Gangster Squad (2013) User Reviews (353)

Classic case of style over substance.

[lnvicta · 6/10 · 7 March 2016]

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.

Fans of The Untouchables Will Certainly Enjoy this Gangster Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 28 July 2013]

In 1949, in Los Angeles, the ambitious and ruthless kingpin Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) controls drugs, prostitution and gambling and has the local judge and police department in his pocket. When Sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) busts Mickey's brothel to rescue a naive newcomer in town, Police Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) summons him and offers to O'Mara to form an unofficial unit to destroy Mickey's facilities and shipments to take him down.

O'Mara and his wife select four incorruptible cops to work with him. Then a fifth police officer joins the team in the beginning of a war against Mickey's empire of crime.

"Gangster Squad" is an entertaining movie based on the biography of the powerful and violent gangster Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen. This criminal indeed ended his days in Alcatraz but years later, sentenced twice for tax evasion and not for murder. Unfortunately the true story was not written this way.

The cast is magnificent, with names such as Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Robert Patrick, Giovanni Ribisi among many others and the art direction and costumes is also excellent. The plot has many clichés and works like a cartoon, with the bullets occasionally hitting the heroes, but all of that is part of the entertainment. Fans of "The Untouchables" will certainly enjoy this effective gangster movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Caça aos Gângsteres" ("Hunting Down the Gangsters")

Colorful as well as violent flick about a relentless outfit to take down brutal mobster Mickey Cohen

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 20 April 2014]

Brilliantly and stylishly recreated story set in Los Angeles, 1949: A secret crew of police officers led by a determined sergeant (Josh Brolin) pull off a hard fight against a local mobster . As sergeant John O'Mara happily married to pregnant Connie O'Mara (Mireille Enos , though Amy Adams and Kate Winslet were considered to play her) is assigned by Chief W.H. Parker (Nick Nolte, who portrays , previously played the leader of the gangster squad in Mulholland Falls) to enlist a brave group (Jamie Foxx and Bryan Cranston were considered for the roles but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with their other movies) . As they work together in an effort to take down the ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) who runs the city . O'Mara chooses 4 officers (Robert Patrick , Anthony McKee , Giovanni Rivisi , Michael Peña) and asks another cop and vet, Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling , though Adam Brody, Joel Edgerton, Luke Evans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were on the short list for the part) to join him but he is not interested , but when he witnesses a killing , he joins them . Then , Wooters falls in love for Mickey Cohen's girlfriend called Grace Faraday (Emma Stone , though Teresa Palmer, Camilla Belle, Aly Michalka, Lily Collins, Emmy Rossum, Amanda Seyfried and Maggie Grace auditioned for this character)

This is a violence-ridden story full of action, drama , thriller and being pretty entertaining . Intelligent and suspenseful script in ¨The Untouchables¨ style , being written by Will Beall based on the book "Gangster Squad" from Paul Lieberman . Spectacular as well as explosive shoot'em up on the streets , mansion , station and Chinatown . Josh Brolin is excellent as impulsive and obstinate enforcer fighting against the underworld crime . Robert Patrick plays to perfection a veteran, incorruptible police who takes under his experience and protection to Michael Peña . And Sean Penn overacting in a heinous role as the nasty Mickey Cohen , Penn went through 3 hours of makeup each morning . Flamboyant and rich photography by Dion Beebe . Thrilling as well as atmospheric musical score by Steve Jablonsky . The motion picture was beautifully directed by Ruben Fleischer . This superb recounting will appeal immensely to Josh Brolin , Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone fans.

The flick was partially based on real events : In the movie, the Gangster Squad is assembled to go after Mickey Cohen. However, in real life Chief W.H. Parker set up the squad to prevent other gangsters from taking over Cohen's rackets after Cohen went to prison on income tax evasion. Whenever the squad learned that out-of-town gangsters were coming to Los Angeles to try to set up new operations, the Gangster Squad would kidnap them, beat them up and then send them back to wherever they came from with the warning that if they ever returned, they would be killed . Other films dealing with this famous gangster Mickey Cohen are the followings : Bugsy (1991) played by Harvey Keitel , Fallen Angels (1993) played by James Woods , The Rat Pack (1998) (TV) played by Alan Woolf , L.A. Confidential (1997) played by Paul Guilfoyle , and recent TV series Mob City (2013) played by Jeremy Luke , including similar characters to 'The gangster squad' being starred by Jon Bernthal , Milo Ventimiglia, Neal McDonough , Alexa Davalos , Jeffrey DeMunn and Robert Knepper.

You've already seen this movie, but better.

[jarryds · 12 January 2013]

Originally intended for release in September of 2012, Gangster Squad has belatedly hit theatres this week. The film follows the story of LA crime boss Mickey Cohen and a group of off-the-book beat cops to bring him down. "Based" on a true story (What movie isn't these days?) the film and its fantastic cast promise much but come across as bland and boring.

Set in Los Angeles in the 50's, Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is a crime lord who has taken over and there seems to be nobody who can stop him. The few good cops are outnumbered by the cops Cohen has bought and it seems all hope is lost. But Police Chief Nick Nolte decides something needs to be done and assigns good, hard cop Josh Brolin to put together a team to go after Cohen. What follows is the assembling of a team of not-so- perfect cops and the war they wage on Cohen's empire.

