RAMPART: yet another bad cop doing bad things drama

RAMPART leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth.
It's not just the subject matter that's distasteful. It's the film itself.
It serves no useful purpose as a piece of storytelling or acting.
Neither cover any new ground and both have been better done. This tale of a corrupt old school LA cop spiraling out of control is an implausible mess.
Set in 1999, seven years after the acquittal of the Los Angeles cops charged in the infamous Rodney King beating sparked the LA riots, the film stars the always unappealing Woody Harrelson as racist, sexist, foul-mouthed, womanising police officer, David Brown.

His professional life goes into a tailspin after he's caught on an incredibly professional looking amateur video beating the crap out of a motorist who's collided with his patrol car. Brown refuses to quit and the LAPD - for some inexplicable reason - appear unable to fire him or even suspend him, so he's soon back out on patrol using his badge and uniform to bully and intimidate various members of the public unlucky enough to cross his path.
His personal life's faring little better with his two ex-wives (who just happen to be sisters) deciding they no longer want him living with them and using their homes as a hotel.
Dave makes half-hearted efforts to resolve his problems but, really, he's too set in his ways for there to be a positive outcome to his multiple dilemmas and frankly, by the midway point in the story I had lost interest in watching him try.
Watching a scumbag lacking even a single redeeming quality dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole entirely of his own making does not offer the viewer very much to identify or empathize with. Nor does RAMPART work as a character study since Harrelson and director Oren Moverman have chosen to explore ground already well mapped by Hollywood, and in most cases, better mapped. This film brings nothing new to the genre, and can't even provide us with a story that's at least halfway credible.