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.

THE MESSENGER: bringing the war back home to New Jersey

Give me a character driven story over an action adventure blockbuster any day.
I like films where the characters are the stars not the special effects or explosions. And I'm particularly partial to interesting characters in everyday situations dealing with whatever life (and the scriptwriter) has to throw at them.
Making the ordinary extraordinary trumps making the extraordinary even larger than life everytime.
Which is a roundabout way of saying I really enjoyed THE MESSENGER.
The film examines the consequences of the US involvement in Iraq through the eyes of two soldiers whose job it is to break the news to husbands, wives, mothers and fathers, that their loved one has been killed in action.

Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) is three months away from leaving the Army when he's assigned to work with Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), driving out to families in  suburban New Jersey to deliver the terrible news in person before they hear it from the media. It's not Will's dream job. He's had no training in grief counselling and he's not religious, but he's told that's not the point. He's given a script to learn and instructed that under no circumstances is he to offer consolation to the NoK (next of kin) by touching or hugging them.
Both Will and Tony are men's men, not given to expressing emotion in public or discussing their respective military experiences, although Will has clearly been through a lot. He's still recovering from wounds received in action in Iraq, and now lives a rather isolated existence in a sparsely furnished, impersonally decorated apartment off-base. Tony's given his life to the military and looks to have it altogether, but as the story unfolds it becomes obvious that both men have many problems in common.
Harrelson is the one who's been lauded with award nominations (including one for Best Supporting Actor Oscar) but it's relative unknown Foster who's at the heart of this drama. Initially reluctant to accept the assignment he finds himself unexpectedly affected by the distressing reactions of those to whom he delivers his life-changing message, and inexplicably drawn to one young widow (played by Samantha Morton) in particular.
Despite their outward show of bravado, neither man is who they appear to be and certainly not the kind of figures we've come to expect from cinematic portrayals of cynical, battlehardened vets.The refusal to play up to that stereotype is just one of the rewarding elements to this story.
Another is it's languid pace. First time director Oren Moverman has created an experience which refuses to be rushed yet never outstays it's welcome. The film feels longer than it's sub 2 hour running time but that's not a complaint. Between his direction, his Oscar nominated screenplay and the performances of Foster, Harrelson and Morton, I felt so immersed in their world I would happily have stayed living in it for another hour.
In reviewing Zombieland and 2012 for this blog I expressed my dislike of Woody Harrelson as an actor. That still stands but I have to admit he is good here. The understated way in which he plays Tony Stone makes him considerably less objectionable and I certainly wouldn't begrudge him the Oscar in the unlikely event that it's his name in the envelope.
THE MESSENGER has received just a fraction of the attention paid to The Hurt Locker but for my money it's the superior film.
 

ZOMBIELAND: they're dead and Woody's loving it

Ruben Fleischer's directorial debut is a reasonably satisfying blend of "Shaun of the Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" with a smidgin of John Hughes-esque coming of age angst thrown in for good measure.
ZOMBIELAND's rather thin storyline isn't going to win any wards for originality but it is fun in a very undemanding kind of way. Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus, a geeky, virginal, neurotic loner in his early 20s whose hermit-like existence has contributed to his surviving a virus which has turned the human race into flesh eating zombies.
Fate throws him together with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a gun-totin' "bring 'em on" kind of tough guy who just loves killing the undead. Heading east from California they team up with a couple of crafty sisters, Witchita (Emma Stone) and the younger Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The presence of female company - and Witchita in particular - gives Columbus a belated opportunity to discover his inner hero and start acting like a man.
It's something Eisenberg should be a pro at by now, having already experienced this particular rite of passage in "Adventureland." I'm not sure if there's any significance in this but theme parks provide the backdrop for his transition from boy to man in both films, although in the former he has the luxury of wrestling solely with his own insecurities uninterrupted by the living dead.
Part horror, part roadtrip and mostly comedy, the film's weak point is it's lack of focus. There's too many sub themes and subplots (Harrelson's quest for a Twinkie, for example) which kill some time but don't really go anywhere worthwhile. There's a sense of certain lines being spoken and certain events taking place solely to provide a quick laugh rather than develop the storyline. The film's biggest "what-was-that-all-about?" moment comes when the gang encounters a real life movie star, playing himself, hiding out in his palatial Beverly Hills mansion. 
For me the biggest downside to ZOMBIELAND is Woody Harrelson. I just don't like looking at him or listening to him. His thin high pitched voice and the way his jaw makes his lower lip stick out further than his upper lip makes me feel somehow unclean. 
Irrational I know but I can't help it and I've just got to learn to live with it.