Gangster Squad (2013)
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara and Jerry Wooters who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
Watch Trailer
Free Trial Channels
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
the leading man is my tpye
Let's be realistic.
Disturbing yet enthralling
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
The opening scene is so so bad, just pure cringe. Penn's acting is aiming for Pacino or Brando, but lands on a one dimensional baddie from Space Jam (or something of that ilk). The rest of the actors are the usual suspects from the underwhelming new breed of A listers (Stone, Gosling) who always seem to me like they are playing dress ups and impersonating their parents. Stone is lovely in B grade comedies but she doesn't have the acting chops for the bigger roles and bigger movies she keeps getting cast in. Gosling is a star, for sure, but he should stick to beefcake roles. As for the film, it misses the mark and is not worth the price of admission.
"Gangster Squad" saves its best material for the montages. Those sequences are where the movie's flair for costuming, bullets and violence are at their most succinct and enjoyable.But disappointment seems to lurk around every corner because it echoes "L.A. Confidential" and "The Untouchables" but comes nowhere near either one of those. It's a movie that looks good, but wastes its cast on cardboard cutouts. Take Emma Stone for instance, all dolled up in those dresses and she really has nothing to do. And her character is crucial to the story's tension.It's one of the emptiest movies I've seen in a long time.5/10
GANGSTER SQUAD is a light, fast-paced gangster action movie set in Los Angeles, 1949. It offers something a little more superficial and action-packed than the heady delights of TV's BOARDWALK EMPIRE, and is of course the inferior piece in every respect, but nonetheless it still packs the punch thanks to a strong storyline and fun performances from the majority of the cast.The film is a walking cliché of course, and to describe it I would say that it's THE UNTOUCHABLES meets MUNICH with a touch of THE RAID sprinkled in at the end. The director is a bad choice - the goofy Ruben Fleischer also handled the comedy misfire ZOMBIELAND - but somehow the movie still works. Josh Brolin is a delight as the hard-assed cop and Ryan Gosling is effective as his more laidback younger sidekick. There are nice character parts for Robert Patrick (the best he's been in ages) and Giovanni Ribisi, and the only misfire is an overacting Sean Penn, virtually unrecognisable behind heavy prosthetics and chuckling away like a comic book villain.GANGSTER SQUAD has plenty of action to recommend it, and it's well shot throughout, although a little dark in places. The storyline has plenty of humour and even though the events and situations that arise are familiar, they somehow work thanks to the entertaining script. It's no masterpiece, and indeed is nothing more than a forgettable popcorn flick, but it's one that delivers the goods nonetheless.
Gangster Squad is entertaining as hell. It's also a total mess. Seriously, it's like watching a live-action cartoon with an A-list cast trying so hard to make this dialogue credible, but there's nothing they can do. It's a cartoon. Over the top, hammy dialogue, crazy shootouts with no consequence. If you don't shut your brain off within the first 20 minutes of this movie then you're doing something wrong. It's a shame because the plot is based off of the real life gangster Mickey Cohen who was the ruler of LA for a time, and the source material has endless potential. But the faster you can accept that that's not the kind of movie this is, the quicker you can appreciate it for its camp value. Some things that stand out are Sean Penn's ridiculously over the top performance. Not that you can fault him for it. The part is written as a stereotypical gangster with temper issues and the script throws him these cheesy one-liners that wouldn't sound authentic coming from anyone's mouth. But to his credit, he's fun to watch. As is Brolin who plays the leader of the squad, and probably the most "human" character of them all. And there's Ryan Gosling is doing a really weird but oddly fitting voice for this time period with his natural charismatic charm. The supporting cast is good as well but they practically nothing to do. There's no pathos anywhere - it's all overblown bombast, and if you're okay with that, then I think you'll get a kick out of Gangster Squad.If you're expecting LA Confidential 2, stay the hell away.