6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
Los Angeles, 1999 - Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) is a Vietnam vet and a Rampart Precinct cop, dedicated to doing “the people’s dirty work” and asserting his own code of justice, often blurring the lines between right and wrong to maintain his action-hero state of mind. When he gets caught on tape beating a suspect, he finds himself in a personal and emotional downward spiral as the consequences of his past sins and his refusal to change his ways in light of a department-wide corruption scandal seal his fate.
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver, Ben FosterCrime | 100% |
Drama | 52% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (256 kbps)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
I hate all people equally.
Just when it seemed the Edgy Cop Drama had nowhere to go, no new stories to tell, Rampart arrives just in time to reinvigorate a rather
stale
but storied collection of pictures focusing on cops on the edge of the law and teetering on the verge of collapse in their personal lives away from the
streets and without the security of the badge on their chests behind which to hide. Director Oren Moverman (The Messenger) assembles a brilliant cast and constructs a steady story
of
a man shaped by hate, violence, corrupted morals, and personal insecurity wrapped around a tough exterior and a sharp mind, both formed through
years on the force and experiencing the sort of things in Vietnam, on the streets of Los Angeles, and in the back rooms of the precinct that would
leave
even the most
stalwart individual on the verge of both an inward and outward meltdown. For Rampart's lead character, long gone is even a semblance of
morality, tact, calmness, patience, honesty, or integrity. The world he once fought to protect has worn him down, leaving behind a shell of a man
concerned only with making it on through to the next day, still allowed to do the only thing he knows, capable of satisfying his physical and
emotional
needs with the only skills that remain. It's a story of tragedy, of good intentions leading to a slow decay of everything a man holds dear until all
that's
left is the basic shape as it's been whittled down and smoothed over like the a stone wasted away down to its core by the steady currents of a
harshly rushing
stream.
Tough guy.
Rampart sparkles on Blu-ray. Millennium Entertainment's 1080p high definition transfer, captured from the digital shoot source, impresses at every turn. Colors are consistently vibrant and accurate. Bright outdoor scenes reveal brilliant reds and blues, and darkened interiors awash in a reddish glow deliver true shading consistent with those ambient light sources. Better, black levels are superb, rich and accurate, ditto flesh tones. Fine detail is exemplary. The transfer reveals every fine line in faces, every speck of dirt on cars, the tiniest textures and seams in clothes, and the most inconsequential sign of wear and grime in run-down locales and upon older objects. The image is sharp and clean as they come. Moderately heavy noise does appear in darker scenes, and a slight bout of aliasing rears its ugly head once or twice, namely across a fence as seen in a nighttime shot in chapter six. Altogether, though, this is a brilliant, high quality, almost picture-perfect transfer from Millennium.
Rampart's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack is just as impressive as its sharp video transfer. Millennium's audio presentation fills the soundstage both accurately and consistently. The listening area becomes the Rampart division, the streets of Los Angeles, night clubs, bars, and Brown's home. Ambience is amazingly reproduced, whether the most obvious, loudest effects or the quietest, seemingly most inconsequential sounds that altogether seamlessly recreate every environment. Radio chatter, heavy music pumping out of cars, sirens, screeching brakes, chatty pedestrians, and pretty much every other imaginable sound effect plays with unmatched clarity and with precision sonic placement from every corner of the soundstage. Music plays smoothly, with fine spacing and a tight low end evident throughout, particularly as heard accompanying some of those heavier beats that shape the wonderful street-level environmental effects. Dialogue is clear, accurate, and smooth as it plays consistently through the center channel, and it's never lost under or forced to compete with surrounding elements. This is a first-rate soundtrack from Millennium.
Rampart contains a scant collection of extras, highlighted by a director's commentary track.
Rampart won't be remembered as a top-tier Cop movie, of either the "good cop" or "bad cop" varieties -- in other words, this is no Training Day -- but Director Oren Moverman's picture paints a fascinating portrait of a cop long gone from normalcy, well beyond the point of saving, living only to survive, not to better himself or the world in which he operates. Rampart looks at a life on the fringes but protected, somewhat, by the uniform he wears, though as he falls further from grace and past even his own low, he must struggle to maintain his last futile grip on the life he leads, the only life he knows. It's a fascinating tale, one that's well-written, nicely directed, and expertly acted. Genre fans definitely need to check it out. Millennium's Blu-ray release of Rampart features top-end video and audio, but the supplements are a bit on the thin side. Fortunately for the extras, quality overcomes quantity. Rampart comes recommended.
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