Flick of The Day: Rampart

In late 1990's Los Angeles, a scandal engulfed the Rampart division of the LAPD and it's anti gang unit. Widespread allegations of corruption and police brutality and serious crime led to the implication of more than 70 officers in one of the largest corruption scandal ever. The fall out from this event is the setting for director Oren Moverman's Rampart, which is today's flick of the day.

Rampart

Woody Harrelson gives a grandstanding performance as LAPD officer David Brown, a man whose mere being pulses with rage. A veteran of the force, he is a deeply corrupt and compromised man who has committed many unknown crimes in the name of the law. By day he patrols the crime infested streets of Los Angeles populated by a melting pot of ethnicities while by night he carouses bars before returning home to his strange home life where he lives with his two daughters and two ex-wives who are both sisters. As the Rampart investigation reaches its height, David is caught on camera brutally beating a motorist who crashed into him. It appears that David is going to finally pay a penance for his career despite his own best efforts to wriggle out of the net. As his legal bills mount and his home life unravels, David goes to extremes to try and keep the job he loves.

Rampart is written by American crime writer James Ellroy, a man with a seeming fascination with hard bitten police officers and the underbelly of Los Angeles. Perhaps best known for his sprawling epic novel L.A Confidential  which was adapted by Curtis Hanson, his fingerprints are all over this film. For a writer of such dense plotting, the plot such as it is does not form a major part of Rampart. This is really a character study of one man and his actions. As such, Woody Harrelson inhabits the role completely giving a performance that has to be seen to be believed. Every muscle and sinew seems to pulse with menace and as a viewer you are left waiting for the explosion to occur with each new interaction.

While Harrelson's David is the sole focus for much of the film, there is a fine supporting cast in Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright and Steve Buscemi. It is a shame then that they are given so little to do. What exactly Robin Wright's character is in the script for is a mystery to me, she is another one of the numerous women who bed David through the course of the film but beyond that brings nothing and is a waste of a fine actress. This lack of development detract from the film and give it an uneven tone. You may wonder why you are bothering to follow dense conversations about the banalities of David's life and its unfortunate because Harrelson's performance deserves a better film. 

At times guilty of deplorable actions, at others terrifically verbose and with a remarkable ability to game the system, David Brown is an uncompromising creation that manages to avoid the clichés of the cop who bends the rules to catch the bad guy. David is a dark and bitter man who despite his obvious intelligence is unable to see he is his own worst enemy.

Dave Brown: I don't cheat on my taxes... you can't cheat on something you never committed to.

So then while this is a flawed movie, there is enough here to justify a viewing for Harrelson's performance alone. It could have been so much more but ends up as just a study of one man and really tails off at the end. 

Flick of The Day: Aliens

A few weeks back, we reviewed Ridley Scott's Alien, noting how it builds the tension through a creepy atmosphere to great effect. How then to follows this up? Once the cat is out of the bag so to speak, how do you create a follow up that is as tense, frightening and entertaining as the original? This was the task facing director James Cameron in 1986 with today's flick of the day Aliens. He delivered a modern classic by combining ground breaking special effects with pacy storytelling and another great performance from Sigourney Weaver that resulted in 7 Oscar nominations.

Aliens [Blu-ray]

The film opens as its predecessor ended, with Ripley, again played by Weaver, in hypersleep with her tabby cat having vanquished the alien from her life boat. Her boat is picked up by a passing space ship and she is rescued. After receiving medical care, she is awoken with the news delivered by her company's representative Carter Burke played by Paul Reiser, that she has been adrift in space for half a century and that the planet where they discovered the alien life as since been colonised. Her account of the destruction of the ship and the attack of the alien is met with ridicule and scepticism and she is removed from her position as a Warrant Officer. Initially depressed, she retreats from life, her family and relatives having long since passed away.  Soon, Reiser and a Colonial Marine return to her seeking help, contact has been lost with the colony and they are going to investigate.  Ripley initially refuses to help before relenting, haunted as she is by nightmares of her last encounter with the alien. Arriving to find the colony deserted, Ripley, Carter and the marines are soon in a fighter for survival as the planet is overwhelmed by the alien hoardes. 

