cop whose social life is a fetid swamp of pathos. He appears to have two wives (or girl friends or sisters) or maybe three. Each makes an occasional appearance in his life but he screws up the bond one way or another.

One of the ways is that he extorts over-the-counter leapers and sleepers from a pharmacist. Another way is that he seems to sip from a pint of booze as he drives around the city alone in his black-and-white. He makes absurd demands of people and when they don't play his game he becomes furious.

All of the performances are good, particularly those whose relationship with Harrelson is ambivalent, and who find themselves trapped in an approach/avoidance conflict.

But Harrelson, hung over, sweaty, falling down drunk, could probably carry the film by himself.

He's given a great deal of help by the director Oren Moverman who lends the images a slightly arty effect, sometimes a little too arty. Woody drives in despair through the night and the camera gives us a nice close up of his ear, silhouetted by the headlights of the cars behind him. Oh, yes -- his left ear. But at other time he trusts the viewer enough to figure out what's happening off screen. The location shooting is fine too, capturing the shimmering heat of Los Angeles' streets, the sunshine and smog.

There is no redemption at the end, either, and I kind of liked that. It's a good evocation of despair. The screenplay originated with James Ellroy, whose values you may or may not like. I don't. He's said in interviews that the police should be given free rein on the streets and not interfered with by the suits. His sympathies probably lay with this Dirty Harry character rather than with the division's attempt to clean itself up.

Unbelievable how BAD this movie is

[Mustang92 · 1/10 · 30 December 2011]

Where do I start??

Story Line & Story Logic:

1) I don't know about police in other cities, but here in Los Angeles (and most likely every major city in the U.S.), cops do NOT drive around policing their neighborhood beat by themselves -- there is ALWAYS two cops per car. Standard LAPD protocol, and is also a safety issue working the beat for the cops. Yet, in this movie, the cop working the beat out of the Rampart Division -- a notoriously dangerous/difficult part of LA -- works the beat by himself. Bullsh*t. Wouldn't happen, and didn't happen in 1999, when this movie takes place.

The movie starts out with the cop (Harrelson) teaching a newbie, who's driving with him, but that storyline is gone after the first 8 minutes or so of the movie. (And is an entirely pointless part of the story, other than to show this cop is a sexist.)

2) After he's caught beating the crap out of someone he was chasing, on camera, he is NOT removed from his beat, but stays on working his beat. (Or maybe he's removed for a little while, but is then back on the beat 20+ minutes later, with no explanation as to why he's back on the beat.) Sorry, filmmaker/Director/Writer of this horrible movie, but why is he back on the beat? Would NEVER happen. He would be suspended, with or without pay, but would not be back on the street until everything is entirely resolved. What LAPD brass -- in reality -- would ever allow a cop back on the street beat after a firestorm of protests, media, etc? Did the cops caught beating Rodney King (8 years prior to this film's timeline) go back on the street right after? NO. It's also a safety issue for the cop, and a race relations issue for the City, too.

Why do the filmmakers defy story logic, or even basic LAPD procedures like this? Are they that moronic in their storytelling? Apparently so.

3) Why call this movie "Rampart"? What's the point? This movie has nothing to do with the Rampart/LAPD scandal of the late '90s. Nothing. Even the backstory of the Rampart scandal has virtually nothing to do with this film's storyline. It appears as though the filmmakers are just "trading" on the Rampart name, and thus misleading prospective movie-goers that this will be about the LAPD & the Rampart scandal.

Few people outside of LA know anything about "Rampart," so this name means nothing to them and is pointless. The story is about a corrupt cop, period. It has nothing to do with any particular area of LA, and ultimately just adds tarnish to a part of LA.

The Movie Overall: I can not, could not, find one redeeming thing about this train wreck of a film. It's boring, it's redundant, it defies logical sense and typical police department procedures.

Here's an example of the redundant nature: Sometime after the midpoint of the film, Harrelson begins to show paranoia. Okay, so presumably the director wanted to show him sinking mentally. Fine. A couple scenes is plenty. Why show scene after scene after scene of him being paranoid, when that's the only purpose of those scenes? We got it, let's get on with the story. Oh... but there is no real story, that's the main problem with this film. Another reviewer said this film was like watching paint dry. That reviewer was too kind.