Sound familiar? That's because we've all already seen this movie, only done much better. You can tick the cliché's off as you watch. Good cop being grilled by his dirty cop superior? Check. Older tougher cop and his young protégé? Check. Evil henchman of the chief bad guy? Check. The list could go on but would approach spoiler territory. The climax of the film is somewhat predictable about half way through. You can foresee almost all of the events that will play out in the last 20 minutes and while it's enjoyable enough, it's nothing you haven't seen before.

The cast is a who's who list of names. Which makes the film all the more disappointing. With names like Brolin, Gosling, Penn and Stone they should blow you away. But the characters are nothing more than caricatures and nobody gets the chance to portray any real depth, with the possible exception of Giovanni Ribsi. Sean Penn looks bizarre in a mountain of makeup, although it matches his completely over the top performance. Ryan Gosling turns in a nicely subtle performance, but most of the rest of the cast are stuck in cardboard cut out roles with individual stories set on railway tracks. We all know where they're going to go, we just have to wait for them to get there.

Also worth mentioning in the reason for the delay in the film's release. Originally the film was to be released in September 2012, but then the Aurora shooting took place. At that time one of the key set pieces of the film was a scene in which the characters shoot at people from behind a movie screen in a theatre. Realising how disastrously that would be received in the wake of Aurora, the studio immediately suspended promotion for the film and set about reworking that scene. The cast re- assembled in August to reshoot the sequence, now taking place in Chinatown.

Something I liked: Robert Patrick's performance as the grizzled older gunslinger. As a Terminator 2 fan it was great to see him still taking out people almost at will.

Something I didn't like: The predictable climax. At the 60 minute mark I mentally made a list of things I thought would happen in the last 20 or so minutes of the film. Of my list of about 6 things, 5 of them happened exactly as I predicted.

Something that bugged me: The scenes with Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte seemed to be shot out of focus. It was particularly noticeable in the shots of Nolte. For a film with a budget of $75M, this just shouldn't happen.

Summary: Ultimately Gangster Squad is an enjoyable enough 100 minutes but isn't anything significant. There's no great performances, no spectacular set pieces nor any big moments that you'll go home talking about. For the ladies there's an ample amount of eye candy in the form of a suited and fedora-d Ryan Gosling, and for the gentlemen there's Emma Stone and a no-nonsense Robert Patrick. But the story fails to ever really leap off the page and become something. We're told Mickey Cohen is bad, but he's never anything more than "that bad guy". We don't hate him, we don't sympathise with him or desperately want him to be taken down. He's just "the bad guy". The same can be said for all of the characters, and the story as a whole. Which makes it on the whole, ultimately forgettable.

No names. No badges. No mercy.

[moviewizguy · 7/10 · 7 January 2013]

Glossy, slick, bloody, violent, dumb, crowd-pleasing, and undeniably entertaining. Filled with every gangster genre cliché rolled into one, GANGSTER SQUAD ain't high art, nor is it aiming to be. It seemed as if director Fleischer was trying to tell this story in the most fun possible way, and he succeeds with flying colors. The film is at its best when its loud and dumb but falters when it tries to be anything more than that.

The cast seems like they're having fun, especially Sean Penn who has a field day with his role as the villain Mickey Cohen. The lines he's given are pure gold. Josh Brolin does a great job as the lead and Ryan Gosling is charming and charismatic as usual. However, Emma Stone is underused with a thankless role, but it's nice that she's in the film anyway. Overall, GANGSTER SQUAD is fun entertainment. No judgments, little pretense.

I don't understand the hate....

[Matt_Layden · 7/10 · 15 January 2013]

The year is 1949 and Los Angeles is being run by mob king Mickey Cohen. Now, a secret team of detectives and cops form together to bring him down and bring peace back to the streets.

Gangster Squad was a nice romp back to the days where detectives said funny lines, smoked indoors and held tommy guns. Here is a film that looks slick with a nice polish, a great ensemble cast and a story that has enough meat to it for us to chew on. Yet, people seem to be hating on it. Did they all expect another Untouchables? Sure, Gangster Squad has moments where the inspirations from past films peep through, but not once did this film try to be more than the sum of its means. Gangster Squad is a fun film, has thrilling moments and will entertain you.

Josh Brolin plays Sgt. John O'Mara, a tough as nails cop who is willing to put his life on the line for truth and justice. This annoys his very pregnant wife, who seems ready to pop at any moment. She takes it upon herself to help form the team he needs in order to protect him. The team involves: Anthony Mackie, an officer who is deadly with a knife, Giovanni Ribisi, a smart wire tapper, Robert Patrick, an ace with a pistol and his protégé Michael Peña whose eager to learn. The last addition to the team is the young, hot and dangerous Ryan Gosling, who seems to have found himself entangled with the mob king, Cohen's gal, played by Emma Stone.

There are obvious moments in the film where it tips its hat to predecessors like L.A. Confidential and the more obvious, The Untouchables. There is even a sequences involving a stairwell, although not as tense and more by the numbers shoot em up, the sequence is still one of the exciting pieces in the film. Both those films are more intricate with plot, characters and structure, by a mile. Gangster Squad doesn't focus on stuff like that, it wants to thrill you. Which is why some sequences in which we are suppose to care whether our characters live or die don't really pan out.

