Gangster Squad (2013)

Simply A Masterpiece

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

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 is a team of "vigilante" cops composed by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), Officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) and Officer Conwell Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), with one goal only, to take down Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). It's a flick full of action, gunfire, crime and with a pinch of romance.The director Ruben Fleischer succeeds to make me feel like I was living in the 50's, surrounded by the mob vibe. The corruption, the disregard for human life, the car shootouts, the simple yet complicated life, the charisma that society emanated. It's 1 hour and 53 minutes of a reality that I never experienced and a part of me wish I did. It goes from the mob brutality to the simple 50's life, back to mob violence, back to the 50's point of view. It's a good set of events, making you live in it.The character development was left a bit on the side, which was not bad, since in this movie I just needed to know who were the bad guys and the good guys to fully understand the plot. And, to that, nothing was left to chance.The movie has the classic Hollywood play in which goes to a point where everything seems lost, with no solution, only to be solved by an unexpected gift. That move is a little outplayed, from my point a view, but it certainly works to create the mood of impotency.Even though I loved the 50's/mafia environment provided, and that this is based on a true story, I just can't help but feel that it all looked so simple and easy for the Squad, without any real challenge from the "villain". It's entertaining, for sure, but it killed a crucial part of the mood for me. I have to give it 6 out of 10.

This is an excellent movie, lots of action, non-stop, charming or sinister by turns. I've read most of the book too. The book was the actual history and, while the characters in the movie have names of real people in a real time and indeed are true to the characters of that time, the movie itself is no more history than The Godfather was a history. It doesn't matter. The movie was so good I happily read the book when I came across it and re-visited the movie again after I'd read it. If you like gangster movies this is a gem.

I'm not sure what to think of 'Gangster Squad' to be honest. On one hand I was impressed with the production, particularly the action scenes which were enjoyable and very well made. Set in 1940s LA, the attention to detail was meticulous, from the cars to the clothes and even the wallpaper and furniture.On the other hand, I thought it was dull and repetitive. There's nothing special about 'Gangster Squad' that makes it stand out from other gangster movies, it's too generic. That said, I thought the cast did a decent enough job at making it somewhat interesting, especially Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen.Overall, 'Gangster Squad' isn't a bad movie, but it's not a particularly good one either. I enjoyed it to a certain extent, but largely thanks to the action scenes which only account for a fraction of the running time.