Here's an example of something else that would never happen with the LAPD: Late in the film, Harrelson is running out of money for his attorneys defending him (over his Rodney King-style beating), so he's going to bust up a neighborhood high-stakes poker game and steal their money. He's now nearby, by himself, and in uniform with his police car (remember, he's inexplicably still able to work his beat while under investigation for police misconduct/brutality). How is he going to "legitimately" bust up a poker game by himself with no backup? NEVER would happen. Even a corrupt cop couldn't do this and get away with it. Not in any major city in the U.S. For one thing, Vice would be involved, and secondly, no bust would be attempted without numerous officers. A single cop wouldn't/couldn't EVEN get the authority from his superiors to enter by himself.

So what happens? Instead of the director having to go through with this incredibly unrealistic storyline, he has 2 armed thugs show up and rob the game, with Harrelson looking on. (They were not in "partnership" with Harrelson, although that approach in the story would have been more plausible.) The thugs run out, and one of the poker players runs out chasing after the armed thugs. (Yeah, riiiight... an unarmed poker player is going to chase armed thugs down the street....) So Harrelson runs after them all, shooting & killing the innocent poker player and wounding one of the robbers. He then tells the wounded robber to take some of the money out of the robber's bag for himself and split, and then plants a gun in the innocent poker player's hand. So if we didn't think Harrelson was bad enough at this point, we can now dislike him even more.

This movie is a COMPLETE MESS, with no real story, just a bunch of scenes strung together with the same sh*t happening in every scene. There's an attempt to show that Harrelson is old LAPD and the department is changing, but this is NOT a developed storyline. How did the Director/Writer even get financing for this piece of crap?? I'll tell ya this: The movie will make no money when it's released (supposedly in January), and if this Director wants a career as a Director, he'd better learn how direct and tell a cogent story.

Follow a dirty Rampart cop on his way down.

[suite92 · 8/10 · 19 December 2013]

Los Angeles, 1999.

At lunch, David and Dan give the new rookie Jane a pep talk of sorts about being in the LAPD. Jane asks about the scandal. Something's gone wrong, the DA is pressured to prosecute someone in LAPD, but he would rather not. More details later; this is central to the movie. Then David and Jane go on routine maneuvers. Much of the detail is about different nationalities of illegal aliens, together with the Siamese twin issue of the massive illegal drug industry.

David's home life is a bit different. He married one woman, Barbara. They broke up, then he married her sister, Catherine. He sired a daughter with each, Helen and Margaret. Both families live with him. Just to top things off, when both wives deny him, he's quite comfortable with picking up hot women at bars.

After an incident with a man who rammed his car, Dave is asked to retire. He makes it clear that he has not intention of doing this. The pressures against him mount. He retains counsel. He uses his contacts to try to find out the real motivations behind what's hitting him. One of the chief of these contacts is Hartshorn, who finally gives up on him.

His wives and daughters all desert him, kick him out of the house he pays for, send him their rivers of hate. Internal affairs is closing in.

Will Dave find a reasonable way through the mess he is in? -----Scores------

Cinematography: 9/10 Usually excellent.

Sound: 9/10 No problems.

Acting: 10/10 Well done to: Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson, and Ned Beatty.

Screenplay: 7/10 Looked like it needed another 30 minutes to close the loops, but decided to leave things hanging. What happens to Dave and the rookie, or Dave and Dan, or the larger corruption investigation? Did Hart recover? There were lots of loose ends. Still, the story of Dave moved forward relentlessly.

Rampart

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 22 November 2012]

I saw clips of this film when it was reviewed on a television programme, and I assumed it was going to be a cop going against the law he is meant to be a part of and doing evil, it was hardly that at all, but nevertheless I gave it a chance. Basically, set in 1999, in Los Angeles police officer David Douglas Brown (Woody Harrelson) works as part of the Rampart Division, and he has a lot of bad habits, being racist, bigoted, misogynist, egotistical, brutally violent and womanising, but he defends himself saying that he has equal hatred for all people who have accused him for his behaviour. He has been nicknamed "Date Rape Dave" because he managed to get away with the murder of a suspected serial date rapist; this is the most notorious of his actions. Dave does want to keep what family he has, specifically his two daughters Helen (Brie Larson) and Margaret (Sammy Boyarsky) mothered by the two ex-wives he lives with, sisters Barbara (Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon) and Catherine (Anne Heche), and he still maintains a sexual relationship with both of them. He actions gain attention however when he is caught on camera brutally beating a person who came out of a car crash that hit his police vehicle and the police department is put under the microscope as well because of the Rampart scandal. Then there is the discovery of a scandal Dave is involved with where he present or helped with a grocery store holdup, and all these things found out he shows no sign of remorse, but he has to figure out how these things are coming out and protect what he has, but in the end Dave cannot escape it. Also starring Ben Foster as General Terry, Ice Cube as Kyle Timkins, Sigourney Weaver as Joan Confrey, Robin Wright as Linda Fentress, Steve Buscemi as Bill Blago, Jon Bernthal as Dan Morone and Ned Beatty as Hartshorn. Harrelson I suppose gives a performance worth watching in parts, and the well-known stars in amongst the cast do their parts fine, I will be honest that I was disappointed that it wasn't what I hoped it would be, about a bad cop getting with murder or whatever, but I suppose some of it was interesting enough, it's an alright crime drama. Good, in my opinion!