It has a graphic novel feel to it, very film noir and for those who've played L.A. Noir, will get the same sense of style. While the film looks great in a lot of sequences, that same style has some short comings, mainly the use of CGI as movement for the camera. It's the most noticeable, at least for me, in two scenes. With Josh Brolin in an elevator early on fighting two crooked guys and the second is when Ryan Gosling decides to pull his gun out in the middle of a club. The second scene in question is in slow motion and focuses mainly on his face, but the jarring background movement opposed to the steadiness of his face is just that, jarring and it takes you out of the film and makes you realize you are watching a film.

Everyone plays their roles respectively well, even if the team seems one dimensional. Sean Penn hams it up in a role that demands him to overact. The make up may distract some, but it added to the character for me. He was the one who seemed to have the most fun with his role. A lot of people scream style over substance and this may be true in some cases. I for one never went into the film expecting writing of another calibre and thus I found myself enjoying it a tad more.

There are some laughable scenes due to how cliché they are. One involves a character throwing their badge away into the water and another has the classic, character yelling another character's name as they walk away, when that person stops and turns, no one says a word. Moments like these that are played out in numerous films make me yawn and roll my eyes.

So go into Gangster Squad with an open mind, don't expect greatness, just a fun ride.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 9 March 2014]

Gangster Squad is directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Will Beal. It stars Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick and Michael Pena. Music is by Steve Jablonski and cinematography by Dion Beebee.

Los Angeles is being brought to its knees by crime boss Mickey Cohen (Penn). In one of the darkened offices of the police department, a special squad of officers is being assembled. Given free licence to bring Cohen and his operations down by any means necessary, the Gangster Squad fight fir with fire.

Loosely based on real life facts, Gangster Squad is a good old slice of machine gun etiquette. An all star cast get to play good guys and wise guys in The Untouchables tradition, even if that in itself can't quite lift the film to the higher echelons of gangster movies past and present.

There's absolutely nothing new here, it plays out as expected. Brolin and Gosling are the main smooth operators in the good guys camp, the former given the family man in danger sub-plot, the latter given the dangerous dame to fall in love with in the shapely form of Emma Stone, who as it happens is also dating Cohen! Hmm...

Over in the wise guys department is Penn on full tilt sweary and hammy overdrive. It's a very colourful portrayal, menacing and completely over the top. How the performance sits with you will greatly depend on how you find Penn as an actor when let loose on a cartoon characterisation.

It's all very period pleasing, with a bustling late 40s L.A. hosting men with hats, trench coats and tommy-guns. Men who frequent the speakeasy bars as torch singers warble their stuff. There is nothing wrong with the production at all, except maybe when the dialogue veers to clunky. The action scenes are well crafted, loud, bloody and exciting, and the photography sparkles and the music soars.

If only the makers had put some thought into it, a bit of brains to go with the brawn. As a comic book type gangster piece, it works well on entertainment terms, elsewhere its lightweight and formula compliant, with the Ribisi, Patrick and Pena characters telegraphed a mile away. So, quite some way away from the great The Untouchables then, but better than Mullholland Falls. Make of that what you will. 6.5/10

Simple characters, violent, over the top style

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 25 September 2013]

In 1949, gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is taking over L.A. from the Chicago mob. Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is leading a squad to destroy his organization by any means necessary. Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) is Mickey's girl, and she falls for the charming Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling).

There is no subtlety in this movie. It's just style, violence, and 2-dimensional acting. The style is over the top. So it the violence. And the acting is as cartoonish as a comic book. The story is a straight forward shootout. This is not the 'The Untouchables'. It is more like a comic book version. That's part of its charm. It doesn't matter that the characters are simplistic. It just matters that they shoot a lot.

WELCOME TO LOS ANGELES

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 26 July 2018]

This is a fictionalized version of the story of LA gangster Mickey Cohen, excellently portrayed by Sean Penn who looks nothing like him. The action takes place in 1949/1950 and is not shot in black and white. Combat veteran Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is asked to form a squad of elite men to take down Mickey Cohen, but not as cops, but as a gangsters hitting his places one by one.

John has a pregnant wife (Mireille Enos) who would rather leave town than have her husband take on the mobster. Saddled with the fact it won't happen, she helps her husband assemble a squad which includes Jerry (Ryan Gosling) a playboy cop who is seeing Mickey's girlfriend (Emma Stone). Emma Stone has played too many down to earth women to pull off a swanky mobster girl. She looked like a kid who was playing in her mommy's make-up box. Perhaps that was the genius of the film as she was to suppose to be a small town girl out of place.

Jerry uses a pick up line from 1941 comedy "Hold That Ghost" when he talks about playing post office. Again, was this bad writing or would have someone used a line from a film? At times the characters acted like they came out of "Sin City," stereotypes of themselves. Where do they get all these new Packards to shoot up?

The film had some good lines such as Sean Penn: "All good things must one day be burnt to the ground for insurance money." There is enough humor in the film to keep it from becoming dry.

Now the bad news is that Mickey Cohen was actually brought down by the IRS and not the gangster squad. His girlfriend Liz (not Grace)did three years because she wouldn't testify against him. So as far as facts go, rate this well below an Oliver Stone film. I liked the film, but not because there was any truth to it.

Parental Guide: F-bombs. No sex. Stripper with large pasties.

