SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

inspectors71 Somewhere along the way I picked up the trivia that LAPD officers refer to their cruisers as "shops." This comes from the "shop number" each vehicle carries. No big message here--just a bit of trivia.Which is where I stand on Rampart, a dreary, artsy retread of Crash and a bunch of Wambaugh police stories, not to mention my favorite "burnt-out cop" movies, Madigan, Warning Shot, and, speaking of Joseph Wambaugh, The New Centurions. There's nothing new here, except, maybe the fact that the movies I mentioned all have protagonists who have some redeeming social value. Even Kurt Russell in that cops-are-racist-murderers screed (I can't remember the name) set in the Rodney King spring of 1992 had some shock and awe value.Nothing here. Just Woody Harrelson looking dyspeptic and cancerous and other-worldly. Throw in Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon as sisters who have both been married to this wretched Harrelson character, and you've got the makings of a really Class-A cinematic disaster. I saw on the IMDb page for Rampart that the thing made about 1/12 of the cost, but it's all so earnest and true-to-life and artsy- friggin'-fartsy that only a red-state Neanderthal would mention that the movie made zilch, thereby sucking investor-dollars away from projects that may have had a chance to succeed.If you hadn't already noticed, I hate Woody Harrelson and indie- flop-piles-of-art-garbage. If Hollywood, mainstream or independent, wants to play with its collective self, then do it at home. It won't cost investors a dime, and ego-masturbation should be kept to a minimum of public viewing.If you see Rampart on a cable channel, follow the clichéd advice from many a movie cop--"Move along; nothing to see here!"

suite92 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.

doug_park2001 Well-acted and well-filmed, "Rampart" is an interesting character study of a corrupt scumbag cop. Its strongest point is that Brown (Harrelson)is far from being a totally stereotypical scumbag cop. I really enjoyed hating him at the beginning, and never exactly came to like him, but this film truly shows how Brown means well, or at least thinks he does, and allows the audience to empathize and maybe even sympathize with him enough to keep "Rampart" from being totally forgettable.Otherwise, I concur with many of the other reviews here. Despite a compelling opening scene, the so-called plot of this film meanders and is very unfulfilling. It might have worked better if Brown had not been placed in semi-suspension from the police force so early in the film and we could see him in action a little more before all the politics and soap operas begin.

cmoyton What is it with contemporary film makers. To disguise a lack of coherent script they try to mask this with jumps cuts, fancy camera work and contrived ie unnatural colour palettes. Through in whatever todays hip music is for the score and hey presto you have Drive - well almost. Rampart in terms of shallowness the baby bother of Drive.Set at a time when the LAPD was embroiled in controversy Harrelsons cop is a one man public relations disaster the force could do without. Thus the film title is a misnomer as it has nothing to do at all with the Rampart division. His character is an ugly amalgamation of Keitels Bad Lieutenent and Geres Dennnis Peck. Good characters to plagiarise. But what is lacking is tension , excitement or any cutting edge evident in Internal Affairs or Bad Lieutenant. Rampart is snail paced, dreary and fails to hold the viewers attention. A real struggle to stay alert until the end only to be infuriated by yet another non ending.