Rampart

Rampart is the story of a policeman in the 90’s around the Rampart district scandal.  The Rampart scandal surrounded the corrupt cops and their malevolent practices in order to get convictions.  Police brutality, theft, falsifying evidence amongst a few things that became commonplace in the police HQ as well as on the streets.

The film focuses on one particular street cop caught up in that corrupt life “Date Rape” Dave Brown.  Nick named ‘Date Rape’ due to an alleged rumour that he killed a date rapist in revenge for his crimes.  Dave is savvy, has all the right words to say, a repeat philanderer/ladies man (however you want to look at it), dysfunctional family in tow, career spiralling out of control.  He manages to bury his ‘date rape’ reputation by getting the criminals in by any means necessary but when a particular much publicised sting gone wrong begins to bite him back, she starts to fall deeper and deeper into his own personal hell.

Stellar acting by Woody Harrelson as Dave Brown, but even his great acting doesn’t save this film.  It’s too long, boring at times and he is completely unlike-able.  Its a smart choice by Harrelson, flexing his acting chops off to show that he isn’t just that guy from Cheers, but it was a little too far the other way.  The Messenger for me is a better advocate for Harrelson’s talent.  Ben Foster (briefly) stars as well as produces the film.  He is also a great actor sitting on the fringes and never really coming into the forefront.  I hope 2012 is the year that both get to come forward and really show themselves off.

Rampart is okay, worth waiting for DVD on this one.

Drive

Drive is a high action, full impact, insanely emotional rollercoaster ride of a movie.  AND ITS BRILLIANT.

Drive sees a movie stunt driver get in way too over his head when his illegal extra curricular activities get out of hand.  Ryan Gosling stars as Driver, the no name hero in this drama.  Bit part stunt driver in hollywood films, mechanic in a local garage by day.  But by night, he is a wheelman, getaway driver for hire.  You only get him for 5 minutes.  Not a minute before or after.  If anything happens in those 5 minutes, he will help you get away.  If you are 1 second too late, he is gone.

He lives alone, lives a lonely existence other than the relationship with his adopted father character played skilfully but perhaps a bit typecast by Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad).

Driver sees Irene his neighbour in the building and the tension mounts.  Acted so very subtely by Gosling and Carey Mulligan, their love blossoms and festers, never quite reaching maximum height.  They don't speak much, its all done in looks and subtle body movements.  Driver falls more and more in love with Irene and her son Benicio.  He finds out that her husband who is in prison is about to be released and this puts the kibosh on their blossoming friendship.

Standard, Irene's husband, is out for less than a minute when he is dragged into doing one last heist to pay off his debt to those that protected him inside.  Driver offers to help and thus ending Standard's debt and making life safe for Irene and Benicio.  This doesn't go to plan and what ensues is a set of sequences of extreme violence shot in slow motion stylishly cut to electro pop.

This film is just fantastic.  Not much dialogue is needed, its so well acted with looks and emoting feelings, that you don't need dialogue.  This is a beautiful show piece for Gosling's fine talent.  He is going far and I hope he shoots further than the stars!  Beautifully shot, directed and acted, this is exactly how Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy should have been.  And the second best soundtrack there has been in the past year.

The Human Centipede - First Sequence

I am a big horror movie fan (although my tolerance is a lot less the older I get) and always attend FrightFest every year, the 4 day horror extravaganza.

I missed Human Centipede when it was on at FrightFest a couple of years ago as the hype surrounding it sold the film out.  Only now has it come through on my Lovefilm account.

So, popcorn at the ready, I sit and press play.  Not knowing what to expect, was it more gore or more mind games type thriller, I did not know.

First impressions where that it was extremely budget.  The camera work was cheap and tacky.  But then what do I expect from a film like this?  It goes into small detail about the Mad Scientist and his scientific (and sexual) fascinations with creating Siamese twins and triplets after spending his life's work separating them.

His first experiment was with 3 dogs, ass to mouth to make a long uber-dog.  The dogs sadly died shortly after surgery, and for some time the idea festers that pushes him to kidnap 3 adult humans to re-create the experiment.  A great deal of time is dedicated to this element of the story. Sourcing and torturing them until they go crazy.

Then he operates and creates the Centipede-Human-daisy chain type thing.  This is where it gets a bit nasty, but its the insinuations that are disgusting as your mind takes over.

You want them to escape, but they don't.  Mad scientist doesn't think it through and these 3 people fight for their lives.  It doesn't end well for all parties.

Overall, its not the best thing I have ever seen but is inventive.  I can say I have seen it and its not that good/bad.  Human Centipede 2 was banned by BBFC.  Not surprising as its about a man who is sexually aroused by the first film and then creates his own 12 human-centipede for his sexual benefits only, using sandpaper on his penis to masturbate with and wrapping barbed wire around it before raping the woman on the end of the centipede.  I am not surprised that it was banned, when you take it to another level, it becomes worse.  But it is only a film, should we really take it that seriously?  The whole concept is ludicrous!