Such an uderrated movie.

[undeaddt · 7/10 · 20 March 2018]

When you pick actors as good as all of these that were picked here, no matter the decency of the movie, you get a winning formula. I like mob stories, mafia movies and crime thrillers, so this was a match made in heaven for me. Both the protagonists and the antagonist were acting amazing, the story was pretty decent, the action was great, the style of the movie was retro and original at the same time. I think that this movie deserves at least a 7/10.

Guilty Pleasure

[ferguson-6 · 5/10 · 9 January 2013]

Greetings again from the darkness. Admittedly, I am one of those who take movies very seriously. Good movies make me happy (even the sad ones), and bad movies make me sulk. Every now and then, one comes along that I find myself enjoying despite the warning buzzers blasting in my film snob brain. Such is the latest from director Ruben Fleisher (who also directed the entertaining Zombieland).

"Inspired by true events" should always be interpreted as a disclaimer that the movie will play fast and loose with history and the details of the story. Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen, a renowned Los Angeles gangster from the late 40's. Due to widespread police corruption, Police Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) authorized an "off the books" team to take down mob operations (gambling, prostitution, etc). This much was documented in Paul Lieberman's book. How this story is presented by Fleisher and screenwriter Will Beall (signed on for the Justice League movie) has more in common with a comic book than actual history.

The movie is extremely beautiful to look at. It's slick and stylish with a glamorous color palette, and the production design is top notch - capturing the look and feel of a booming Los Angeles. If you are expecting the next "L.A. Confidential" or even "The Untouchables", you will be disappointed. It's more in line with "Dick Tracy", "Scarface", and "Hoffa". In other words ... it looks great and the action, characters and dialogue are all way over the top.

The cast is superb, but most are underutilized. Josh Brolin is the tough leader of the squad that features Ryan Gosling (the token cool womanizer), Robert Patrick (the token dead-eye gunslinger), Anthony Mackie (the innercity, knife-wielding token black cop), Giovanni Ribisi (the token geeky electronics expert), and Michael Pena (the rookie and token Hispanic cop). Unfortunately, my crude descriptions are just about as in-depth as the movie goes with any of them. In fact, Yvette Tucker playing Carmen Miranda, gets almost as much screen time as any of these cops as she sings "Chica Chica Boom Chic".

The violence is cartoonish in its fervor. The aim of these gangsters is among the worst in movie history, and that's quite an accomplishment. Using Tommy Guns and pistols, my estimate is that one in every 167 shots actually hits an intended target. Many elaborate set pieces are destroyed in the process. The exception is Robert Patrick's character, who is actually featured in a detective serial. He never misses ... even after being wounded. Penn plays Cohen as a ruthless mob boss, unwilling to accept any failure from his crew. And you know what that means. No pink slips here ... just ugly death via power drill, burning elevator or classic car tug-of-war.

An interesting note is the presence of three actors from recent cult TV shows. Holt McCallany (Lights Out), Mireille Enos (The Killing) and Troy Garity (Boss) all have key roles in the film, as does Jon Polito, whose face and voice make him a must-cast in any gangster film.

If you are able to turn off the logical and reasoning part of your brain ... just sit back and enjoy Emma Stone smoking a cig while wearing a red evening gown, an understated Ryan Gosling with an odd speech pattern, Sean Penn wearing a prosthetic nose and spewing hilarious bad guy lines, and the creepy feeling that Josh Brolin is just 25 years away from looking and sounding exactly like Nick Nolte ... then hopefully you can take this one for what it is - a guilty pleasure. www.MovieReviewsFromTheDark.wordpress.com

Very entertaining, watch at least once

[davidink · 8/10 · 23 March 2019]

The only kind of gangster movie I like to watch nowadays is where the gangster's butts are kicked, the harder buttkicking the better, and from that perspective I love this movie, with Brolin not being far from a superman. They've selected a great bunch of actors and the storytelling is very entertaining.

The Guardian says the story has little connection to reality but there is nothing to support that claim. The story seems to match the real events rather well, you can find the story in an LA Times Article from 2008 by googling "Crusaders in the underworld: The LAPD takes on organized crime, by Paul Lieberman", an award-winning journalist, and he also wrote a book on this subject in 2012.

I find the lack of blood unrealistic especially in the beginning, but it is nice not to have the actors wading in blood like in Tarantinos movies so that's fine.

Many people here seem to criticize this movie for being a cliche copy of other gangster movies, but on the contrary I find that if one disregards all gangster movies I dont want to watch because they are fictional or assume you are interested in the lives of gangster leeches then not many are left, this is one of them and definitely worth watching. Maybe there is a bit too much focus on superficial entertainment and less on deepening the characters but maybe for a reason, I can see how personalities like Brolins and Goslings are not the deepest, and maybe there wasn't much facts to base Stones character on, since it seems Lieberman's work was mostly based on police reports.

So if you feel like rooting for the good guys and seeing butts kicked in a very entertaining movie based on true events then this is for you.

Reasonably entertaining, if you don't want to have to use your brain...

[grantss · 6/10 · 8 December 2015]

So-so. Feels like a bad attempt at a James Cagney ripoff, with a bit of LA Confidential and The Untouchables thrown in. Yep, not at all original. Plus, it's more style than substance - flashy action scenes, over-the-top violence, clichéd dialogue and plot.

