Gangster Squad is the type of period film that typically can go either very wrong or very right. Swimming in the same pool with classics like The Untouchables, The Road To Perdition and LA Confidential, director Ruben Fleischer’s accessible and very violent Squad manages to only tread water through too many tried and true elements rather than dive deep into the genre in hopes of making its own mark.
While the film succeeds in unabashedly assaulting you with old school slang and plenty of thug violence, whether its via fisticuffs or loaded tommy guns, it won’t knock you senseless with an overdrawn whodunnit plot. Sometimes it’s not necessarily a bad thing when a film doesn’t over think itself to the point of head scratching, but make no mistake, a multi-layered plot intended to challenge the likes of LA Confidential is not on the table here.
Inspired by true life, the 1949-set screenplay based on the book “Gangster Squad” written by former Los Angeles police homicide detective Will Beall and ex-LA Times writer and editor Paul Lieberman, provides the film with a brisk pace and a sometimes too straight forward plot of bringing down the sleazy crime boss with a group of undercover coppers.
Gangster Squad boasts an impressive cast that includes Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick and Nick Nolte. Unfortunately the script doesn’t allow anyone in the solid ensemble an opportunity to shine on their own. The actors are left stranded squarely in their comfort zone, unfortunately leaving no standout performances in a film where you may be expecting some.
Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), a former boxer who has ascended the crime hierarchy to become an untouchable wiseguy lord in Hollywoodland, is targeted to be brought down via a special LAPD task force by order of the chief of police, played Nick Nolte with the absolute gruff perfection you expect from him. It’s up to Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin), a morals driven World War II war vet, to put together the team who must tear down Cohen’s house of crime piece by piece in a series of guerrilla raids.
The action is often effective, brutal and well-staged, but numerous catch phrases and one-liners break the tension whenever the film threatens to take itself too seriously. While the film is set in an era ripe to exploit with elaborate sequences in lavish noir-lit sets, the film is guilty of speeding through its under two hour running time so quickly that the audience is rarely given a chance to indulge in the numerous locations.
Emma Stone looks radiant in the retro setting as Cohen’s arm candy Grace Faraday, but isn’t given much to do beyond frowning with her expressive eyes and blood red lips as the obligatory dame in distress. Her Crazy, Stupid, Love co-star Ryan Gosling, cue the squees from his rabid ‘Hey Girl’ contingent, plays the lighter flicking bad boy cop Sergeant Jerry Wooters straight down the expected line with paint by numbers precision. Robert Patrick (T2: Judgement Day) brings his best Robert Patrick. Nick Nolte brings his full A-game Nick Nolte. And from these two, why would you want it any other way?
But the same can be said for the rest of the cast who seem to bring their standard modern age bag of tricks even when dropped into this bygone era. Penn is the given the only opportunity to minimally tear up the scenery in the constant company of his gun toting goons, but his arsenal of previous work makes his turn here as Cohen fairly unremarkable.
REVIEW RATING: ★★☆☆☆
Directed By: Ruben Fleischer
Rated: R
Running Time: 113 minutes
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