Gangster Squad

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")

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!!!

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.

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.

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