Don't Waste Your Time

[craigslisttrans · 2/10 · 1 December 2011]

Do you know when you see a movie that you have read great reviews about and then you watch it and ask yourself "how can they call that a good movie?", this is it. Great actors who do a great job but this movie never goes anywhere. The only people who would call this movie great are the people who pretend to be artsy film experts. I can't believe they would waste all these talented actors on a movie with no ending. I can't really think of a movie to compare it to but one comes to mind although I liked it better - No Country For Old Men. Remember when you watched it and Josh Brolin was apparently killed but they never show it. Remember thinking how much you didn't like that? Well this movie kind of leaves that "It would be nice if they finished it" taste in your mouth. Maybe Woody would will an Oscar because of the artsy type feel of the movie, but the movie should win a Rotten Tomatoes award.

Great Performances Make Film

[Michael_Elliott · 5 March 2012]

Rampart (2011)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Woody Harrelson gives a tour de force performance playing David Brown, one of the last dirty cops still working for the LAPA in 1999. He's a dirty cop who doesn't seem to realize he is one. He was once married to two different women, sisters, and now he tries to keep them and their kids in the same house so that they can live the way a "family" is supposed to yet he doesn't realize that a good family life isn't by having kids with two sisters. Brown finally gets in over his head when he's filmed beating a man and this sets off a range of events that leave him spinning out of control. RAMPART, written by James Ellroy and director Oren Moverman, doesn't tell a straight crime story but instead it really looks at a bad man and tries to explain why he's bad. I think the bottom line is that the film is simply trying to say that there are bad people out there who are just bad all the way around and it doesn't have to be for lust, money or fame. While I do question some of the directorial choices and I think a little more focus would have helped, the main reason to check this film out is for the wonderful performances from the all-star cast. Sigourney Weaver plays a DA tired of a cop thinking he can get away with anything. Cynthia Nixon and Anne Heche are good as the ex-wives. You have Robin Wright turning in a very effective performance as a mysterious woman who enters the cops life. Ice Cube is effective in his few scenes as is Ben Foster playing a crippled vet. We even get Steve Buscemi and Ned Beatty in small but effective roles. Of course, the entire cast centers around the performance of Harrelson and this is certainly yet more proof that when given the right material he can be one of the most raw and effective actors out there. Harrelson is so effective no matter if he's just listening or speaking because you can just look at him and see all the rage and emotion built up. I really thought the actor did a remarkable job at letting the slime slip out of this character without making him a flat out creep or going so over-the-top where you feel like you're watching someone fake. I won't spoil the ending but it's certainly one that makes you think about the events you've just seen. RAMPART isn't a flawless movie but the performances are so strong that it's highly recommended.

Another good movie delivered by Mr. Harrelson

[foxtografo · 7/10 · 10 May 2014]

This movie is one of those for when you're in the mood to spend some time to understand what the director wanted to show and give it an after thought. It's slow paced, with a lot of creative photography content. It gets the spectator into the everyday of the character (that by the way, it's really good portrayed by Harrelson) and his twisted life. Is not an action or straight forward movie, is more a character development movie, and doesn't explain or show explicitly everything that is or will happen, just gives you the clues (that are many) to figure it out. Regarding of the open ending (I have read that many didn't like), if you think about what happened along the movie, you know what happens with the characters in the end, it's just adding up everything is been coming.

Good photography, average story, good writing, very good acting. Worths the watch, again, if you're in the mood.

This One Is All In The Acting

[damianphelps · 7/10 · 19 July 2021]

Woody smashes this performance like its a suspect.

