Rampart

First Hit: Outstanding acting performance by Woody Harrelson in a non-glorious role and story.

Set in 1999, love the cell phone and antenna, this story is about a renegade cop from the Rampart Division of the LAPD.

This division was going through extremely tough times from internal mismanagement, theft, and public scrutiny of their police practices. Dave Brown (Harrelson) smokes all the time, never eats, drinks too much and numbs himself with drugs.

His family includes two ex-wives Catherine and Barbara (Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon respectively) and two daughters, one from each. They all live together while Dave lives in a small apartment unattached from the house the others live in. This is his family and he thinks he’s responsible for everyone in this family.

His police department moniker is Date Rape Dave for his hand in killing what was perceived as a date rapist.

The opening scene, where he is speaking with two other cops from Rampart Division at a parking lot food stand, sets up Dave perfectly. He thinks he’s king of the hill, all knowing, in-charge and operating almost as an independent contractor. At one point he is driving in his car and is hit broadside. He gets out of the car, seemingly to find out what is going on and the driver of the other car abruptly opens his door and hits Dave. Then the perpetrator starts running away. Dave catches him and is filmed beating him almost to death.

This makes all the news stations and becomes yet another PR nightmare for LAPD. Dave is smart, won’t retire and doesn’t back down from his departments’ investigative team.

They are after him. It is clear that they can make him part of the Rampart problem and they can make him the focus of other problems as well. His family wants him gone because they cannot stand the public scrutiny and all things are stacking up against him.

There are some shots here in this film I found fascinating, specifically; when Dave and LAPD department heads and Dave’s lawyer all are talking in an office and the camera just goes in a circular clockwise motion from person to person. This was extremely effective in relaying the tenseness of the discussion and the circles we can create in conversations and the way conversations can go round and round.

The scenes, dialogue and references to actual issues of the time created a well focused film.

Dave’s belief that he is the guardian of our time and LA is profound and extremely well done by Harrelson.

Harrelson shows why he is an amazing actor. Look at his resume from "Natural Born Killers" to "Zombieland" to "Friends with Benefits" to "The People vs. Larry Flynt" to "White Men Can’t Jump", he has a wide range and each time the audience knows he is invested in the part. Heche is great as one of Brown’s wives, the one who is more emotional about the relationship. Nixon is good as the other, more centered, wife. Brie Larson as Helen, one of the daughters is very strong is reflecting the life she has. Sigourney Weaver as Joan Confrey and part of the LAPD team investigating Brown is powerful in her role and a great addition to this film. Robin Wright as Linda Fentress is an attorney who tricks Brown into sex and information is great. Ned Beatty as Hartshorn a former police officer is downright great as a puppeteer pulling the strings. James Ellroy and Oren Moverman wrote a very strong script. Moverman really nailed this script and the characterization of this real life character.

Overall:  This film is dark, has little joy, but is relentless in providing a strong and clear picture of a man digging deeper into his own hole.

Big Miracle

First Hit:  This film is predictable but interesting enough to stay watching.

The “Big Miracle” lets the audience know the outcome before you even buy a ticket. Nevertheless it is film version of a real story that took place back in 1988 when Ronald Reagan was president.

Three California Grey whales were trapped 5 miles from the ocean and were only breathing through an air hole in the ice. The air hole was closing fast and the native Eskimos wanted to harvest the whales for food.

Adam Carlson, local reporter (played by John Krasinski) had been trying to find fame in a story so that he could move to the lower 48, filmed a segment which got picked up around the world and all of a sudden the whales had a rooting gallery.

Adam feeling the plight of the whales call his former girlfriend Rachel Kramer (played by Drew Barrymore) who is a Greenpeace honcho. Rachel comes up to rally everyone to save the whales and also makes some enemies while she is as it. The one machine which can break up the ice is owned by an oil company which is run by J. W. McGraw (played by Ted Danson).

He’s always at war with Rachel over the oil drilling rights to a wildlife sanctuary. He thinks it will be good press to help. Everyone in this film has an objective to better their standing in the community. Rachel is the only one who is focused on only doing her job but as pointed out by others this publicized effort will provide a campaign boost for Greenpeace. T

he Russian’s assist in the end with an ice breaker ship and there is a reasonably happy ending to it all. However, the film is extremely predictable, even if you weren’t alive in 1988. The set-ups are very obvious and there is really no suspense to this.

I don’t know if the director made it this way to make it PG friendly or if the story really was this obvious. The highlight of the film was in the credits, where they showed the real people in scenes who really saved these whales back in 1988.

Krasinski does a good job of making us believe his character makes the right choices for his career and life. Barrymore wasn’t her best here. Some scenes she was great and others, she came off a little shrill and without a deep basis of the knowledge of her position. Danson was particularly over done as an oil company executive. Ahmaogak Sweeney as Nathan a native young boy caught between the modern world and his ancestral ways was good and very entertaining. Jack Amiel and Michael Beglar wrote this mediocre script. Ken Kwapis directed this with a lighthearted hand especially when he brings in two guys from Minnesota who have a machine that keeps the ice holes open longer.

Overall: A light-hearted film which was entertaining and interesting enough to have it be enjoyable.

The OSCARS and Other Notes

It is that time of season again and although this year wasn't an especially great year for films, a couple of interesting and outstanding "out of the box films" caught my eye: "The Artist", The Tree of Life" and "Melancholia".

