Director: Ruben Fleischer
Stars: Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick
Nolte
Short Review, no spoilers
Rife with unapologetic clichés but nevertheless an
entertaining gangster romp with lots of flash.
Full Review (spoilers)
Going in to this film with a healthy level of cynicism, I
found myself enjoying it as a harmless, knockabout genre piece that I really
don’t think is trying to be anything more than it is. Far preferable to such
pretentious neo-noirs as Brick, Gangster Squad is at times old school in a way
that many films before it have been forgiven for, some of which are even
considered classics. I hasten to add that that does not make this example a
classic, but just that a bit of macho posturing and brawling (albeit balanced
neatly with some decent-ish lady roles) carries as much nostalgia as all of the
retro stylings.
A grittier effort with the same cast and source material
would have been more rewarding, maybe even awards worthy, as proven by LA
Confidential with the same subject matter. Nevertheless, Sean Penn is fun as a
snarling Mickey Cohen; Ryan Gosling uses his lines very well whereby his
characteristic lazy smugness becomes charisma; Emma Stone riffs off him nicely
and does well with what could be a nauseatingly two-dimensional moll character;
and the back up in Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick and Michael
Pena are all good considering their limited resources and screen time. At the
head of things, Josh Brolin is suitably gruff and attractively buff, but yet to
fulfil the promise of his subtly excellent re-emergence in No Country for Old
Men. To be fair to him, his character’s missus is more interesting – after a
horrifyingly cringy intro, the invaluable influence of a heavily pregnant hero
cop’s wife in the selection of a super squad assembled to destroy gangster
influence in LA is potentially the film’s most gratifying offering.
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