He is truly epic.

The film is dark and pretty heavy and the character is largely unappealing but watching Woody deliver is something else.

I am a fan, its nice to watch something with a bit of teeth and not wearing a cape!

Harrelson's great but Rampart goes nowhere

[wewatchedamovie1 · 5/10 · 15 September 2012]

Woody Harrelson plays a corrupt cop named "Date Rape" Dave (and for those of you still reading, we continue) who got the moniker not from doing so but rather for allegedly killing someone who did. He also lives in something one can only call a "situation" in which he married sisters (both at different times) had kids with each, divorced each and now insists that they all live under the same two roofs in homes right next to each-other. This leads to an awkward moment in which his daughter actually asks if their family is incest. Dave is also a cop that really likes to beat people down. Not just anyone mind you, everyone. Because he is not racist, he simply hates everyone.

The whole story focuses on Dave trying to beat a charge of victim abuse when a camera catches him beating the daylights out of a perpetrator that hit his car. All the while we watch Dave womanize, take drugs, smoke about two million cigarettes and try to get his two families to love him despite his disturbing life choices.

Despite the disgusting things his character does Harrelson actually makes you feel bad for him in a few fleeting moments. All the while you know he deserves everything he gets and more but it's hard to hate him when he is watching television with his youngest daughter and cannot stop smiling at the thought of her wanting to be near him. The film is also packed with small roles by big names like Steve Buscemi and Sigourney Weaver who spice up the film but don't really add anything memorable.

Harrelson makes the film watchable with an amazing performance and like a train wreck, is hard to take your eyes off. Unfortunately, Rampart is a gritty character study that is more repetition than self discovery. See Dave womanize, disgust his family, say shocking things, beat someone up, get wasted, freak out, rinse and repeat. He gets deeper into trouble with his family and career with each endeavor and never really learns anything from it. By the films end you realize Rampart suffers the same fate as Dave in that it's not going to change its ways and is ultimately headed nowhere. 5/10

A cop-out.

[axlrhodes · 7/10 · 22 July 2012]

If i were evaluating Rampart on performances alone, then we might be discussing a potential film of the year. Unfortunately in this case, it's one of those frustrating experiences that offers so much, yet delivers scant little. Woody Harrelson turns in a career best portrayal as a dirty, stubborn cop in late 1990′s post Rodney King Los Angeles. The film follows his character 'Date Rape Dave', a bigoted, egotistical, misogynistic, womanising bully and how amidst everything he loves going down the proverbial toilet, stays true and faithful in his dedication to being a grade A, morally bankrupt ass. It's here that the film fails Harrelson. As his family, as well as his colleagues gradually turn against him, there are attempts at moments of pathos however it's hard to feel much sympathy leaving the intended emotional scenes, although well acted, as cold and numbing to the viewer as 'Date Rape Dave's' estranged loved ones feel towards him. Some of the direction is good, then at times a little more wayward. The supporting cast are superb, Ned Beatty, Sigourney Weaver and Robin Wright all pitch up solid turns deserving of a better film constructed around them. This is a film that tries to get inside the head of a man who knows what he is and refuses to change but in the end, there is nothing learned and little to draw on other than fine acting. Not a terrible film, but not a terribly good one neither. In short, something of a cop-out. 2/5

Just awful

[jbearheart · 2/10 · 6 December 2011]

I very, very rarely take time to write a review unless I feel totally moved to do so be the movie good bad or indifferent. In this case, bad is my motivating factor and disbelief that this thing realizes an average review rating of 6.3 just blows me away. This movie is so undirected and lacking in anything resembling a focused story line that you end up wanting to tear your hair out from sheer frustration. The movie is so convoluted it is nearly impossible to follow the story line, let alone the intent and every movie must have intent or it shouldn't be a movie. This thing is all over the place with adjunct lines that just throw the entire movie into a nether world. Complete waste of time unless you really like spending time trying to follow completely disjointed story lines with no meaningful objective. Awful movie.

