Gangster Squad
(2013)
Summary
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.
Review
Gangster Squad is like L.A. Confidential and The Untouchables but no where near as good. The movie is very generic and predictable with some corny dialogue but it does have its fun moments. Ryan Gosling is responsible for a majority of the film's high points. He brings some of his smooth 'Crazy, Stupid, Love' swag and also pulls off being a bad ass when his character is pushed too far. Also, his chemistry with Emma Stone is believable for a second time. I wish more time was focused on the characters like Gosling and Stone's, so we could feel these characters emotions and really understand what drives them. Many of the characters like the one Giovanni Ribisi played were underdeveloped and deserved more screen time so you so you can care for them. Instead, this film stays away from these things and focused on shootouts and stompings and the movie as a whole lacked because of it. Josh Brolin was fine in his role and we got a little bit more personal time with him and his pregnant wife, which made him very likable. I also did like Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, and Michael Peña, but like Giovanni Ribisi, they all suffer from lack of character growth. Now onto the worse part of the movie, which for me was Sean Penn. The character is fine, but I felt Penn tried too hard to impress and overacted because of it. He looked the part, but as soon as he began to speak while using a kind of growling tone, I couldn't wait for the film to go back to scenes with the likes of Brolin and Gosling. While it is fun when there is action on the screen, the film suffers from lack of character development with many of its characters and a villain that Sean Penn ruined completely ruined for me.
...AND SIMPLY PUT... IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER.
WORTH A WATCH. B-
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Rating: R for strong violence and language
In Theaters: January 11, 2013
On BLU-RAY and DVD: TBA
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