Gangster Squad – Review

Flash back to 1940s Los Angeles. The city is ruled by criminal kingpin Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), who doesn`t need to be above the law because he pretty much re-writes it to suit his own nefarious purposes. He controls key members of the judiciary and most of the police force. It seems like there`s no one who can stand in his way – until righteous Sergeant John O`Mara (Josh Brolin) forms a special task force of renegade cops who come together to make as much trouble for Cohen as they can.

For the most part, Gangster Squad is a decently entertaining watch: it flits from brutal to funny and back again, often within the same scene, and Fleischer handles the tonal shifts well enough. He allows Cohen`s seedy universe to expand and deepen around the man, who is depicted at his most terrifyingly volatile and violent (Penn is clearly having the time of his life playing a giant slice of snarling, menacing ham), but also injects moments of levity into the titular squad`s fumbling attempts to penetrate Cohen`s criminal empire. What`s refreshing – albeit occasionally frustrating – about the film is that the six men who take on Cohen outside the law aren`t superheroes. They don`t succeed right out of the gate, because they`re just folks like you and me – people who are sometimes rash, sometimes stupid, and sometimes downright idiotic.

There`s much fun to be had as the stoic O`Mara gathers his squad around him. Despite Brolin`s best efforts, O`Mara himself isn`t particularly exciting – he`s the one-note good guy saddled with a pregnant wife (Mireille Enos) who desperately wants him to stay alive. But his gang is a different story: sharpshooter Max (Robert Patrick) teases his Mexican sidekick Navidad (Michael Pena) mercilessly; bookish surveillance expert Conway (Giovanni Ribisi) finds his way into Cohen`s house; and unorthodox beat-cop Coleman (Anthony Mackie) demonstrates an impressive skill for knife-play. The star of the whole enterprise, of course, is the sexy, laidback Jerry Wooters (Gosling), who initially resists joining the gang even after he`s struck up a dalliance with Cohen`s main squeeze Grace (Emma Stone). Together, the six are electric and their chemistry is the best thing about the film.

 

Unfortunately, Gangster Squad`s largely unspectacular script keeps it from scaling greater heights. The movie could have been better than okay, except that the dialogue fizzles as often as it fizzes, and the unfolding narrative sometimes calls for greater suspension of disbelief than even a completely cooperative audience can muster. (No self-respecting crime boss would live in a house as easily infiltrated as Cohen`s is in the movie.) Fleischer can`t quite seem to recreate the dazzling cheekiness he brought to Zombieland, instead producing an occasionally very good, mostly okay movie that won`t be re-inventing the genre anytime soon.

Summary: A movie that looks this cool should feel a little bit dangerous – but Gangster Squad plays it disappointingly safe. There`s still fun to be had though.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Shawne Wang