Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad is an amped up 21^st century version of L.A. Confidential (1997) coupled with The Untouchables (1987). It is nowhere near these two films but its self-conscious stylization and aim to entertain works in its favor.

The squad is made up of several archetypes (read stock characters) like the leader (Josh Brolin), the cool guy (Ryan Gosling), the gunslinger from a spaghetti western (Robert Patrick), the brains (Giovanni Ribisi) and the two non-white characters for diversity (Anthony Mackie and Michael Pena). This band of misfits has to bring down the mob boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). For further melodrama add his damsel Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) who has a fling with one of the members of the squad and you have a story.

(Enter Ryan Gosling appreciation here)

There was a scene in the film, which involved the gang shooting people in a film theater. It was removed after the film theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado during the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. New portions of the film were shot, script re-written. There is a continuous debate that I have with myself about violence in movies. Somewhere I don't think filmmakers should be targeted for violence in real life. Yet, I believe they have a responsibility. I don't believe many filmmakers know how to use violence. Barring a few like Scorsese and Tarantino. Does Ruben Fleischer use violence responsibly? Not entirely. But will it make someone pick up a gun and start shooting people? I think not. At least I hope it doesn't.

The production design and Dion Beebe's camerawork add a bit of dazzle to the noir. The only let down is the prosaic writing. My main problem with the film was how it doesn't do anything original with the material. We have seen this story so many times in various movies, not just gangster films. With a cast this good, it only demands a great movie. Not just a slight entertainer.

(Also. There is Ryan Gosling so it's all good)

After I watched this film I was reminded of other films set in Los Angeles. To be specific, I was thinking of - Sunset Boulevard (1950) and In a Lonely Place (1950). These films aren't about gangsters but the people in the business of art and glamour. The city is home to the movie business, of course. I was also reminded of Chinatown (1974) since there was a scene in the film set in Chinatown. Why am I mentioning the films it reminded me of? Not only because I was hoping it was a great film like one of these but also because, Gangster Squad does something effective. It creates a sense of place, which has its own fantastical aura. It doesn't create an authentic feel of the city but it captures something about it. A character that the city has. It seems wounded, drenched in pain in need of a few angels to come its rescue.

“It's a war for the soul of Los Angeles”, grizzled police chief Parker (Nick Nolte) growls to Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and though it may sound insanely cheesy, the conviction put into the line almost sells you the hypocrisy of the film that almost puts all the blame on the ills of Los Angeles on a gangster, Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). As if without Cohen, Los Angeles would have been paradise on earth, far from it if you know the history of the place. But 'Gangster Squad' is a movie like that, filled to the brim with hypocrisy with scenes, characters and lines that seemed to be ripped straight from the pages of a pulpy crime novel; except this carries the tag of “Inspired from true events” and is actually based on a book that chronicles these “true events”.

The year is 1949 and a Jewish mobster out of Chicago, Mickey Cohen is calling the shots in Los Angeles. His empire of decadence goes mostly unchallenged but Chief Parker says enough is enough and sanctions World War II veteran Sgt. John O'Mara to form his own vigilante squad that will exist off the official records and operate with the sole purpose of driving Mickey Cohen out of Los Angeles. John's very pregnant wife is afraid for her husband's safety and decides to help him pick a squad that is unique and will assuage her fears of John's safety. A handy sharp-shooter who's a relic of the wild west, Max (Robert Patrick), an African-American patrolmen who's handy with a switchblade, Coleman (Anthony Mackie), a surveillance expert, Convay (Giovanni Ribisi), an eager Mexican greenhorn, Navidad (Michael Pena) are all handpicked. The only missing link is Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) who's after his initial reluctance joins the team later. They start picking on Cohen's business in hopes of driving him away. In the meantime Cohen is involved in a turf war of his own with the mob bosses in Chicago. How the team goes head to head and toe to toe with a brawler like Cohen and his gang of thugs forms the crux of the tale.

The production and design on the movie is near flawless. The bygone eras are created with such exuberance and liveliness that's it difficult not to be enamoured by it all. However not all the actors exude mannerisms from that time, most seem far more suited to today's credo. The slick camera work doesn't fail the movie nor does the background score, which is quite captivating in its oddity at times. The movie contains some very cheesy lines uttered by such conviction and befitting the scenes there spoken in that you'd think no less of them than great quotes.

The thing that nearly sinks the movie is the half-baked screen play that fails to flesh out the characters, enforce themes it hints at and ultimately turns what could have been a movie of its own into a pale imitation of Brian De Palma's 'The Untouchables'. All the requisite elements that were there are here, right down to the tick. The brutality of the squad and it's tactics is only spoken of but you don't really see the ugly side since everything is made so slickly that no attempt is made to provide the other side of the tale. It's a very clear good Vs bad scenario and the lines are drawn between the two with great distinction.