Performances are varied in quality. Josh Brolin is decent in the lead role, though he probably gets the bulk of the clichéd lines. Sean Penn, for all his incredible acting talent, is quite unconvincing as the head gangster. Crime-drama is probably not his strongest suit. Ryan Gosling is quite weak in his role. Emma Stone and Nick Nolte give solid performances in reasonably minor roles.

Despite all its obvious weaknesses, is reasonably entertaining, especially if you don't want to have to engage your brain.

Incredibly Cliché

[mdspittl · 5/10 · 8 January 2013]

I saw a screening of Gangster Squad last night and to say the least, I was unimpressed. I had decent expectations for the film with a stout cast the likes of Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling along with a director whose last two films I enjoyed (Zombieland and 30 Mins or Less). So what went wrong? Like the summary says it was incredibly cliché of every gangster movie out there and tried so hard to be like LA Confidential and the Untouchables. While this movie would have done much better in the 90's I don't feel it fits in this generation of film.

You have Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen who decides he wants to be the king of Los Angeles and he will take out whoever is in his way. Nick Nolte plays the police chief who is tired of the way LA is going and recruits hard nosed, do-as-I-please Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) to create a crack team to take Cohen down. From there you have the obligatory round-up-the team where he gets the bi-focal smart guy, the past-his-prime outlaw and side kick, the token black guy, and the cop who doesn't want to join at first but is thrust into the fray.

You then have a typical hunt down the bad guy, have a couple of shoot outs where an incredible amount of bullets fly and no one gets touched, and a very flat romance where you wonder why these two are together for no other reason than they are really good looking. There were also moments in the climax of the movie where the audience burst out in laughter and I feel that it was incredibly unwarranted.

The only real redeeming quality was Sean Penn who gave an intense, powerful performance as Mickey Cohen. All in all I was disappointed in Gangster Squad and feel like the entire movie brought nothing new to the table of the gangster genre.

Spoof or serious gangster drama?

[estebangonzalez10 · 6/10 · 21 January 2013]

¨I always knew I'd die in Burbank¨

Gangster Squad walks a really thin line between being a terrible film and an entertaining one. First of all it has a really great and talented cast; it also has a good production design and is very stylized reminding us of some epic gangster films. On the other hand the film only looks gangster-like on the surface; it is not really a serious neo- noir gangster film but more of a light comedic gangster movie. This is director Ruben Fleisher's follow up to his hit comedy Zombieland, and in a way it does feel like a satire of sorts of gangster films, but in some strange way it fails to find its own personality. You never know if you're supposed to take the movie seriously or not because something is missing in the mix between drama and comedy. One critic defined the film better than I could by claiming it is ¨LA Confidential without the script.¨ It has the look and the tone of a serious gangster film, but the script which was loosely adapted by Will Beall from Paul Lieberman's book just fails and the dialogues seem cartoonish at times. The violence is pretty heavy as there are plenty of glamorized gunfight scenes and a large body count. Sean Penn plays the villain a little over the top, but it works if you view the film as this sort of spoof of the gangster genre. And really in my opinion this approach is what works best because it is entertaining if taken lightly as a spoof. I feel sorry for those who went into this film with high expectations because they will mostly be disappointed, unless they can live with a mindless popcorn action flick with some good performances.

The story takes place in 1949 Los Angeles where Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), a mob king from Chicago, has taken over the city and is planning on controlling all criminal activities there with the help of corrupt officers and judges. He will eliminate whoever stands in his path. Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) on the other hand is a WWII veteran who is determined to do what he can to clean up the city. When Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) hears about O'Mara's heroics he decides to assign him with a special underground task: to form an elite squad of police officers that will take down the mob King. Thus O'Mara begins his quest to find the right officers for his special team with the help of his wife Connie (Mireille Enos) who is worried about his wellbeing and wants him to be protected as best as possible. O'Mara chooses Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Max Kennard (Robert Patrick) and his partner Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña), Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi) who's the brains in the operation, and finally Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) who decides to accept O'Mara's proposal after a member of the mob kills a kid he knew from the streets. Together these officers begin to try to intercept and disrupt Cohen's operations working as an underground hit squad. Wooters also happens to be having an affair with Cohen's love interest, Grace (Emma Stone), which could or could not be a good thing. And so the action begins as the squad tries to disrupt Cohen's reign and clean up the city.

As I mentioned before this is an entertaining film which sometimes borderlines on the bad side considering it does have some pretty bad writing and underdeveloped characters. But it did work for me as a sort of spoof and light hearted film with a very stylized look to it. It has some fun action sequences with some strong performances, especially from the always reliable Ryan Gosling who continues to reinvent himself in every movie. I absolutely loved him here once again. Josh Brolin gives a pretty solid performance when he is not asked to do the voice over bit (it was a bit annoying at the beginning giving it a sort of fake Sin City vibe to it). The rest of the cast is pretty good although not getting enough screen time or story lines to develop their characters. Sean Penn plays the stereotypical bad guy a little over the top, but I enjoyed his performance as well (it wouldn't have worked if you were expecting a serious gangster drama film). In the end Gangster Squad did work for me and I was entertained with this shoot-em up gangster film, but I know it isn't for everyone.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

A Solid Entertainement. What's Up With The Critics?

