Gangster Squad

I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one: this film is a much poorer version of The Untouchables, and is as less sophisticated than L.A. Confidential. With that said, this isn't a terrible movie. Indeed, it has plenty of action to grasp your attention, but there is so much wrong with it. Firstly, there are some good action moments, but there aren’t any memorable scenes. And secondly, for a first-rate cast like this, the story and the characters are very disappointing.

Gangster Squad stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, as well as quality supporting actors like Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie and Mireille Enos. As I type up these actors names, I really want to like this movie so badly, but the only major positive thing about this film, is the cast.

It’s 1950’s Los Angeles, Mickey Cohen (Penn), a former boxer, is ruling the underworld with drugs and gambling – an underworld he has brought all the way from Chicago. And Mickey is determined to make Los Angeles his own by scaring, bribing and charming the cops, the judges, the journalists and the ladies. Police Chief Baker (Nolte) recruits a resilient cop, Sergeant John O’Mara (Brolin) to covertly take down Mickey Cohen’s operations, thus to assemble a team of honest cops (Gosling, Ribisi, Patrick, Pena and Mackie) to do the dirty work. Along with the support of his pregnant wife, Connie (Enos), despite having concerns for John’s safety: “Mickey Cohen can have whatever he wants, but he can’t have you,” she tells her husband upon hearing his plans to go head-to-head with the powerful gangster.

This is a mediocre gangster film with a traditional western narrative – a group of good-hearted misfits set out to defeat the bad guy to give the town its freedom back. And there is little material for these quality actors to shine. Brolin does his best to play a tough-cop who served in the war. Nolte’s presence is laughable due to a poorly-written character. Gosling and Stone fail to re-ignite their chemistry after their success in Crazy Stupid Love. Penn gives a rather bland performance as Cohen (but you can see that he’s trying). Ribisi is pretty much replaying the same role he did in Saving Private Ryan (only that he’s a tech-specialist). And Patrick, Pena and Mackie are the token old guy, Mexican guy and black guy.

Also, this film is far too busy with fist fights, shoot outs and lame dialogue that there’s no room for character development. The weak narrative is merely disguised by a great cast and some enjoyable action scenes. There are some very stylish slow-motion shots of tommy guns being fired, and a well-constructed car chase scene where the squad try to obstruct a shipment of heroin. However, the overall look of the film is more cartoonish that noir-ish (think Dick Tracy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) if this film is meant to be taken seriously – the costumes and sets appear too clean that it all just felt like looking at an actual film set, and not the world these characters are supposed to be living and breathing in.

Roger Ebert mentions in his review that director Ruben Fleischer’s (Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less) experience with comedy seems like he wanted to mock the crime genre, which may explain the very laid-back tone of the film – and I would have to agree. I really enjoyed Fleischer’s previous films, and I think for now, he should stick with comedies – he seems too mild and casual to amount to gritty filmmakers like Brian De Palmer, Curtis Hanson, as well as Michael Mann (Heat and Public Enemies), Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas and Casino) or Ridley Scott (American Gangster). Perhaps a different director could have saved this film, as well as a better writer – but who knows. I would argue that this story may have been better off as a TV series (or mini-series) which would allow far more room for plot development for these potentially great characters.

It’s a fun ride with too much dazzle and not enough unexpected turns that it just felt like watching a Michael Bay film (if you haven’t noticed, I’m not a fan).