The Most Corrupt Cop You've Ever Seen on Screen?

Rampart (2011) / US / Out on DVD now / Directed by Oren Moverman / Written by James Ellroy and Oren Moverman / Starring Woody Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Robin Wright, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi, Ice Cube, Brie Larson / 108 minutes

"Woody Harrelson is the most corrupt cop you've ever seen on screen" - the tagline which is plastered across the posters and the trailers for Rampart, Oren Moverman's follow-up to the marvellous 2009 film The Messenger. If a film makes such a bold claim, you can only be sure that it is doing that because it truly means it, right?

Unfortunately, that's not the case with Rampart. I haven't seen too many cop movies, so I wouldn't know how corrupt they can really go, but I'm sure that Rampart's Dave Brown (Harrelson) doesn't really reach the top of the coppo-corrupto-metre. That isn't because the character doesn't have a corrupt soul - because he sure does - it is just that the film never really decides if it wants to show that corruption. In fact, the film never really decides on what it wants to show us at all. What we have instead is a disappointingly incomplete screenplay, which seems like it is more happy contributing ideas to a story instead of building it. Through that, we have multiple characters coming in and out, contributing to dynamics that are never sustained. Those characters happen to be played beautifully by a range of actors who contribute to probably one of the best ensemble acting performances of the past year, and at least make sure that this isn't just one long acting exercise for Harrelson. In the end, Rampart has a lot to contribute, but not a lot of getting up and doing things for itself.

So, When Does Anyone Actually Get Abducted in Abduction?

Film: Abduction
Year: 2011
Director: John Singleton
Written by: Shawn Christensen
Starring: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina, Michael Nyqvist.
Running time: Far too long.

Hailing from the halls of all things awful in 2011, Abduction is the fifth film of the year to get the lowest of the low 1/10 from me. It joins such terrible films like The Roommate, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Hangover: Part II and Sucker Punch. But the difference that Abduction has is that Taylor Lautner aside, it had a half decent cast. Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina, and poor old Michael Nyqvist in his first big Hollywood role offer their names to Lautner's big post-Twilight debut. Also different is the fact that those four movies have titles that make sense to the story. Here, no-one actually gets abducted. Unless we're talking about the audience. Never before I have I wanted to turn off a movie so much - but no man shall get the better of my 'start watching it, finish watching it' rule.