[Mikeboy0001 · 7/10 · 7 April 2013]

Well, after seeing such low ratings in Rottentomatoes and Metacritic, I was thinking in missing this one out, but I'm glad I didn't. IMDb isn't usually the most reliable source, but at a 7 and with it's casting I decided to give it a go. I went with a low expectations, but it turned out to be a very entertaining flick. Great actors, good rhythm and a pretty good story. Sean Penn looked like it had born a gangster, and the action scenes where solid. Really can't understand why critic's wise, it's regarded as nothing worth, specially considering on how bad so many celluloid is coming out of Hollywood. IMDb is spot on this time, it's a straight 7, and a good one!!!

Police mob against the real mob

[deloudelouvain · 7/10 · 19 March 2017]

Why there are people that hate this movie will always remain a mystery to me. I'm not going to say it's the best gangster movie ever, far from that, but it still is an enjoyable movie to watch. If you don't like violent scenes than I get it that Gangster Squad is not for you, because there is a lot of violence in it. But apart from that there is absolutely nothing that could justify hate towards this movie. The cast is excellent, with good performances from almost every actor. It might not be Sean Penn's best performance but it isn't bad either. The story is very easy to follow and you never get bored. The special police force that uses mob tactics to bring down that same mob is a good story, maybe not new, but who cares? If you don't like Mafia movies than I suggest you don't watch Gangster Squad because that is basically what you are going to get.

For Disagreeable Work, Disagreeable People

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 11 January 2013]

Before major league baseball came to the west coast if you referred to the Mick in the Fifties it wasn't Mantle they were talking about. And Mickey Rooney was kind of eclipsed in the title. No that would have been gangster Mickey Cohen, a crude, violent, and vulgar man who ruled Los Angeles organized crime and was often at odds with quieter and less attention getting folks like Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello.

If you watched Warren Beatty's classic Bugsy you saw the genesis of Cohen's character played there by Harvey Keitel. After the contract hit on Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel in 1947, Cohen became number one in organized crime on the West Coast. Sean Penn picks up on that character and puts his own particular stamp on Cohen. As a performer Penn amazes me at the range of what he can play. Ironically at 5'9" Penn is two short to have played the over six foot Harvey Milk for which he won his second Oscar and he's too tall to have played 5'5" Mickey Cohen. But Penn made these parts his own and dominates both of those films.

Cohen attracts so much attention unto himself that reform police chief William Parker played by Nick Nolte has decided that he has to do nothing but declare a no quarter war in secret less civil libertarians get up in arms. So he recruits an idealistic Josh Brolin for the job. After this the plot of this film runs pretty close to Kevin Costner's The Untouchables with Brolin being far less of a boy scout than Costner was as Eliot Ness.

Wife Mireille Enos makes the useful suggestion that for this kind of disagreeable work of being LA's own secret police, Brolin needs some disagreeable people for the squad. Those he gets are Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie, Michael Pena, Giovanni Ribisi, and cynical war veteran Ryan Gosling who makes war on Cohen real personal by moving in on his main squeeze Emma Stone. Both Stone and Enos have the only two women's roles of substance, but both prove to be critical in shaping the motivations of all the men around them.

Unlike what you see here, Mickey Cohen did not go down for first degree murder. Like Al Capone whom he tried to emulate in methods and style, Cohen was taken down by the audit boys at the IRS and like Capone did a stretch in Alcatraz. Still if you're wanting action, the final shootout between Penn and his hired guns and the Gangster Squad recruited by Brolin should more than satisfy anyone's craving.

Gangster Squad like the more fictionalized LA Confidential before it is a great depiction of a bygone era and a colorful one. And Sean Penn totally dominates this film, hitting on all levels the various the various strains in the psyche that made up Mickey Cohen.

Captivating and intense, but lacks some substance for those who can't "let it go and watch the movie"

[LindseyThePirate · 9/10 · 11 January 2013]

This movie has everything you could ask for, in an action-packed emotional thrill ride, provided that you are able to just let go, and let yourself to be engrossed. For those who prefer films that may have a little less predictability, or people that find themselves unable to maintain the "suspension of disbelief", this movie would be understandably less enjoyable.

Right alongside moments that range from somewhat cringe-worthy, to positively grisly, there are enough instances of justice, and pleasant surprises to cause powerful feel-good moments just shortly after even the darkest of situations. I personally felt a constant paralyzing tension keeping me glued to my seat in the theater throughout the entire movie, and couldn't bring myself to leave and go to the bathroom.

The cast and their acting is just about flawless, (though admittedly a bit cliché at times), and the sets and cinematography are superb. Sean Penn is positively frightening, and shines in his role as the villain, while Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling perfectly portray the face of their vigilante-style band of misfits; The Gangster Squad.

If you are familiar with the story that this movie is loosely based from, you may be disappointed by the fact that it is QUITE loosely based indeed. I feel that this makes is a likable, albeit somewhat predictable movie, but others who expect it to stick with the "real story" may not find it as enjoyable, despite the overall positive tone that the new adaption allows.

Though the reviews seem to be a horse-a-piece, I recommend seeing it and judging for yourself, because it truly is an interesting thrill ride that will have you rooting for the good guys, tearing up from time to time, and cringing at the evil that Sean Penn is able to embody in an absolutely brilliant and stylish movie about good guys doing wrong to take down bad guys doing worse.