Sean Penn chews the scenery be it him condemning his men to a fiery death, boxing or as simple as choosing which fork to use with his meal. Brolin plays it straight while Gosling plays it cool as usual and oddly gets a weak subplot involving his character's affair with Cohen's moll, played by Emma Stone. The only other standout from the rest is Mireille Enos as John's pregnant wife.

'Gangster Squad' is an entertaining watch while it lasts but you'll get the feeling you've seen this all before and maybe in a much better movie.

Having seen director Ruben Fleischer's previous film '30 minutes or less' recently I could not believe that the same director can do such a turn around and make this film. I love directors who challenge themselves and just for that Ruben Fleischer deserves a pat on the back.

Set in 1949 Los Angeles Sgt John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) assembles a team of cops to secretly eliminate gangster Mickey Cohen's (Sean Penn) rising empire. A gangster squad, to bring down a gangster.

The story is so filmy that at times I started seeing Prakash Raj in Sean Penn and Salman Khan in Josh Brolin. The hangover of Dabangg 2 persists. The script of this film is a perfect fit for a Hindi multistarrer potboiler. But since it's based on a true story I can't even say it is so predictable.

In the film you get everything what you want in a gangster film and you get it with style. What I loved is the relationship between Josh Brolin and his wife played by Mireille Enos. She plays a pregnant homemaker who is against his decision to take up this assignment but the next moment is so supportive of him that she helps him choose the men for the job. Ryan Gosling's love track is a little half baked and looks forced.

Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling don't have enough meat in their roles but every time they are on screen it is a delight to watch them perform.

Word of mouth - Bullets, Jazz, good looking men and terrific actors make up for the predictable story in Gangster Squad.

Rating - *** ( Above Average)

Ticket Meter - worth 200 bucks

This film is proof how absurdly manipulative a film's trailers can be. Squad looked like an appetizing crime thriller, seductively wrapped with all the necessary ingredients and overall packaged like a sharp and witty gangster-flick, the kind Martin Scorsese reveled in during the reigning 90's.

Instead what you get is an excessively violent, pretentiously atmospheric and largely unfunny mess of cartoonish potboiler that is fundamentally flawed in the idea that it presents.

The rise of boxer-turned-mob-boss Micky Cohen (Sean Penn) in Hollywoodland has the LA police in a harrowed state, and to curtail his growing control over narcotics, the uptight police chief employs Johnny O Maara (Josh Brolin) to form an undercover team that will flesh out the dirt without being accounted for it.

It's the much exploited eye-for-an-eye rationale but the rather challenging bit here is accepting the upholders of law going so absurdly overboard in this exercise of draining out the criminally wasted.

So, in the ultra-stylized slow-motion scenes where bullet shreds look like three dimensional objects and glass pieces patiently tear themselves apart, one cannot really differentiate who slashed who, and unsurprisingly, you don't care for either side or any character in particular.

The writers try hard to give an emotional dimension to much of the members of the squad (the cyber-expert has a cutesy-kid, Gosling's bedding Cohen's number one, Josh Brolin's got a pregnant wife, so on and so forth for the sympathy-factor to stay), but this occasionally humane aspect appears in direct conflict with the unapologetically harsh ways of the motley group of “legitimate” assassins. Add to it the obscenely displaced humor which does nothing to diffuse the tension from the scene, or aggravate it, but primarily tries to shift the focus from the many failings of this elaborate exercise.

It is the performance of Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling that hold the narrative with some precision, and probably make this one worth a single-time watch. The attention paid to the details of the time-period the film is set in - right from the neon-lit bars to the eloquent costumes to the gait, and conversational style of the characters, the film's production design and art-direction are undeniably top-notch.

But otherwise, Squad masquerades as an explosive noir gangster flick while it really is an over-the-top violent orgy of the satirical kind made worse with the schmaltzy Nolan-esque moralizing towards its end.

Gangster Squad starts off promisingly enough. In fact it starts with the potential to be an L.A Confidential but within the first 30 minutes whatever little promise it had shown to become L.A. Confidential was removed and it started to be a toned down version of Brian De Palma's The Untouchables without the benefit of David Mamet's screenplay. There's nothing wrong in trying to be The Untouchables, it is a very good film but isn't it ludicrous to be using a routine plot without being as stylish or as dramatic as De Palma's film is?

Here's the full review :

http://hitheshdevasya.blogspot.in/2013/01/gangster-squad2013.html