When a bad man is bad...he's bad.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 17 November 2012]

Credit James Elroy and Oren Moverman for writing this movie about an LAPD officer than delivers justice...his way. David Brown(Woody Harrelson)lives hard, loves hard and works even harder; although he appears to really enjoy making his own rules to be held up to. RAMPART is about dysfunctional relationships, morals that are in doubt and harsh misdirection. The LAPD's Rampart Division is being looked at real hard for having the street rep of cops taking care of business a bit too rough and not exactly straight and fair. When dirty cop Brown is caught on video beating the daylights out of a citizen, he becomes front and center of a corruption scandal. Brown believes he is just trying to take care of an unusual living arrangement; in actuality he is arrogant, brutal, ruthless and sometimes just inhuman. Acting and casting are top notch. Harrelson is outstanding. Others in the cast of note: Ben Foster, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Steve Buscemi and Sigourney Weaver.

Pretty much a mess of a movie

[Mccadoo · 3/10 · 18 May 2021]

I know what the writer and director were trying to do here but they were way wide of the mark.

This is a supposed character study of a bad cop and a bad man in the LA of the 90's. The problem is that the character in question, played well by Woody Harrelson, is completely static throughout the movie. The story doesn't show him becoming corrupt or descending into lawlessness...he's already those things at the beginning of the story. The movie just shows those things catching up to him. And judging by his character the viewer has to wonder why it didn't happen much sooner because he is about a subtle as a steamroller.

Harrelson's character is irredeemable, unlikable, unsympathetic and almost unwatchable. You don't care about him or, other than his youngest daughter, anyone else in his life. I'm not sure what the story with the two women he lived with was, I think one was his ex-wife. I'm not sure about the other one but they were both almost as unlikable as he was. They were annoying and grating and irritating and completely unwatchable. I find Cynthia Nixon to be all of those things in anything she appears in so I may be a bit biased on this point. Still, his home life was portrayed as being as much a mess as the rest of his life and you end up reacting negatively to the entire scenario. You also wonder why these two woman had anything to do with him in the first place and find it very hard to care about them for choosing to even be there. The fact that they're both incredibly annoying doesn't really help either.

In the end what you have is a dull, slow moving movie about a terrible human being who happens to be a cop. He's a terrible human being at the start and is a terrible human being at the end. In between you just get to watch him being a terrible human being and a bad cop and that's pretty much the entire movie. And then it just ends, almost as if they ran out of money or Harrelson had other film commitments and had to move on. If you're in the mood to be annoyed, depressed and bored by a movie all at the same time this is definitely the film for you. Otherwise steer well clear of this mess.

Criminally underrated - a dark, honest piece of cinema.

[jamesmartin1995 · 9/10 · 16 August 2012]

LAPD veteran Dave Brown is a vile, disgusting man. He is a sexist, racist, womaniser, drunkard, dirty cop and patent homophobe. This, incidentally, is not my judgement of him, but that of his own daughter. It's pretty accurate. How much does that tell you?

Co-written by James Ellroy and starring Woody Harrelson in the main role, 'Rampart' serves both as compelling crime melodrama and scorching character study. When we first meet Brown (the Harrelson character), we take an immediate dislike to him. He stinks of corruption and arrogance; he is a control freak, whose selfishness and cynicism damage and infect all those around him. He has two daughters by two different women (both sisters, as chance would have it); despite the fact that his adultery is an almost nightly occurrence, he insists on living together with the two women and their respective children, to 'keep the family' intact. The pain and despair this has caused is devastating.

Yet this is a man quite capable of charisma, and perhaps in the crudest sense possible, charm. He can, after all, be seductive; in a brilliant early scene, we see him pick up a woman at his local bar; first conversation, then sex. His target is sensible, and perhaps looking for a good time, a friend, maybe even a relationship. Her questions are amicable and fair. The disappointment after that vacuous act later on is captured with incredible insight and realism by the filmmaker.

Dave's behaviour is often puerile and savage; the weight of the law begins to force itself upon him when he is caught on camera almost beating a man to death after the latter crashed his vehicle into Dave's police car. The extent of his obstinacy and self-delusion is mind blowing; an amazing piece of cinematography, in which the camera swings round in a circle, abruptly cutting between Dave and his superiors during a heated discussion on the subject of his brutality, emphasises the illogical but never-ending egoism and suppressed insecurity that drive him.

Sex, as in most works with Ellroy's name attached, plays a huge role. At first, we think Dave is just producing excess testosterone, or is simply a chauvinistic pig by nature. But we soon realise there is something desperate about his constant affairs, about his insatiable need to control and assert his authority. Perhaps to confirm his masculinity, or escape his problems. Certainly, the brief relationship he strikes up with a lawyer, as confused and desperate as he is in many ways, sheds much light on Dave's character.