West Coast Untouchables

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 10 January 2013]

Mobster Micky Cohen is taking over the Los Angeles underworld so Chief of Police Parker forms a squad to operate outside formal police guidelines to dismantle Cohen's operations using his own illegal tactics against him.

This movie is essentially The Untouchables, only in LA. The cast is great (although I still simply do not get Ryan Gosling), and a lot goes on, most of it shooting. The baddies are equipped with guns and ammunition which mostly misses, and the goodies are equipped with guns and ammunition which mostly finds its target. Sean Penn plays Cohen as a pantomime villain.

This movie is quite good fun if you want a retro action-packed gangster thriller with no depth - it is almost entirely predictable from the title alone. I quite enjoyed it, but it was a bit "Chinese meal" - 5 minutes later you've forgotten it and are ready for another one.

Best assembly of clichés I've ever seen

[pshanosky · 3/10 · 18 January 2013]

January movies are traditionally terrible. With this fact in mind, I generally try to avoid theaters for one month out of the year. Unfortunately for me, the top-notch cast and original September release date tricked me into buying the notion that this could be a good movie. The fact that my friends showed up unannounced to drag me out to see it didn't help either.

This movie aims to be something lasting, but for any serious movie buff, it falls well short of it's target. At times, it felt to me like a legitimate comedy. Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is a mob connected ex-boxer who decides that L.A. is his for the taking. Sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is a WWII vet who is tasked with creating a crew to take him down. The rest of the cast falls into the "good guys" category of cops, moles, and love interests. This includes (but is not limited to) Ryan Gosling, Robert Patrick, and Emma Stone.

I was never bored during this film. Having seen many movies, even the terrible scenes kept me entertained by the sheer brilliance of over-used plot devices and clichéd character stories. Need a borderline cop who drinks, smokes, gambles, but has morals? Ryan Gosling has you covered. Old fashioned six-shooter cop with dead aim? Don't worry, Robert Patrick is there. Fear not, because the writer (Will Beall) has also included the 1940s tech guy, as well as a token black cop aggravated with heroin use in the community, and an apprentice to Patrick's character who just happens to be Hispanic.

I blame the failure of this movie entirely on unimaginative writing, to the point of being almost insulting. It is not as if Brolin, Gosling, Patrick, or least of all, Penn, are bad actors. They certainly made bad choices signing onto this script, but I can't see the checks they are cashing. The entire plot is predictable. 15 minutes into the movie, anyone could accurately predict the next hour or more. The actors are given nothing to work with. Additionally, Emma Stone's character serves no purpose whatsoever other than to add an attractive female supporting. Though the film is well-shot (what isn't nowadays) and has beautiful set details, the writing is so laughable it is nearly impossible to enjoy much of this movie.

I'm not one to give a movie anything less than 4-5 stars merely because I did not like it. Seems childish, but I couldn't give this more than three. The pace never slowed, good for a star. The setting was good, that's another. Finally, the cast did what they could with this script, that makes three. Can't find another strength to this movie. If you want to see the disowned child of L.A. Confidential be my guest. Re-watching something you actually like is probably a better option.

The action is thrilling and the cast is dynamite!

[Hellmant · 8/10 · 31 January 2013]

'GANGSTER SQUAD': Four Stars (Out of Five)

Director Ruben Fleischer's (of 'ZOMBIELAND' and '30 MINUTES OR LESS' fame) take on a gangster film about the LAPD officers who waged war on Mickey Cohen and his gang in the 1940s and 1950s. The script was written by Will Beall (who's only previous writing experience is for the TV series 'CASTLE') and it was adapted from the book 'Tales from the Gangster Squad' by Paul Lieberman. It's highlighted by it's all-star cast including Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie and Michael Pena. If you don't take it too seriously and are just looking for a good time it's a lot of fun and packs some killer thrills and beautiful visuals.

The film is set in 1949 Los Angeles when Mickey Cohen (Penn) was the most powerful gangster in the California criminal underworld. Chief Bill Parker (Nolte) makes it his mission to stop Cohen, with whatever means necessary, so he picks Sgt. John O'Mara (Brolin) to lead up a special task force, after O'Mara recently saved a young girl from one of Cohen's deranged thugs (James Hebert). This doesn't sit well with O'Mara's pregnant wife Connie (Mireille Enos) but she reluctantly gives him her support and helps him handpick his team. Famous gangster-killer Max Kennard (Patrick), his partner Navidad Ramirez (Pena), wire-tapper Conway Keeler (Ribisi) and Detective Coleman Harris (Mackie) all join the team. O'Mara asks his buddy Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Gosling), who's sleeping with Cohen's girl Grace Faraday (Stone), to join the team as well but Wooters turns him down. Then Jerry witnesses the viscous killing of a young boy, by Cohen's men, and has a change of heart.

The movie is all style over substance but it's beautiful that way. The action is thrilling and the cast is dynamite (especially Gosling and Penn, who chew through the scenery). It's always pretty to look at and about as cool as a 40s gangster flick can be. It's completely over the top and not believable in any way but it's just a lot of fun like that. You of course can't compare it to classic gangster films like 'THE GODFATHER', 'GOODFELLAS' or 'THE DEPARTED' because it doesn't have the character depth or intriguing plot but it's still as cool as most B gangster/action flicks out there. It wants to be 'THE UNTOUCHABLES' and it doesn't quite live up to that either (which is classic as well). It lies somewhere more in between 'UNTOUCHABLES' and 1991's 'MOBSTERS' (starring Christian Slater).

