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Rampart
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Metascore
70 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 30 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: Nothing fascinates like a dirty cop. In real life they're terrifying, but in the movies their upending of law and order can open deep explorations of psychology, morality and violence. So meet Dave Brown, Brown is a cop long ago unleashed from the rules of the Los Angeles Police Department. Roving the streets in his black-and-white cruiser, he governs and punishes at will. His home life is a riddle. Somehow he has fathered children with two sisters. Somehow he still lives casually with them both, slipping in and out of a family life thats as tangled as his long career on the force. His own daughter calls him Date Rape. Thats because, years ago, Brown may have killed a rapist and gotten away with it. The shadow of the incident still haunts him, so when his Rampart division gets caught up in a corruption scandal, Brown makes an easy target. As the controversy seeps through the department and into city hall, this hardened, reckless officer finds himself at the centre of a sordid L.A. story. (Millennium Entertainment)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Feb 15, 2012
    100
    Harrelson is an ideal actor for the role. Especially in tensely wound-up movies like this, he implies that he's looking at everything and then watching himself looking.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    Nov 23, 2011
    100
    Oren Moverman's Rampart is a terrific film: tense, shocking, complex, mesmerizing.
  3. Empire
    Reviewed by: Dan Jolin
    Feb 20, 2012
    60
    A familiar story oddly presented, but with a powerful central performance from Woody Harrelson.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 3 out of 13
  1. juanito
    10
    What a reeking, heaping, sack of crap. Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson) lives with two women who are sisters and he has a daughter by each one. All four supposedly live together? If that isn't far fetched enough for you, he meets and picks up strange women in bars and is in the sack with them within minutes. This movie was excessively, and extremely painful to watch.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. BroncosOwnYou
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Still waiting for the movie to end quite frankly. This movie draws you in with it's over the top portrayal of a bent cop who dishes out "street justice" mainly to thugs and cretins that deserve it, but he obviously has a twisted personal life as evidenced by the fact that he (sometimes) lives with the two women he has children with. Making the home life even more ridiculous is the fact that those women are sisters. Making one of his daughters ask him if they are "inbred". The movie creates a web of lies and conspiracy, perceived or real, that's for you to decide. Throws in some big (ish) names stars to try and add some legitimacy to the story but fails miserably because NONE of the conflicts in the movie are resolved. No, not one. The movie goes off with no resolution except for the one you may make up in your mind. And ending like this to a movie this complex is simply lazy. If you can't write an ending then don't make the movie. Woody Harrelson plays a "dirty" cop, but is surrounded by people trying to catch him that are just as, or more, dirty as he is. If you like movies that you have to make up your own ending you'll love this one. If you like a resolution to your stories, let this one fade away.… Expand
    • 2 of 2 users said yes
  3. keep_yr_bias
    3
    I really wanted to see this movie, and after seeing it, I wanted to like it. However, this movie is flat out terrible. It's a shame, because Woody Harrelson is truly amazing in his role. He's in literally every scene and does everything he can to carry the movie. After his performance though, there isn't one other redeeming aspect of this movie. There is basically NO plot, and the little there is doesn't make any sense. Not because it's complicated, but because it never goes anywhere, and when it does the writers seem to withhold certain aspects of the plot. They must do this to create some sort of "mystery", but the plot is so simple that it's not necessary. When the movie does end, I still didn't fully understand what the he** happened for what was a very dull 2 hours. This wasn't the intention of writers, it was a lazy half-a$$ed script. EVERYBODY behind the scenes of this movie should be disgusted with themselves, for bringing their D game at best, when Woody brought his A game. What a wasted performance, and just proof that you need a whole lot more than a strong acting performance to make a movie good... or even halfway decent for that matter.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes

See all 13 User Reviews

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