I've seen it argued that Dave is completely immoral in other reviews. This isn't true. He may have ruined the lives of his family, and everyone he has come into contact with, but he does come to realise that. Too long he has spent running away from his responsibilities; at least on the job, he can fall back on the tired, formal jargon that has etched itself on his brain. But what about his children?

I think it would be unfair to give any more specifics on the plot. Technically, this movie is something special: intimately filmed, with heavy usage of artificial lighting (neon red, in particular, is used to great effect), and a handful of brilliant sequences – including but by no means limited to an excursion into an underground bar where easy sex pervades the air. This is where we begin to see Dave at his most desperate and

'Rampart' is a formidable movie about a man well past his sell-by-date, whose brutality, closed-mindedness, insecurity and immaturity have destroyed any chance of happiness he might ever have had, and may well have destroyed the same thing for those nearest to him. There is a heartbreaking sequence near the end where, for the first time, Dave tries to speak to his children honestly, in hope of salvaging his relationship with them. It is a film about despair, about a corrupt society that has moulded a man whose failures and flaws are killing him from the inside out, without mercy. His own childhood is left deliberately ambiguous, but his father, another corrupt cop, seems to have been his role model. Thus the corruption and destruction seems to be continuing through the generations in ripples and circles.

The possibility of redemption has certainly manifested itself by the end of the film. Hope has come, at least for Dave's family. As far as he is concerned, perhaps self-knowledge is the first step. The movie's final scene is a modification of the opening sequence, and we have to ask ourselves, can we see the change in Dave? There is no easy answer. There isn't meant to be.

Too many good and bad attributes to be an absolute; no middle ground.

[JohnRayPeterson · 6/10 · 4 December 2011]

Harrelson gives a great performance in a movie that is truly a fine example of character study as you'll ever see in a Hollywood movie. The cast is impressive and delivers performances at par with that of Woody's but all are either short or in a few scenes only; that of Ben Foster and Ned Beatty are such, short and few scenes. Take a second to peruse the cast names. It is an intense film and for those who have seen their share of French movies you will see how very similar the character study genre is reminiscent of French movies. There were too many actors I liked in "Rampart" to pass up the movie, besides, I have no aversion to character studies pieces so long as I'm in the right frame of mind; you can't and will not like this movie if you are not at ease with the genre and in the right frame of mind. Why? Because these types of movie are slow and when they do energize, it doesn't lead to a pay-off moment; it simply moves on with a degree of apparent disconnect.

I have read some excellent reviews of this movie, preceding my own, which reviews eloquently make a case for how good and how bad this movie was. Dave Brown, played by Harrelson, is in a dark moment of his life and his job as a cop, makes it that more complicated; the movie is entirely focused on his tribulations, so you must be very open to study of the human nature for this movie to interest you. Had the movie ended tragically with his suicide, I would have a positive view of my experience, just as I would, had there been an ending with his family pulling for him and giving him hope. The abrupt ending instead gives it what I like to call an 'artsy' touch; you have to fill in the blank and work your imagination like looking at an abstract painting. I don't care for 'artsy' all that much unless I'm consuming something that enhances dopamine production in my brain; I wasn't, so my rating of the movie will only rank mediocre.

Another corrupt cop stranded without a story

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 14 October 2014]

The recent run of Hollywood's "corrupt cop" movies seem to fall into two categories. There are those with great story lines which really draw the viewer into their world (like the surprisingly decent STREET KINGS) and those which show promise but move along aimlessly without a decent story (such as END OF WATCH). Unfortunately, RAMPART falls into the latter category.

The film features a gaunt Woody Harrelson as your garden-variety corrupt cop, given over to adultery, racism, misogyny and about another dozen 'isms' and 'ogynies' while you're at it. He's an intriguing character, but unfortunately he's mired in an all-too-familiar world in a storyline which never really goes anywhere, instead just plodding along until it finally finishes. It's all rather disappointing, leaving me thinking "well, was that it?" come the end. After all, it's not like it brings anything original or thought-provoking to the genre.

In addition, RAMPART also manages to waste a number of decent supporting actors who usually appear in just a scene or two. Sigourney Weaver, Ben Foster, and Steve Buscemi are three of the obvious ones who are underutilised, but Ned Beatty and THE WALKING DEAD's Jon Bernthal also deserve better than this. In the end, RAMPART becomes a depressingly humdrum cop movie, too obsessed with realism to be an entertaining movie in itself.