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Solid Movie, Better Trailer

[cambamcam-56126 · 7/10 · 23 October 2021]

With an all star cast, was expecting more from the movie. More acting than action. Probably because it would be hard to budget a movie in a, "1950s," era. Overall though, solid performance from the actors and actresses.

Recommend for late night movie.

Cliché on Cliché

[lilantman10 · 5/10 · 12 January 2013]

I love Ryan Gosling. I love Zombieland. I think Micheal Pena is one of the most underrated actors working right now. I don't know what happened. No Wait Yeah I do this is one of the laziest most sterile scripts that I've witnessed in recent memory. This feels like a studio executive went up to a script generator and typed in "Undercover cop movie" and it printed out the Expendables but with cops . Then he read it and put in " Undercover Cover Cop movie set in classic Hollywood".

To get the positives out of the way, the movie has a great aesthetic. It's beautiful, colors pop out nice and saturated. The actors here are all solid. Nobody is really embarrassing themselves, aside from being in this movie, from their performances and some of them even manage to deliver some pretty cheesy lines really well. The pacing here is pretty good almost too fast, but i'll come back to that. The action is nothing to speak of it's just there. The Direction leaves a lot to be desired, unlike the atmospheric classic hollywoods movies this rips off which have a slow focused camera work to them this is shot like any other action movie. Ruben Fleisher is definitely an actor's director he is able to get decent to good performances from actors, and I don't want to right him off just yet.

The Ugly. This movie is so generic. Even worse it's predictable. I've noticed a slew of genre movies recently that take a traditional typical story and it's clichés and turn them into tropes and strive to make them better. Lincoln Lawyer, 21 Jump Street, End Of Watch, take traditional story and plot points and make them better and inventive . This movie relishes in it's clichés, but not enough to make fun of them. The first thing the villain does it kills somebody. No nuance or tension he just kills somebody. The next scene is the cop whose too dedicated to his job making an arrest he shouldn't as his partner advices him not to. The scene after that he goes into the chiefs office. Had it been more over the top, I was laughing hysterically at some parts not intended of course, I could've enjoyed it more, but it's not smart at all. It even could've been like Sherlock Holmes 2009 or Pirates, but no it's fine being a standard action movie.

The Bad. This movie is written by Will Beall who is currently writing the Justice League movie that is set to come out in 2 years. Yeah, after the reviews for this movie come out and the box office take Justice League will find a new writer. I have nothing but contempt for this guy. This script has no meat it has stock characters with great actors. Once again if this was Edgar Wright or Joss Wheedon they'd get some dimension or have a lot of heart or be really funny, but no. The team consists of The Overdedicated cop, The guy who never misses, The guy who uses a knife, The tech guy, and the Newbie. There either needs to be Character development with a mediocre story, or Story Development with stock characters. This has neither. In every scene you get force feed exposition. If Tyler Perry directed an action movie it'd be like this. No subtly.

****SPOILERS*** There was a line so corny I didn't realize how bad it was Until I left the theatre. Sean Penn is the bad guy, whose scene can't end without someone being killed or yelled at, and he says to his henchmen who execute some one " You know the drill". Then they pickup a drill and kill him with it.. I couldn't make that up **** SPOILERS OVERE

This movie is a bologna sandwich. It's the yellow starburst of movies. Although It is more enjoyable then the Expendables, I couldn't tell you why it's the same idea big cast no effort, This movie is something you watch at a friends house. This is the perfect movie for one night at Redbox. All the people who don't watch 2 movies a day will enjoy it and think it's a good movie. All the smart people can have some friends over with some beers and laugh and make jokes about it and play " Name what movie that scene was stolen from". Basically an alternative go watch Mad Men or L.A. Confidential or go play L.A. Noire much more rewarding.

Get the Gangsters

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 11 November 2013]

Last time I saw Mickey Cohen portrayed on the big screen he was played by Harvey Keitel in Bugsy. Keitel was nominated for an Oscar as Best supporting actor.

In Gangster Squad, Cohen is played by a heavily made up Sean Penn who plays him in broad strokes. I think it is safe to say that Penn will not be getting his third Oscar for this role.

Gangster Squad is a meat and potatoes type of film. It is an unpretentious good guys against bad guys.

If they wished to target a LA Confidential or The Untouchables vibe then they missed their target by a country mile. Gangster Squad lacks the aesthetic looks or the literary scope of these films.

The film is set in 1949 Los Angeles. Mickey Cohen controls the city. He has judges and police in his pocket and no one is willing to cross him.

Nick Nolte plays the Police Chief who recruits Sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) a World War II veteran who gathers a special unit of an ethnically diverse cops. He also later gets fellow cop and playboy detective, Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) to join them.

However at first Gangster Squad give the impression that they are the spiritual successors to The Keystone Kops given their ineptitude.

The film is easy entertainment but nothing else. They have a hiss able villain, straight up good guys and each move is by the numbers. You can sort of guess which one of the squad members might be in grave trouble because it is so predictable.