Gangster Squad

Director: Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less)
Starring: Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte
Certificate: 15
Run-time: 113 minutes

IN SHORT: Entertaining but shallow. If you want action and one-liners, Gangster Squad delivers. If you want a great narrative with depth, look elsewhere.

Gangster Squad is the film equivalent of a page three model in The Sun - nice to look at but intellectually very simple. Ruben Fleischer's star-studded mob-romp isn't a bad film by any means, in fact it's very watchable if you leave your brain at home. However, strip away the chiseled good looks of Gosling, the sultry Stone and the heavily stylised cinematography and what you're left with is a gangster movie that seems hell-bent on ticking off every cliche found in the genre.

Gangster Squad is set in post-war Los Angeles, a city filled with the prosperous and wealthy. None moreso than Jewish mafia kingpin Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). Cohen has been murdering, bribing and drinking his way to the top. Victims are too scared to press charges as Cohen has the city's best lawyers and cops paid off with drug money. Seemingly the only honest cop left, John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) assembles a squad of undercover, off-the-record cops to take down Cohen's empire and drive him out of Los Angeles.

If you swap Brolin for Steve Carrell, this could be a scene from Crazy, Stupid, Love

The 'gangster squad' are like the Avengers of the 50's - tough, honest hero's who want to defend their city. The last man he recruits is Jerry Wooters, a smooth-talking cop who spends more time at strip clubs and bars than behind a desk. Wooters is played by Ryan Gosling, who's career seems to revolve around effortlessly cool, charming characters. His role in Gangster Squad required more than that though and I do think he was miscast. In my opinion, the role of Jerry Wooters needed a more rugged, stereotypically masculine actor. I can't argue with Gosling's ability to wear a suit though, maybe that's why he was cast?

Whilst we're talking about acting, I better devote some attention to Sean Penn's performance as Mickey Cohen. There's no doubt that he over-acted and there was something very off-putting about his nose. (Did the make-up team enlarge it even further?!) His performance is infectious though. He changes his mannerisms, speech, physicality and becomes a reckless and impulsive monster. One of his toys is Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) who is coincidentally having a secret relationship with Jerry Wooters. You can probably guess that Mickey won't take too kindly to that news when he finds out...

As far as the overall cast are concerned, everybody (barring my earlier thoughts on Gosling) did the best they could with the material they were given. Stone and Gosling had a far more engaging relationship in Crazy, Stupid, Love. You sense that they're only together because the script called for it. And the actors that shape the 'gangster squad' (Mackie, Pena, Ribisi and Patrick) feel disappointingly under-written and expendable. The film doesn't care too much for excess back-story or character development, it only provides dialogue that furthers the plot. 

O'Mara assembles a squad from all over the city.

Visually, I'm conflicted by what Fleischer has created here. The costume and set design is impeccable, brilliantly evoking the time and era. In particular, I loved Mickey Cohen's mansion. I wasn't so impressed by the digitalised glossiness of the film, nor the over-use of slow-motion. The film feels fake; a fantastically produced play, rather than a film experience. The hyper-realistic 'look' of the cinematography is misplaced within a period setting. Action-wise, chase scenes and shoot-outs look smooth and they are exhilarating to watch but that's not a strong enough reason to shoot in digital, in my book.

Overall, I've come down quite hard on Gangster Squad but still given it a one time watch rating. Why? Because it IS entertaining. Ruben Fleischer has shot a traditional gangster movie, using all of the standard tropes, the only difference is he's shot the scenes using post-modern film-making techniques. He therefore adds nothing new to the genre. If anything, Gangster Squad is a homage to gangster movies, a contemporary pastiche of all the classics rolled into a nicely shot film. It's a popcorn flick for your weekend entertainment and there's nothing wrong with that.