While Alien was much more sombre in tone with a deliberately gradual escalation of tension, James Cameron's Aliens is much more action oriented but is no loss thrilling because of it. The special effects are used to great effect, in Cameron's own words, his plan from the beginning was to focus "more on terror, less on horror". The cast spend much of the movie confined to a small space fighting off the oncoming Aliens or moving through the darkened colony searching for human life. This creates an atmosphere of fear, of not knowing what is coming round the corner both literally and metaphorically. Again unlike the original, the character of Ripley is no longer a victim seeking to survive and escape the horror but a veteran out to kill the aliens off once and for all. This makes for an entertaining film.

If there is a criticism of this film to be made, it is that the film largely follows the same dynamic as the original but with a cast that is less developed, characters often seemingly there only to get squashed by the aliens and a script that is at times poor. The dialogue exists only to drive the plot forward.

Ripley: Lieutenant, what do those pulse rifles fire? 

Gorman: 10 millimeter explosive tip caseless. Standard light armor piercing round, why? 

Ripley: Well, look where your team is. They're right under the primary heat exchangers. 

Gorman: So? 

Ripley: So, if they fire their weapons in there, won't they rupture the cooling system?

That said, the film is always entertaining and action packed in a way few directors can deliver better then James Cameron. For all his many faults, the man can deliver an action sequence better then almost anyone else.

All in all, a fine sequel to a great film with enough cracks to see how things went so badly wrong with the next outing. Sigourney Weaver is excellent once again as Ripley, creating a heroine that shines through a clunky script. Cameron makes great use of the special effects available to him at the time and the film is an action packed adventure that doesn't slow down from the moment they arrive on the colony. A worthy addition to the genre and well worth a look.

Flick of The Day: Alien

Science Fiction is a genre which I brings out some of the best and worst of modern cinema. On the one hand, it has attracted some of the best storytellers working in cinema over the past thirty years and yet it is the genre, along with horror most given over to the kind of low budget trash that populates bargain basement shelves in video stores the world over. However, when well done, there is no genre so exciting and mind expanding. From the dawn of cinema in films like Metropolis to modern classics like Blade Runner, it has enriched the viewer. Today's film is another such classic, Ridley Scott's Alien.

Alien (The Director's Cut)

In space, no one can hear see you scream, so went the classic tag-line upon its release in 1979. It was the Jaws of alien films and its effect can still be seen in cinema today. The combination of science fiction and horror made it an instant classic. The story opens with the waking of the crew of the Nostromo from deep sleep while on their way home from a mission for The Company. It quickly becomes apparent that the crew have been awoken early to answer a distress call from a nearby planet. Upon descending to the planet, it is obvious all is not as it seems with a strange ship emitting the signal. Kane played by John Hurt goes in for a closer look, coming across a nest of eggs. One of the aliens attaches itself to him and he is brought back on board. He initially recovers but soon the crew is in a fight for their lives aboard.

The crew is a fine ensemble cast. Sigourney Weaver is Ripley, the second in command and a fiery personality who will fight to the end. Yaphet Kotto is Parker the ship's Chief Engineer. Ian Holm is Ash, the Science Officer and Tom Skerritt is Captain Dallas. All excel in their roles, helping to build the tension on the ship as events rapidly go awry. All of the characters are easily identifiable and this helps the film immensely. They are all average workers not adventurers. They are there for a wage not exploration. This leads the audience to care what happens to them, their attention is invested in them and as the plot unravels and the scares mount, this matters a great deal. It is something that is so often overlooked in thrillers and genre cinema in general. People have to identify and like the characters or else what is the point?

The film is a tour de force throughout, however particular praise must go to the design and look of the film by the artist H.R Giger. Giger designed all of the alien aspects of the film, giving them an organic and bio-mechanical appearance in sharp contrast to the industrial look of the Nostromo.

Above all this film has the tension and shocks to carry it though and it is at times terrifying. It's an enjoyable kind of terror though, like a roller-coaster ride. Weaver gives a career defining performance as Ripley. She is steely and determined and you would bet your money early on as her being the only survivor. 

Ripley: Ash, that transmission... Mother's deciphered part of it. It doesn't look like an S.O.S. 

Ash: What is it, then? 

Ripley: Well, I... it looks like a warning.

As is often the way with success in Hollywood, the film spawned a series of increasingly dire sequels and prequels, reaching irrelevance by the time the Alien Vs Predator reboot finally killed it off. There is a talk of another film, reuniting Weaver and Ridley Scott so perhaps there is life in the old dog yet. This is one of the scariest pieces of sci-fi to come out of Hollywood and is well worth your time. If the trailer below doesn't sell you, nothing will.