On the other side of the coin, I'm grateful that the Harry Potter series has ended as they became painful to watch. And the Sherlock Holmes film was also very bad.

Some performances I would have like to have been honored but weren't would include: Michael Fassbender in "Shame", Kirsten Dunst in "Melancholia", Charlize Theron in "Young Adult", Carey Mulligan  in "Shame" (cannot give enough credit for her singing "New York, New York" as though she was standing on the edge of a cliff ready to fall at any moment), Christoph Waltz in "Carnage", and Albert Brooks in "Drive". 

Given the selected honorees by the academy, here are my picks for some of the categories:

• Best Picture: "The Artist"

• Actor in a Leading Role: Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer in "The Beginners"

• Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

• Cinematography: "The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki

• Directing: Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"

• Film Editing: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

• Adapted Screenplay: "The Descendants" Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

• Original Screenplay: "Margin Call" J.C. Chandor

To all of you: Thank you for coming to my site and reading my reviews. The number of views has grown tremendously over this past year. There are now over 550 reviewed films and it is fun for me to post and read your comments.

May this new year bring on better films with new ideas tested and old ones enhanced. I know I'll be there in the 5th or 6th row center ready to suspend belief into someone else's story.

May you

Be Well...

Michael

The Grey

First Hit: This film’s scenery was to die for, but the film died a long slow death. 

The scene is a far northern section of Alaska where Anchorage is way south. It is cold and the land beautiful. An oil refinery is where all the workers toil and in a bar is where they play hard at night.

As the opening monologue states, most of the people working here are parolees or are guys who are very hardened by the life they’ve led. Ottway (played by Liam Neeson) is a protector. He protects outside workers from beasts who might see the workers as food. It is mostly wolves he has to shoot.

Ottway has many dreams of his wife who has passed away. He’s lonely and likes to be left alone in his sadness. A group of workers are headed back to Anchorage for an R&R. The scene of them loading the plane shows how intense the storm is. They are deicing the plane until it takes off. There a large bumps as they fly and most everyone is on edge.

The plane crashes and only 7 survive. There is a good scene as Ottway escorts one of the dying to their death. The 7 survivors are tough in their own way and Ottway immediately takes charge. Of course he is challenged.

Wolves surround and start to track the survivors and begin to pick them off one by one. Only Ottway has some intelligent information about how the wolves act. He notes that alpha wolf is in charge.

This is a story about survival, religious beliefs, men, and alpha men.

The animatronic wolves were mediocre at best and the alpha was black in color (so why was it called Grey).

The mixing of religious and non-religious beliefs didn’t work well and the scene where Ottway is speaking to God asking for some direct sign is a copy of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke where Luke stands in the church yelling at God for a sign – he got it and so does Ottway.

 Neeson is always a strong character regardless of the lines his character has to say. Here he says them with authority and strength, his character is believable. The rest of the cast was good but nothing outstanding. The problem with this film was the laborious script and the direction. The film needed about 20 – 30 minutes cut out of it to make it work. Joe Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers wrote this overly cooked script while Carnahan, as director, didn’t reign in the scope. The cinematography of the area fully captured the cold intensity of the foreboding area of the country.

 Overall: If you’ve got two hours to kill on a Sunday evening watch the DVD version.

Carnage

First Hit:  This film definitely shows how easily adults slide into bad behavior when they justify their actions in the service of the protection of their children.

During the opening credits we silently see an act where there are two kids engaged in a pushing match.

Then Zachary Cowan hits Ethan Longstreet with a tree branch he’s carrying. After the credits we’re in the Longstreet’s home with Ethan’s mother Penelope (played by Jodie Foster) at a keyboard typing a statement of the event. She types that Zachary was "armed" with a stick. 

Zachary's dad Alan (played by Christoph Waltz), a lawyer, opposes the word "armed" and suggests "carrying" a stick. Standing by and supporting Penelope is her husband Michael (played by John C. Reilly), and supporting Alan is his wife Nancy (played by Kate Winslet).

This short scene defines the differences between the four people. We discover that there are four different people with differing opinions about what happened and what they should do about it. The discussion continues as it waves from one slightly off topic subject to another. Alan continues to receive phone calls during this meeting.

As the discussion continues opinions start to get stronger and anger begins to raise its ugly head. Occasionally they head back to the original reason why they are together to discuss their children’s actions but when alcohol enters the picture it becomes a story about what each thinks of the other. What didn’t work about this film is that it is unbelievable that they would have stayed together continuing to have these discussions without someone leaving.

However, the nice touches like dog barks in the background and a neighbor peeking through their door as they engage in hallway discussion, gave this a feel like it was being filmed in a real building.

Foster is the most intense and high minded opinionated of the four. Although I didn’t like her character she did it well. Reilly changed the most during the discussion. At one point he was very supportive of his wife but then blurts out that she's screwed up. Winslet was great as the quiet demur one who then, when her buttons are pushed and with a little alcohol becomes a tiger. Waltz was the most fun to watch. He’s articulate, disengaged and present all at the same time. His cell phone behavior is pointed and reflective of our current societal behavior. Yasmina Reza wrote the screenplay from the play “Le Dieu du carnage”. Roman Polanski adroitly directed this film and ensured that slowly built steam as these parents turn more behaviorally childish.

Overall: This was fun to watch as each of the characters crystallized their behavior through 18 year old single malt whiskey.